It can be hard to keep track of a budget in the beginning. You need to be good at organizing your receipts, and also be dedicated enough to keep strict records of every transaction. Little things add up very easily, and you’ll forget each time just how easily. You’ll be pretty surprised how much is left at the end of the week or month. The best way to begin, is with simple and practical things.
First, before anything else, leave all your cards at home. Put your credit card in an envelope and forget about it for a while. Once a week, take your bank card to the bank, and withdraw cash money. Use this cash for as much as you can. Seeing that green plopping down hurts much worse than sliding your card. Just make certain you don’t try to creep back into using your card because it makes shopping fun again. Shopping is more fun when you buy something you know you can afford. Anything else is a diversion that bites you later.
Add up the little things you did spend cash on when the first week is over. If you don’t want to eliminate anything, don’t. This isn’t about saving, it’s about budgeting. It’s not about not spending money, it’s about knowing what you spend. You can have as many small purchases you want each week.
Throw in a handful of other charges, such as using a debit card pretty much anywhere, or using an ATM that doesn’t belong to your bank. These have their own little charges, and your bank may not be very happy with you giving even a few cents to their competition and help themselves to as much as two whole dollars. This is all outlined in the very center of a six-page boiler plate document with microscopic text.
And then, of course, service charges are a big one. No matter how tiny, they are never your friends. It can be about forty-five cents to use a card at the gas station. That may not be very much, but it can come out to almost two dollars a month, which is over twenty-one dollars a year.
The little things add up. Look at all the little things you didn’t need for the first week with no plastic and add them all up. Go ahead and attempt to work some of it into the actual budget. It’s possible to squeeze in lots of little purchases all week, as long as you know you’re going to do it ahead of time. And then, when you don’t do half of them, that’s a little more money, which might be able to be used for those same things again next week, but now twice.
If you can maintain without your card for the whole week, you’ll find the second one is a lot easier. You might even find yourself getting the generic brand more often than the one you really want. If you can afford to shop at Nob Hill or Andronico’s, why are you reading this?
If you’re in control of your personal budget each week, your personal finances will make a lot more sense. Something as simple as leaving your cards at home can save a lot, and keeping track of your little transactions and making good use of them can work wonders as well.
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