Every financial planner, money expert, and parent will all tell you the same thing- get a personal finance budget now and stay on it! But how many of us hate budgeting? Is there anything that can be done to make budgeting fun?
Budgeting does not have to be the worst thing in the world. Rather than avoiding it, why not embrace it and make is something you enjoy. After all, if it’s as important as everyone says it is, you might as well enjoy doing it, right?
Following is a list of ways to make your budgeting experience more fun:
1. Create A “Leisure Fund” – Why does budgeting have to be so restrictive? The idea behind getting a grasp on your money is so you can spend it without feeling guilty because you’re neglecting what’s most important. Creating a leisure fund is where you decide on a certain amount of money for you personally to spend on whatever you want. That’s right- anything! It can be food, the movies, or a new pair shoes.
If you do not spend everything in your leisure fund for that particular month, that money carries over and you can buy something bigger! Knowing yourself some room to breathe on your budget will make it far more liberating and fun!
2. Set Goals & Rewards – If you’re not measuring your success and failures, then why are you doing it? If you can set goals for how much you want to spend and / or make that month, you can set rewards that will motivate you to stay on top of your budget! Rewards motivate all of us! Maybe next month you can give yourself an extra $ 50 to spend for leisure if you can keep you “misc. Expenses” to a certain minimum.
3. Keep Your Budget On A Spreadsheet – Nobody likes to do budgeting the old way! Use either Google Spreadsheets or Microsoft excel and get something up on your computer that will help track your money. Then it’s simple from there- keep a copy of your receipts and make sure they get entered into your budget.
4. Do not Stress Out If You Go Over – The worst thing you can do is penalize yourself each time you go over your budget! Time and time again we beat ourselves up over failing at something small; rather than working to fix the problem, we give up on it and, subsequently, lose the benefits of what we’re trying to accomplish. A budget is no different!
