10) Tell a friend: Correction, tell a good friend. This means someone who will hold you accountable without making you feel guilty.
9) Reward yourself: Everyone likes a pat on the back from time-to-time. Get yourself something special if you stick to your budget for an extended period of time. Looking forward to something makes the task of budgeting easier. Just make sure to factor the cost of your reward into your budget.
8) Let go: No more guilt. Stop being so hard on yourself! We've all made mistakes (Including me! I lost $35,000 on one bad investment. Yes and I recovered). Forgive yourself so you can move on and forward.
7) Use technology: Online bill pay, smart phone apps, special calculators, email alerts sent to you from your bank; all these things are your friend. Hang out often.
6) Check regularly: Money needs to be monitored to grow, so check on it regularly to ensure that it's doing what you instructed it to do.
5) Set a goal: This will help you to achieve your desired outcome. Just like it makes no sense to get on a plane without knowing where you're going, it makes no sense to create a budget without a specific destination in mind.
4) Simple and soon: Procrastinating makes things more complicated then they need to be. Start now. Write down what you spend each month, then subtract what you spend from what you make. Use your bank statements to help you. That's your basic budget. It's just that simple! Nee help? Day 1 of The One Week Budget is available here for free. It will help you create a beginner budget, so no more excuses.
3) Open a Bills Account: This should be a free checking account where you allocate your bill money each month. Separating your funds will help you to avoid "accidentally" spending money designated for bills.
2) Give and get an allowance: I bet you never thought you'd get one again. After creating your budget, decide which items you can pay for with cash each month and add their amounts up, then divide the total by 4. That's how much your new weekly allowance is. Taking weekly cash allowances will seriously help to curb your spending. Also, give yourself a cash allowance when shopping & leave the cards at home. This way when the cash is done, so are you.
1) Automate: By taking out the "flawed" human element, aka you, you're more likely to stick to your budget. I've automated everything; payments, bills, saving, investing, even giving to charity. Automation is the new discipline.
Do you have any great budgeting tips that are working for you? Please share them with me in the comments. I'd love to hear them.
Live richer,
Tiffany
(dispenser of fun, financial education at thebudgetnista.com