Let’s be honest… I do not know of many people that like the word budget. Over time we have come to associate the word with being restrictive, bad, and associated with being broke. The thing is, none of that is true.
Simply put, a budget allows you to give your money something to do. You know, having awareness of where every dollar is going. It also provides you the flexibility to adjust as needed.
So, what do you need to budget? The answer is quite simple.
- Your outgoing expenses: bills, food, gas, savings, etc…
- You may want to start with a bank statement 🤷🏾♀️
- Your total income: from all resources
- Check this out: a notebook and something to write with
If that is it, then why is budgeting hard? I counter that with, is it hard or is that what we’ve been conditioned to think?
There’s Levels To This
Honestly, some of my best budgets have been done in a notebook or planner. However, society will have you thinking you need fancy apps, complicated Excel sheets, graphing calculators and your first born child.
No, no, no… just stop.
As mentioned above, you need to know what’s coming in (income) and what’s going out (expenses). There’s not any complicated math, addition and subtraction at most. See below for an example Simple budget.
Discipline
This is probably the hardest part of budgeting. Finding the discipline to do the budget and follow through with it. It’s hard because it requires a mindset shift. It requires you to say no to instant gratification, no to keeping up with the Jones, no to what you are used to.
It allows you to say yes to your freedom, yes to your future, yes to a better tomorrow.
Personal Experience
I have used:
- The Happy Planner Budget Planner
- The Budget Mom Planner
- An over complicated excel
- A Notebook (my fave)
- You Need a Budget App (another favorite)
- Every Dollar app (I like it)
To this day though, my go to is a notebook. Sometimes I use my iPad, but a simple notebook does it for me.
So…
I suggest you start simple using pen and paper to avoid getting overwhelmed. Feel free to try out the download below.
