“It is essential that we stop worrying about money and stop resenting our bills.” ~Louise Hay
One of the common things that can stress people out in life is anything that has to do with money and finances. However, there are ways to keep the stress over money to a minimum no matter what your financial situation happens to be. This is why it is important to budget your money so you can keep increasing your savings account.
Your Money and Your Energy
On another note, living in fear of not having enough can directly relate to your actual financial status.
“When you focus on lack and scarcity and what you don’t have, you fuss about it with your family, you discuss it with your friends, you tell your children that you don’t have enough – ‘We don’t have enough for that, we can’t afford that’ – then you’ll never be able to afford it, because you begin to attract more of what you don’t have,” writes Lisa Nichols
And Bob Proctor
Budgeting Ideas to Grow Your Savings Account
Let’s now look at the top 5 ways to budget your money so you will always have a good cushion of savings.
1. Prioritize What You Need To Spend Money On
The first thing that you need to have money available to spend on are any debts you have as well as your living expenses, as well as necessities. And anything that is left over for entertainment or wants in general, prioritize those and remember there is nothing wrong with spending money on a dinner out or a movie once in a while. Just be sure to plan those out ahead of time. Make sure your debts, living expenses, and necessities are covered first.
2. Be Prepared To Make Some Sacrifices
After you have prioritized what you will spend money on, you will find that many of your wants or subscriptions are not serving you in any way. Those are the things to completely cut out. For instance, if you have a magazine subscription that you barely use or you find you can get the same information from the magazine from elsewhere, it is best to cancel it and you will find that your savings account will grow based on that alone.
The trick is to look for free versions of any paid service that you are subscribed to and cancel those.
3. Get Into The Habit Of Coupon Clipping And Deal-Searching
The first thing to do is to always collect the flyers that are mailed to you (or emailed to you), and you may find that there are coupons to use or you may find that some good sales are going on. You will think that a savings of 50 cents on laundry detergent or sauce from a coupon is not much of savings. However, once they add up as long as you are using coupons consistently, you will find that your savings account will grow.
Also, hold off on getting large items such as laptops during times when there are no major sales going on. In other words, the best times to do those is when it is close to the back to school times or the holidays.
4. Find Inexpensive Versions Of What You Need
Do you have a landline? You don’t really need it anymore, so you can get rid of that. Do you have cable? Cancel that subscription and go for streaming services instead. Also, go and buy some clothes and thrift shops because you can find some wonderful pieces of clothing or other accessories. You are not being cheap by doing this. You are being frugal, which is very smart.
5. Be Prepared To Spend Money In Unexpected Situations
Remind yourself that the reason you want your savings account to keep growing and to keep a cushion in there is because of unexpected situations that will pop up which will require you to spend money. This is not negative thinking. This is realistic thinking with proper planning. Home repairs, car repairs, and other expenses that you will least expect can easily happen and you want to make sure that you have a cushion in your savings to cover those.
Budgeting your money is being frugal, and frugal living is a great thing to be practiced.
Tip: before you go grocery shopping or out to eat, have a substantial, healthy snack. You will buy/order less impulsively.
Great tip, Chris and so TRUE!!