Effectively separating your wants and needs will ultimately determine if you reach your goals or not. Almost everything you buy involves a want vs. need. Yes, really. And the key to good money management is separating needs from wants. If you aren’t sure where an item falls, try going without it for a while. If after that time you truly cannot live without it, it may be a need. But even the essential things like a house or car still involve a want vs. need calculation. Do you really need the SUV with all the addons and the fancy navigation system? Or would a less expensive vehicle meet your needs?
Impulse spending and stress levels go together like springtime and pollen allergies. A little stress isn’t going to hurt and may even motivate you to make better choices. But a lot of stress is going to paralyze you and eliminate your ability to make good choices. People impulsively spend for millions of reasons. When you’re happy you spend to keep the good mood. When you’re in a bad mood you spend to try to make yourself feel better. (I am guilty of this. Starbucks fixes everything.) People also spend because they feel obligated to, this happens on vacation, during the holidays, when they are with certain people, or even when they are doing a specific activity.
Impulse spending is any unplanned spending, buying things you may or may not need, or spending more on a item than you planned. Impulse spending is a shot to the heart of any budget. Here are a few tips and tricks to help prevent impulse spending.
Have separate looking trips and buying trips. And don’t bring your debit card or any cash with you when you’re on a looking trip. Use looking trips to plan what you need to buy on your shopping trip.
Stick a photo of one of your goals (like that new pair of shoes) on your coffee maker or computer at home or work to help keep yourself focused.
When you do go on a buying trip, take a list. If it’s not on the list don’t buy it. (You can’t imagine how much I’ve saved at the grocery store using this trick.)
If you do make an impulse buy, don’t let it ruin your outlook on budgeting. Take a minute to look over your budget, see if there is anything you can adjust so it won’t happen again. Many times, our impulse spending is for the small stuff like coffee while at the mall or dinner out when you get home late.
If you’re anything like I was, the word budget made me cringe. I associated “budget” with giving up things like coffee or going to dinner with friends. For years I didn’t budget simply because I didn’t want to give anything up. (I need coffee, ok? It’s really for the safety of those around me.) I would just spend, and spend, and spend. Then just to test a thought I had (shower thoughts people, they are really good...sometimes) I kept track of where I was spending my money. I didn’t budget, I just continued to spend like normal only keeping the receipts. And at the end of the month I was shocked, disgusted, and ashamed of how much we spent on crap. (I say we because my husband is also a spender.) Take out for lunch. Take out for dinner. Groceries (that we wouldn’t even use because ya know, take out.) We were spending over $1000 on junk a month. That’s $12000 a year. (That could be a downpayment on a car!)
So I sat down and made a budget. Over and over and over. Your first budget probably won’t be your last and you might change it every month for a year before you find one that fits. And that’s ok. Below are 7 steps to help you build your budget.
Set Realistic Goals
This may seem silly. But is is really, really important. Know going in that budgeting is a process. You learn as you go. No one is perfect at the start and many of us (myself included) break the budget the first few months. And even months after that. That’s why I recommend reevaluating your budget every three months the first year, then twice a year after that.
Setting goals for your money will help you make better, smarter choices when it comes to spending. These questions will help you get started. Don’t stress too much about the answers, your first budget isn’t set in stone. (And for that matter, none of them are.)
What do I want my finances to look like in 3 months?
What do I want my finances to look like in one year?
Identify your Income and Expenses
You probably know how much you earn each month but probably couldn’t tell anyone where it all goes. It’s super easy to find out though. Remember that month I talked about where I tracked how much I was spending and where? Now it’s your turn. I tracked for an entire month, and while you can too, you don’t have to. Tracking for a couple weeks should give you a good idea if you don’t want to wait a whole month before you take the plunge into budgeting.
Whether you track for a couple weeks or for the full month, you need to write down every cent you spend. (Yes, the $1.06 as McDonalds for a soda counts.) You can keep it as simple or detailed as you want. I have a couple printable (and online) tracking sheets available. You can find them on my site.
Separate Needs and Wants
This was probably the hardest part for me. I may have a slight addiction to Starbucks. I’m gonna be honest, for the first few months I put this a need when we all know it’s a want. On paper this one is very easy. You just have to ask yourself a couple questions.
Do I want this or do I need it?
Will I be closer to my financial goals or further away if I buy this?
Can I live without it?
Now, for the sake of being honest, I still have to fight with my husband about want/need. You don’t need this new bottle of fancy water, you want it. I found that by changing how I spoke (using want rather than need) I made this easier on myself. It takes some time to train yourself to stop using want and need interchangeably. But you can do it! (I believe in you!)
Not everyone will have the same wants or needs. This is totally up to you. (Remember, I had Starbucks as a need for months…) Set your own standards. Make sure your clear and you stick to it. Don’t let coffee be a need one day because you didn’t get sleep even though you have it in the want collum.
This one gets easier the longer you work at it. Soon it will be second nature.
Design Your Budget
Now for the fun part! You’ve worked really hard to figure out where your money is going and separating wants from needs and now you get to make your first budget.
The most important thing is to make sure you are not spending more than you make. If you make $5000 a month don’t budget for $7000. Your budget needs to accommodate everything you need to pay for. Make sure you don’t add any ‘wants’ until you have finished up all your ‘needs’.
You need to pay your rent or mortgage. You want to go out to dinner five nights a week. When listing your ‘needs’ don’t forget things like health insurance, car insurance, home repair, and car repair.
Ask yourself:
Have I allocated enough money for housing, food, transportation, utilities?
Have I put enough money aside for my debt payments? (Credit cards, loans)
Have I put enough money aside for unexpected expenses? (New tires, appliance breaks, emergency medical attention)
Did I put enough money aside for the fun stuff? (Family vacations, movies, eating out)
Put Your Plan into Action
You did it!
You’ve created an awesome first budget. One that you have worked hard on and have a sense of attachment to. You want to make it work forever. (Ok, maybe that’s just me.)
To put your budget into action you will need to match your spinding to when you receive your income. If you get paid once a month (I envy you), bi-weekly, or weekly will affect how your budget works. Decided ahead of time what each check will be used for. By knowing where your money will come from and go you will be able to prevent going into more debt because you won’t need to rely on credit to pay for your living expenses. (And if all goes as planned, you won’t have to rely on credit for the emergencies either!)
Seasonal Expenses
You might be thinking this topic should have come before making your budget. But, these are the expenses that “just come up” without really being a surprise. Things like school expenses, new shoes, or annual memberships. We all know they are right around the corner but they still seem to just pop up.
For these, you can set aside a little each month or you can add them into your monthly budget.
If you are an experience budgeter (that’s probably not a word, oh well) you might want to plan for them in your budget specifically. I like to plan a whole year in advance. But I don’t expect you to be able to jump right in and plan an entire year. And I don’t recommend it. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small.
If you know you will have school expenses of $1200, set aside $100 each month. Then when it comes time for school you already have the money set aside. If you know your annual Prime membership renews in January (It’s $119.99 right now) then set aside $10 each month.
Look Ahead
Getting the hang of sticking to a budget can take a month or two (or longer) each person is different. I didn’t start budgeting until I was 20, meaning I lived 20 years without a spending plan. (Ok, so my first job was at 14 so really only 6 years but you get the picture.) Give yourself time to adjust. And please, please do not be afraid to ask for help if things are falling into place the way you would like. It takes a village doesn't just apply to raising children.
*This document and all related topics are available for download as a PDF for printing and offline reading.
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