People hate to Budgeting because:
it is actually hard to make the numbers work everytime and they would really just worry about spending the money. It's more fun.
Why waste time trying to figure out balances etc. That's what accountants do,.
Anyway, the whole idea behind budgeting is to understand where your money goes to get good value for it and not get into debt (or try to get out of debt).
Once you've actually picked a Budget and are using it then there are a few situations that all people pretty much have to fit into. Find out which one you're in.
If Budgets are already under control….
Many people know how to budget, have enough income that expenses don’t cause problems or they just want a budget to tell them what is happening with their funds. If spending and debt are under control, then a lot less work is necessary. Mathematically speaking, if savings are being put in the bank accounts as planned and no debt is accumulating, then expenses have to be under control and don’t need constant monitoring. Therefore, budgeting simply becomes an exercise of watching over savings and debt payments.
If someone wants to know what is happening with all of their funds, then they can go through the whole process and account for all of their expenses.
YBP has a feature that will hide the expenses section of your budget and will show the income, savings and debt sections only.
Each month it is a case of:
1 – filling in any family income (for most people, this doesn’t change so it is simple)
2 – check and edit any of the family’s financial goals in the long-term savings
3 – fill in all of the family bank account values
4 – compare the family savings total to the bank account totals
5 – make sure all debts are properly paid and no bad debt is accumulated
- If the bank account totals are equal to or near the long-term savings totals you are in great shape.
- If the bank account totals are lower than a check is needed to find out why (usually it is that credit card payments or bad loans have taken up too much of the bank accounts). Find the problem and get it under control as soon as possible.
- If the bank account totals are higher than the long-term savings plan that is great. It doesn’t mean that a big party should be thrown. It is likely that down the road there will be a month or two when the excess is less as all budgets have slight ups and downs.
- If the total actual savings remain higher than the planned savings disperse some of it into another savings category.
How to et Budgets under control. …
In theory, it is quite simple, at least for people with fairly good financial control.
The more correctly a person budgets the less time it takes to plan and execute the budgeting process.
Therefore, it is wise to budget and execute the budget properly. Your Budget Plan suggests Save First (put away savings immediately and don’t touch them) then use wise spending (pay attention to what is bought – no impulse buying).
While budgeting starts off taking quite a bit of time (figuring out expenses and creating spending targets), it eventually takes very little time.
Proper budgeting results in a balanced budget (income equals expenses plus savings).
Conversely, bad budgeting will require much more time and attempting to solve problems.
Example:
A family has an income of $3,700 per month from the main earner
plus another $1,000 is brought in via a part-time earner.
the family income is $4,700 minus taxes. Let’s just say $3,775 after taxes.
The family creates a family plan and decides on some financial goals. The family needs to save so much per month as follows:
350 for a car, 200 for the child’s future education, 100 for appliances and furniture, 400 for a big vacation, 200 for emergencies, 175 for retirement
The total is $1,425.
The family spends on average: 750 rent, 700 food, 300 vehicle, 75 buses, 140 health, 150 entertainment, 180 utilities, 100 clothes, 50 gifts.
The total of $2,445.
That means there is $3,775 income minus $2445 expenses minus $1425 savings.
The family therefore spends $95 too much and is going into debt.
So, some costs or savings have to be trimmed.
Good budgeters look at trimming expenses first and never reduce emergency or retirement funds.
First go over the expenses and see what can be done. Apparently, there is too much spent on food so it is decided to spend less on food ($100 worth).
Now though the family has trimmed some expenses and are sticking to the budget. They have a good balanced budget.
That means that all they have to do each month is check their bank accounts and make sure that they are equal to the amount they have planned to save. Your Budget Plan has a special savings section.
As a hypothetical check let’s say the family started the budget recently and had very little savings yet.
After 6 months, they should have saved (1425 x 6) $8550.
They haven’t used any of the funds yet and they had a few hundred saved up. The bank accounts add up to $8790. That means they are over their target – great!
Therefore, there is no reason to spend time looking at expenses. Yippee!
This method saves a ton of time providing you Save First and make sure the savings plan is on target.
Once Budgets are under control....
Just a note. Your Budget Plan has a nice feature that lets a budgeter hide the expenses section when not needed and just watch over the income, savings and debt.
No more expense categorizing and summarizing.
No worrying about where the money is going.
Much more time to do fun things.
Wattching the savings grow is satisfying.
Your Budget Plan is serious about making better budgeters out of people so they can really save and enjoy the fruits of their financial goals. By using a system such as YBP it is expected that that is exactly what happens. Using a combination of learning and adjusting the savings and expenses any budget should come under control.
If they get out of control again….
Budget suggestions for Budgets that are not under control
For diehard spenders with problems controlling expenses here is are a few time-tested methods to help control overspending:
-give each person an allowance and when it is all gone, it is all gone. It is hard to overspend what you don’t have (no credit cards allowed).
-put funds into special accounts and only use debit cards (not credit cards until the budget is back under control) or use jars/envelopes that can’t be refilled until next pay period
-shop with friends that are good at financial control
-think of each purchase in terms of how many hours of work it costs to buy the item. To buy dinner at a restaurant took an hour’s work and it disappeared in 15 minutes. At least a new cooking pan that took an hour’s work will last a lot longer than an hour. Thinking in terms of time makes a person realize the value of things in more relevant terms.
Keep doing this until spending is back under control. It can be very difficult for many people to stay under control for many reasons. Keeping under control though has a great reward. Financial Stability and less stress.