When most people look at their monthly budget they use standard steps such as, subtract spending from take home pay, then allot proportions to each expense. When you are dealing with a lump sum which is what most people deal with, you can use any of the following to change how much money you spend each month as you go. But, do not overspend!
mindedly track your spending limits
Do you know exact dollar amounts of what you spend money on each month? The easiest way to find this out is to make a note for every purchase you make whether it is at the local grocery, the offline store, or simply online on your credit card. Once you have this notebook, pull out all of your bills and investigate the small, medium, and large purchases. Then, allocate a certain amount to each for that month. For instance, using the notebook and divide one bill for example $50 by the monthly allowance of $250. That means that you would assign half the bill to the small expense column and the other half to the large expense column. You would then make sure that you were spending no more than the $50 for that one month. The other source of Luckily, these small, medium, and large expense columns are perform by use of budget spreadsheets programs on many computers all across the world which you can find at places such as Mint.com and my favorite: Mint Stick. These make it cheap for you to manage your expense so should be one of your purchases.
pay your bills when they are due
If money is tight, it is crucial that you pay your bills when they are due. But, how do you do this effectively? The best way is to set up automatic payments. In this way, all bills gets paid each month on a certain date automatically through a bank account or Paypal account that you have set up. This is because most of your bills need to be direct deposited into a bank account before they can be arranged.
strive to save
Budgets tend to suffer without high savings. Even though there is no one size fits all when it comes to finances, one size fits all is the mantra recommended by Suze Orman in the book 'The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom'. Goals are made short-term and long-term and savings thus can be made each month. The only problem with short-term savings is the deductions due to raise a figure for long-term goals. Thus, you find that those savings may never figure a place in your savings sum. If a save a larger figure than the general monthly budget, one might be able to set up an investment plan and start earning on the investment. Another way for others is to own a savings account and let the figure grow without additional attention.
diversify the portfolio
The stock market is perhaps the vehicle to do this. It's difficult to blame someone who says 'I don't want to lose all my money'. Nevertheless, it's a factor that needs to be considered. If you bit off more then you can chew with your money by diversifying as much as you can afford. Just an estimated 10 to 20% of your savings speaks volumes about you.
Start small
People discover that the big amount required for something like education can be covered through a student loan, but the cost of buying a house with a mortgage is too high. The alternative is by stretching the acquisition to cover a smaller amount. Just one or two small achievements can take care of the rest of your life's expenses.
Ignore deficit thinking
A few days ago, an Option Ahead printing store in HELP between PASS Safeway and Pell plugged an ATM in the midst of a busy parking lot while they temporarily rented an external ATM in the 7000 block. Their sign showed 'No PIN Required'. They've been charging $1.50 for an ATM transaction and people walked away. news.com.au. The same store a week later added a similar sign and was charging $2.75. Sounds ridiculous? It's not so. Instead of being a 'loss leader' the signs were issued with the aim of gaining new customers.
Stick to the Basics
Ignore foolish ideas like buying a new car every two years just because the model is one that has had a huge discount. Buying a car is not a crime, but you will waste your money by thinking of this every time. Buy a cheap car and enjoy it for many years. Maybe that $500 you've saved over the last year will have it's time to shine through some repairsAfter you've had a car for a while and it becomes an antique, it has to be good to last you the rest of your life.
Work hard
For some reason, we have this notion that hard work is a virtue. A practical definition of hard work is doing whatever is required to get the job done.