Constant monitoring of your budget…..

Most of us live on a budget and while some can and do live within their means, others can’t or don’t.  The thing is, if you do, great!

But you have to continually monitor the budget  make sure you’re not overspending thus starting the slippery slope of a financial mess. However, if you can’t or don’t live within your means, you need to get on track immediately.

Prices go up, and we, basically don’t have any control of that, so what we need to do is subtract some of our ‘wants’. This may be temporary, that is if we will be getting a raise in pay (although that isn’t always the case). So…. write down all your expenses – every single one of them – putting them on paper is usually an eyeopener.

Making three columns – one for annual, one for monthly, and one for occasional expenses. The occasional list is usually the one that can be clipped or eliminated completely (entertainment, eating out/take out gifts, etc). Now add the columns putting the total of monthly and occasional columns together with the annual. This gives you your complete annual total.  Are you within your income figure??? If not, start with cutting back on the occasional list of things first. Doing this will, hopefully, bring you within range of your income.  Now……  stay within those limits.

The revamping of the budget need to be checked periodically. If not, you will find you overspend here and there and that’s when things start to get out of hand.

Be disciplined with this….. it’s to you advantage.