Budgeting became my best friend just over a year ago now and I don’t know how I lived without it. There are so many different apps and money saving folders you can buy (including the bullet journal ones you see on TikTok) but I’m one for not over-complicating matters - my notes app does the job for me to plan out my month.
I start with my non-negotiables. Things like – car, phone, rent/mortgage, petrol, food – essentially ‘bills’. These go in one list - I know that there’s no bending the rules on these payments, they must be paid.
My next list is full of things like how much money I want to spend on socialising that month, any beauty treatments and just general other things I want to buy. This is where I would manipulate the amount I spend to try and save myself some £££. Anything I shaved off I put into a savings account.
I did this for a while until I decided to do some serious saving and would begin to set aside an amount in my non-negotiables to go directly into my savings. This way, I was used to having slightly less every month as I had adapted to shaving off what I could, that the step up to saving a set amount didn’t feel too harsh.
However, budgeting is completely down to the individual and is personal to how you work best. It’s always important to have an emergency fund saved up first (around three months of your non-negotiables) just in case, and then anything extra can be used to invest… more on that later when I persuade Ali to write The Secret to Investing – it’s coming so stay tuned!