Skip to main content

How to Create a Frugal Budget


How to Create a Frugal Budget

Posted by



A well-planned budget can help you to achieve your frugal goals. Learn how to create your own frugal budget.


Difficulty: Average


Time Required: 1-3 hours


What You Need:


  • A copy of your bills

  • A calculator

  • Pen or pencil

  • Paper


 




Here’s How:


Assess your monthly expenses.


Make a list of all of your regular monthly expenses, including any money that you spend on fun

things like eating out, entertainment and hobbies; and any minimum payments that you have to make towards your debts. You can use a budget form for this purpose if it makes the job easier.




Calculate how much you make per month, including any money that you receive from investments and other forms of residual income.


Subtract expenses from earnings.


Test out the effectiveness of your budget by subtracting your monthly expenses from your earnings. This will show you how much you can expect to have left at the end of the month.




Rework your budget.


If your budget comes out on the negative side, rework it until your numbers crunch. To do this, go back over each expense, and look for places to make cuts.


Build in money for debt reduction.

If you have debts, your budget should already include the minimum payments that you have to make each month. Now you need to find the money to pay down those debts. Look at your numbers again, and determine where you are willing to make sacrifices to get out of debt.



Build in your savings and investments.


Now it’s time to budget money for your financial goals. Do you want an emergency fund? Retirement investments?  Vacation savings? Make a list of what you hope to achieve. Then, survey your budget once more to find the money that you need to reach those goals. If you have a lot of debt, you may need to skip this step for a while, and that’s okay – debt reduction  should be priority one.


 Put your budget to work.


Once you’ve created a budget that covers all of your monthly expenses and financial goals, it’s time to put your budget to the test. Try to live within your budget, and see how it feels.




Assess your budget.


At the end of each month, look over your expenditures to see if they are matching up to your budget. If they aren’t, determine if you need to work harder to stick to your spending plan, or if you need to rework your budget to reflect your actual spending.


A frugal budget is never finished. Continue to look over your budget every month to catch areas of overspending. Then, crunch the numbers again until you’ve made it right.


Tips:

  1. Be honest about your spending habits,  and you’ll end up with a much more realistic budget.

  2. Don’t forget to budget for fun; budgeting isn’t about total deprivation.

  3. Don’t be afraid to change your budget; a good budget is always evolving.


Jodie xxx


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make Creativity Part of your Daily Life

Make Creativity a Part of your Daily Life Posted by Jodie Minds practicing creativity have changed the way we live and experience the world. Without them, it would not  be possible to sit down in a warm place reading these words that a person from   another part of the world wrote. For creativity, there is no limit. If we want to live in a better world, we can do it! We are all born with a creative mind. It is our nature. But many of us have lost strength in our “creative muscle”. How to fix that? We just need to use it more often to make it grow nice and strong! And just as in every other activity that we restart to do after some time without practicing it. It will get hard at the beginning. So, we will need some patience!Remember past times as a kid. Transforming boxes, chairs, bed sheets into enormous castles, mystical caves, sports cars, modern spaceships and many other amazing things? Fear of making the fool was not there, fear of “what ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Benefits of Op-Shopping

The Benefits of Op-Shopping – You’ll Love it! Posted by Jodie 1.    It is ethical and environmentally friendly Being ethical and kind to the environment is so “in” right now, but we’ve been doing it for years. Buying clothes at the op shops cuts out the worry of whether or not it was made in a sweat shop. Buying second hand clothes and goods is recycling, keeping stuff out of the landfills. We interrupt the cycle of buy, use, throw away. 2.    It saves you money The obvious one. Why buy brand-new clothes for hundreds of dollars when you can buy a whole new wardrobe for the cost of one of those brand-new clothes? Why buy brand-new clothes for your children that they grow out of in 6 months, when you can stock their drawers full of op-shop goodness for a quarter of the price? Why buy brand new items of furniture and home ware when the same things are available in the op shops where they are cheaper, built to last and have character? 3. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Only you can Bring out the Best in You

Only you can Bring out The Best in You Posted by Jodie Self love begins with the inner confidence that you can do it – and the belief that your’re worth the effort! Believe We’re all inspired by women who break records, change the world or just have an amazing life.  But what’s  stopping us from joining them? Self belief.  The simple act of believing in yourself is the difference between amazing and average – it’s that simple. When we’re young, it might be a lack of self confidence that holds us back.  Later in life, we can get caught up with reponsibilities to others.  Either way, it’s easy to put yourself at the back of the queue.  But remember settling for second best stops you from being YOUR best! Put yourself first and your positive energy will resonate like a shining light.  Then instead of just being inspired by others, you will become an inspiration yourself! BUT HOW DO WE BEGIN? IT STARTS NOW! ...
Post a Comment
Read more