Category: Budgeting

Is Budgeting Always Worth the Effort?

It can seem like a big effort to budget. You will have to work out how much money you have coming in and how much you need to spend on essentials. You might split up the budget into sections and allocate a certain budget to each section and then you will have to make sure that you stay motivated and stick to that budget all of the time. This can feel really tiresome but it is a good idea to focus on the positive of budgeting so that you can understand why it is worth making all of this effort.

Helps you to Achieve Your Goals

If you have a goal to increase the amount in your savings account, to repay a loan or to make sure you do not overspend each month, then achieving that can be difficult. You will need to be really organised with your spending in order to achieve it. You will need to keep note of your spending and make sure that you leave enough so that you can achieve your goal. It can be much easier to set up a budget. Note down how much money you need to spend in certain areas and then allocate money to other areas and you should be able to achieve your goal. You will not need to keep a constant track but you will pay your essentials like normal and then make sure that you are careful with other spending and keep it within the allocated budget to make sure that you can reach your goal. It is easier to do this than to have to constantly wonder whether you will manage your money well enough to achieve it. If you have a budget and stick to it, then you will know that you are on tract, it will be easier and you will be much more likely to be able to achieve your goal.

Takes the Guilt Out of Treats

If you are trying to improve your financial situation then it can feel bad when you buy yourself a treat. You may think you deserve it and it may only be small, but you could feel guilty about it. However, if you budget and you budget in some money for treats, then you will be able to buy some things and know that you are still within your budget and you will still be able to achieve what you need to. This will enable to you to really enjoy the treats rather than feeling guilty. They might only very small things but the fact that you know that it affordable will make a really big difference.

Helps You to Achieve Goals Quicker

By following the budget it is very likely that you will achieve your goals much more quickly. You will have a plan and if you stick to it, you will know that you will be able to reach your goal. If you do not have a budget then it is likely that you will do things in a much more random way and you could find that it will take a lot longer for you to be able to achieve your goals and therefore you might even give up because it is just taking to long. With the budget you should be able to calculate how long it will be until you can achieve your goal so it will help you to focus. If you have a loan to repay or a savings account to full up, you will be able to work out when you have achieved that. If you are just trying to make ends meet then hopefully you will be able to achieve that every month.

Does Budgeting Really Make a Difference?

It is not easy to make up a budget and then stick to it, so it can be easy to wonder whether it really makes a difference and whether it is worth the effort. You might think that you just do not want to bother. It is good to examine the advantages of budgeting though, before you dismiss it as a bad idea and then you will be able to decide whether you think that it might be worth the effort.

Helps You to be More Organised

If you set a budget then it will allow you to stay more organised with your spending. You will normally split up your spending into sections and allocate a certain amount of money to each one. You will know exactly how much money you are supposed to be spending on what things and this will enable you to be able to be organised with your spending. You will not end up spending too much on one thing and not leave enough money for other things. This is why it can be a really good thing to do if you need to make sure that you are not overspending in some areas.

Helps you to Focus

Knowing that you have a certain target with regards to spending and that you will not be able to spend more than a certain amount can help you to plan. If there is something that you want, you can look at whether you can afford it and consider that in light of what else you have to buy and it will allow you to make sure that you can afford it. This might seem like hard work, but it will help you to focus on spending money on the important things and essentials so that you do not spend more than you can afford to. Without a budget you might just end up buying things and then realising afterwards that you should not have done because they are things that you could not afford.

Helps you to Stay Motivated

IT can be difficult to stay motivated with regards to spending. If you have to keep thinking hard about whether you can afford things then you may just give up and no longer bother. However, if you know how much you have allocated for certain things then it will make it a lot easier. You can even allocate yourself some money for some treats as well and then you will be able to spend that money knowing that you can afford it and not feel guilty about it. Budgeting is usually done to enable you to make ends meet each month, pay off a loan such as the ones offered at Boutell.co.uk or increase the amount of money that you have saved and whatever the reason it can be hard to stay focussed at times. Therefore, it can be much easier if you have planned out exactly what to do and then you will just have to follow your plans rather than worry about anything else.

Without a budget it will all be guesswork. You will need to think about whether you can afford things or not and you will not have an idea of how much you might be able to spend on certain things in order to make sure that you are still within the spending range that you need to be. By setting a budget and splitting it into areas, you will be able to organise your spending much more easily, be more focussed on checking your spending levels and be more motivated to stick to it and make sure that you are not spending more than you can afford.

Is it Worth Budgeting to Save Money?

If you want to increase the amount of money that you save then you will need to make some changes to what you are doing with your money. There are lots of different things that you can try and budgeting is one of them. But is it worth it? It is worth thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of budgeting so that you can work out whether you think that it is a good solution for you.

Helps you Organise Your Plans

Having a budget will be a useful guide that you can use to make sure that you are organised. It will allow you to be able to know how much money you have to spend on certain things and you know that if you stick to it then you will have money left over to put into your savings account. When you are wondering whether to buy certain things, it will be really easy to know because you will be able to look at your budget and see how much you have allocated to that particular area and how much you have spent to work out if there is enough money. You will then be able to easily decide whether to buy that item or not. If you cannot buy it, then you might be able to delay and buy it the following month, perhaps carrying over some money form that budget so spending less one month so that you have extra to spend the following month.

Is Inflexible

The main problem with a budget is that it is inflexible. So, if you get an expensive bill in that you have to pay then you may not have enough money for that or you may have to take money from other areas. If you have already allocated your money then you could swap it around a bit to pay the bill, but if the money has already been spent then you will not be able to do this. If you have budgeted well, then you should not be getting unexpected bills though. You should have remembered everything that you have to pay. It might only be if something breaks down or the car needs a repair that you might have extra money to pay out. A good budget would allow some money for this sort of thing though.

Could be Quicker

If you have a budget in place it could help you to save the money more quickly. If you are following a plan and have decided that you want to pay a certain amount of money into your savings account each month then you are more likely to stick to that than if you just decide you want to put more in. You might even set up a direct debit to pay the money in and then you will not forget to do it. This could mean that you will reach your target amount of savings more quickly as it will be much easier to stay focussed on the ask at hand and you will have a plan on how to achieve it.

It can therefore be a good idea to have a budget to make it easier to keep focussed on building up your savings. If you know what you can spend and what on, then you will be less likely to overspend and not have enough to save. If you have a goal but have not set a budget, then you could end up spending too much money on other things and not saving it. Even if you have to change plans a bit of you get unexpected bills in, it can still be easier than not having a budget.