Impossible to Budget? What It Takes to Have Financial Discipline
Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
After your budget is created, it’s usually fairly easy to stick with as long as your income doesn’t change that much and there aren’t any added bills each month.
However, there are times when an emergency might arise or you might see a decrease in the number of hours that you work during the week. It’s times like these that it’s hard to stick with a budget that is created.
Fortunately, there are a few things to keep in mind to give you the financial discipline that you need.
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Think Realistically
No budget is going to work if you don’t plan for realism. Don’t underestimate the bills that you have or what you spend money on in regards to eating out or entertainment.
If you spend $20 a week on coffee before work but only think you’re going to spend $5 because you want to save money, you’ll find that your budget will slowly start to tilt to the negative side of your finances.
Try to budget over what you think that you might need with anything not spent saved for emergencies.
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Professional Help
There are several apps that you can download to help with setting and maintaining a budget, such as Spendbook or Mint. These are apps that will walk you through the amounts that you earn each week or month, setting up graphs and data that you can easily follow so that you know what to spend money on and what to change.
An attorney is also an option if you have tried everything and still find that you don’t have money to live freely as you can file for bankruptcy.
A benefit of bankruptcy is that you won’t have to deal with creditors and that you usually only make one monthly payment to the attorney for the bills that are consolidated.
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Living Socially
If you’re like most people, you have friends and family who you want to get gifts for over the holidays and for a birthday.
These gifts can eat into your budget if you don’t plan ahead for them. An idea would be to create a social calendar with holidays, birthdays and anniversaries written down.
Save a little money each week when you know that you need to buy a gift.
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Dropping What You Don’t Need
An easy way to save money is to drop the things in the home that you no longer need. This might include the movie channels from the cable service or the credit cards that you don’t use.
You’ll soon begin to see that you can save money by not spending it on those extra items that really won’t be missed anyway.
Creating a budget is a good idea, but you need to stick with it in order for it to make a difference.
Plan for emergencies, and make notes about the things that are in the future that you need to pay for with extra money.
When a budget gets overwhelming, seek the help of someone who understands how to arrange bill payments and saving money.
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