Budget Series Part 1-The Basics

Budget Series Part 1

So I’ve decided to do my budget blog as a series of posts. Because if I did one post it would be like 25 pages long. Well not really but it would be long and you would probably get bored by the end of it. 

This will be my first 4 posts. And this first part is for total beginners. If budgeting seems like a really hard thing to do that is going to totally confuse you, if you just want to start out simple for the first year or if you’re spectacularly bad at budgeting then this will be where you start off. 

When my husband and I first got together over 8 years ago he owned (well, technically the bank owned) a rather expensive car and as an apprentice he struggled some weeks with the repayments, fuel, bills etc. So me, being the slight (ok more than slight) control freak that I am, offered him a few tips to help him stay on top of it. From then on until he eventually sold the car (when I got pregnant) he never again missed a payment and always had money for fuel, bills, groceries and date nights with his very beautiful, very intelligent girlfriend. 

So what were those few handy tips I gave him all those years ago??

1.       Open a new bank account called your direct debits account.

2.       Grab together all your bills, loan repayments, rent, phone/internet, insurances and calculate how much they cost you yearly. 

3.       Divide by how often you get paid (we get paid fortnightly so divide by 26 fortnights per year)

4.       Each pay cheque BEFORE anything else put that amount of money into your bills account. 

5.       Whatever is left over in your “everyday account” is what you have left for food, medical expenses, savings etc…

6.       Next you need to SAVE. Before you go off spending any of that left over money put a few dollars into your savings account. If you save before spending you will quickly learn to live without that money and won’t even notice its gone each fortnight.

7.       Roughly divide up what’s left in the “everyday account” between food and other expenses. 

This way whenever a bill comes in the money is already sitting in your direct debit account. Make sure you have changed your bank account details with banks that take the money directly from your account. Phone bill? No worries, I can pay that within 5 minutes of opening it because I know I’ve been putting aside a few dollars a week all month for this!! 

And that is how I helped my 21 year old boyfriend keep his car and never default on a loan repayment again.

I was only 18 when I gave him those budget tips and now at 25 and living in a single income household with 3 kids and a dog to feed and keep alive I feel like I’ve definitely improved my budgeting skills. This is a very basic way to budget but it’s one way to ease you into having a budget. From here you could learn what suits you and continue to build a better budget.

If this is a little too simple for you then hang around. My next post is how I budget now. It includes a much more in-depth look at your finances and how to set yourself up to keep the banks happy.