The Budget Post

Welcome back. Since my last post, I have made and implemented my new budget. So Today I am going to explain what I did to make this budget and how I intend to use it. Before I start with anything though I would just like to remind anyone reading this that I am not a financial advisor. I never have been and have no intention of being one. This is just me playing and trying different ideas and ways of managing my money to help achieve my goal of leaving the rat race behind. So please keep that in mind when making your own decisions.

 You may recall that I spent September recording all of my purchases, I went and added all those purchases together so I knew how much I was spending each month. Wanting a simple budget I decided on and then divided everything into six categories. These categories are,

• Monthly expenses. My rent, utilities, transit and phone plan.
• Groceries. This one is pretty self-explanatory. My foodstuffs allowance.
• Eating out. Again, this one is pretty self-explanatory, it is how much I am allowed to spend on eating out or ordering in.
• Drinks. This covers everything from my Friday night beers to a coffee or a pint with friends. 
• Bills in Australia. Despite living in Canada I still have a few bills back in Australia that I need to cover.
• Savings.

Relying on the data from September again I looked at how much I earnt each fortnight, averaged it out and divided it among those six categories. Ensuring that enough money was put aside each fortnight to cover the total monthly expense. For example, all my monthly expenses totalled $1190. So to ensure I can pay that I’ve split that total over the month, working out to be $595 per fortnight.

I also kept some of the more expensive habits I enjoy, like going out for dinner or drinks with friends. Removing these completely in one way would make more sense as It allows me to save more each fortnight and ultimately reach my goals quicker. However, by removing them completely I run the risk of the budget failing. I enjoy these things and if I focus on stopping them completely I could grow to hate the budget and eventually ditch it or use money that had been allocated for another category to go out for the night. To avoid this from happening I need to allow these expenses but focus instead on minimizing them. I have made it a little goal to have money left over in each of those categories at the end of the fortnight so I can transfer it to my savings for a little boost.

So with all that in mind I created this,

$595.00	Monthly expenses
$240.00	Groceries
$120.00	Eating out
$100.00	Drinks
$200.00	Bills In Australia
$245.00	Savings
$1,500.00	TOTAL

It’s simple and that is exactly what I wanted, so I am happy with it. And as I mentioned before at the end of each fortnight, the money that I don’t spend on groceries, eating out or drinks is added to my savings, and that gives me a little boost and makes me happy each time I do it. So overall I am pretty pleased with this budget and given how I have been using it for the past few weeks I haven’t seen much need or reason to change it. Hopefully, it continues to do the trick. Until next time have a good one and look after yourself.