Do you feel like you always go over your monthly budget, no matter what you do?
It’s totally normal to feel that way, especially in this economy and this time of year. Holidays are getting closer and closer, and we all know what that means: spending abnormal amounts of money. Between presents, decorations, buying everything for Thanksgiving dinner, early Christmas shopping, sending cards, and whatnot, we need an entire budget just for it. And don’t even get me started on filing our taxes. Every end of the year is the same. I’m strongly considering quitting on everything: no decor, no presents, no preparing a meal for anybody. Seriously, I have no idea how my parents did it all when I was a kid. My adult paycheck is not paycheck-ing, so I’m putting all of my trust in my Christmas bonus at this point.
However, we can’t blame the holidays for us being financially irresponsible. There are 12 months in the whole year; I bet there are months in which we have fewer expenses. We just have to track them and make sure to save up for those months in which we feel tighter. There are many ways to draw a budget, but there are a few key parts and recommendations that can be applied more generally:
- To create a budget, you’ll need to know your earnings after taxes and be able to track your expenses.
- If your expenses are too high compared to your income, you’ll have to make budget cuts.
- You should set aside a percentage of each paycheck to deposit into savings so that you have funds to draw from when an unexpected expense arises.
- Your budget has to be realistic so that you can stick to it in the long term.
The first step would be to figure out our fixed expenses, our variable expenses, and our total earnings. It’s a bit tedious to sit down and track everything, but in the long term, it will definitely help us keep our peace of mind, and our wallets won’t be drowning. And then, we’ll be able to enjoy some lovely and relaxed holidays, not worrying about how long it’ll take us to pay for that new TV we bought on sale.
