Have you ever looked at your bank account and wondered, where did all my money go? How could I have possibly spent my whole paycheck? What did I spend all my money on? Why am I not saving any money? This is more common than you would think. With the use of debit cards and credit cards we tend to forget about our spending, and it’s not until it too late that we realize we have been overspending. A lot of time we are wasting money in areas that we shouldn’t, and with a little planning we can turn that wasting into savings!
Write it out
The first thing you need to do is find out where you are spending all of your money. Start by keeping track for one month of where you spend your money, not just on your cards but your cash as well. Print your records and keep your receipts. At the end of the month write it all down. Take a paper or make a spreadsheet and write out your categories; Bills, Groceries, Eating Out, Fun/Toys, Amazon, Pets, Activities. Customize it to fit your personal needs. Then add up how much you spent in each area, this will give you an idea of where you are spending too much, and where money is being wasted.
Budget
Now it is time to budget! First things first make sure to prioritize your bills, make sure all your monthly bills are covered. Then decide how much you are willing or capable of spending on each of your other categories. This may take some sacrificing to get your spending in check, come up with a number and stick to it. If eating out is an issue, like it was for me, make a plan of how many times you will eat out or how much money you will spend on eating out that month and keep track of when you spend. I like to plan our nights of eating out ahead of time. I know things pop up at times, but it will pay off if you are able to keep to your planned budget. Another way to make sure that you are sticking to your budget is to take out cash and put it in envelopes and when it’s gone it is gone and you are done spending for the month.
Follow Up
Make sure and follow up at the end of the month write it out again, see if you were able to keep to the budget. If you were able to stick to your budget, that’s great! Hopefully you will be able to see the savings after the first month of implementing your new budget. If you were struggling, keep at it! If it really didn’t work out you may need to adjust your budget and try again, change some of the priorities.
Most importantly though is to give it a try and start saving all the money that you have been wasting!