10 Tips for Staying on a Budget (2024)

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Here are 10 tips for staying on a budget to help you get your finances under control and start building your personal savings.

10 Tips for Staying on a Budget (1)

A budget is a must-have for nearly every family. Knowing how much money you have to spend on each area of your life can help keep balance and help with stress levels. Not everyone can easily stay on a budget, but there are little things you can do to help keep your money going where it is supposed to go. Beloware ten easy ways to help you get on track and stay there.

10 Tips for Staying on a Budget

1.Don’t spend what you don’t have. This seems simple, but sometimes is harder than you think. If you go to the store and buy a bunch of things you don’t need, you’re probably taking money out of an area that could have gone to pay a bill. If you don’t have the “extra” then don’t go to the store…then you won’t be tempted!

2.Make a list.Don’t go to the store without a list. You end up picking up a lot of things you don’t need simply because it catches your eye or looks tasty. Plan out your menu, write up a list and stick to it while you are at the store.

3.Shop with cash. It’s easy to pull out your debit card to make a purchase, but it’s harder to keep track of. If you have cash, you have to be careful you only spend what you have on hand. You will find that you are more conservative with your spending if you can only spend a certain amount.

4.Cut bad habits. It could be you like a beer or two, or smoke or even Starbucks in the morning. Take a look at those habits and try to put an end to the ones costing you money. If Starbucks is your obsession, cut down. If you stop at least three times a week and spend, say $4.50 each time, that’s about $55/month and $650 a year on….coffee!

5.Work as a team. If you are working on saving while your partner is out spending the extra, you are fighting a losing battle. You will never win the budget game if you can’t both be on the same page.

6.Pay extra towards your balances. You may not have enough to pay off a credit card but you can help to cut down the balance a lot quicker if you make extra payments and as early as possible. Many loans have a per day interest that you accumulate. If you make payments as quickly as possible, you may save a few dollars. If you pay your minimum balance, you will be paying for a long time. Add an extra $10, $20 or whatever you can to your payment to help cut down on the balance.

7.It’s okay to be flexible. Life happens. Things come up. Just because you fall off track and need to take money that *should* go to one bill or another is not a reason to fully give up. Be flexible and ready for things to come up, because something will always come up.

8.Keep track of your spending! You won’t know how much money you have to spend if you don’t know how much you’ve spent. I know, sometimes it’s easy to just pretend you didn’t make that extra stop at Bed, Bath and Beyond, but just because you are pretending it didn’t happen, doesn’t mean the money isn’t gone.

If you aren’t sure where you are wasting money, you might want to use a Budget Plannerto track your spending. It will help you identify wasteful spending, where you can make realistic cuts in your budget, and identifymoney to direct to savings.

10 Tips for Staying on a Budget (2)

9.Analyze your receipts. Keep your receipts and look at them once a week/month to see where your money is going. You may realize you are spending more than you thought.

10.Give your basket one last look. Before you check out, give your basket one last look over to see if youreallyneed everything you are buying. You might see an extra package of cookies or things like that you put in your basket, despite your list.

More Money Saving Tips

101 Ways to Save $1.00 a Day

How to Get Your Budget Back on Track After Holiday Spending

10 Easy Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill

Buy This, Not That: The Frugal Shopping Edition

About Alea Milham

Alea Milham is the owner of Premeditated Leftovers and the author of Prep-Ahead Meals from Scatch. She shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home. Her favorite hobby, gardening, is a frugal source of organic produce for her recipes. She believes it is possible to live fully and eat well while spending less.

Comments

  1. Ashley Z. says

    Great tips! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

    Reply

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10 Tips for Staying on a Budget (2024)

FAQs

What is the 10 rule budget? ›

The 60/30/10 budgeting method says you should put 60% of your monthly income toward your needs, 30% towards your wants and 10% towards your savings. It's trending as an alternative to the longer-standing 50/30/20 method. Experts warn that putting just 10% of your income into savings may not be enough.

What are 5 most important things about budget? ›

What Are the 5 Basic Elements of a Budget?
  • Income. The first place that you should start when thinking about your budget is your income. ...
  • Fixed Expenses. ...
  • Debt. ...
  • Flexible and Unplanned Expenses. ...
  • Savings.

What can you do to stay on budget? ›

How to Stick to a Budget
  1. Keep it real. Have you ever made a goal that totally set you up for failure? ...
  2. Set up auto draft. ...
  3. Plan your meals. ...
  4. Think weekly. ...
  5. Check your social calendar. ...
  6. Learn to say no (or not now). ...
  7. Ditch the credit card. ...
  8. Find an accountability partner.
Aug 24, 2023

What is the #1 rule of budgeting? ›

The 50/30/20 budget rule states that you should spend up to 50% of your after-tax income on needs and obligations that you must have or must do. The remaining half should be split between savings and debt repayment (20%) and everything else that you might want (30%).

What is the 20 10 10 rule? ›

However, one of the most important benefits of this rule is that you can keep more of your income and save. The 20/10 rule follows the logic that no more than 20% of your annual net income should be spent on consumer debt and no more than 10% of your monthly net income should be used to pay debt repayments.

What are the 3 main points of a budget? ›

We also discuss the three elements of a successful budget: the people, the data, and the process. When each of these components are working together, companies are able to create successful, insightful budgets that provide your business with more than just numbers.

What is the 30 budget rule? ›

The 50-30-20 rule recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. The savings category also includes money you will need to realize your future goals.

What are the 7 types of budgeting? ›

The 7 different types of budgeting used by companies are strategic plan budget, cash budget, master budget, labor budget, capital budget, financial budget, operating budget. You can read about the Union Budget 2021-22 Summary in the given link.

What 4 things will a budget do for you? ›

Having a budget keeps your spending in check and makes sure that your savings are on track for the future. Budgeting can help you set long-term financial goals, keep you from overspending, help shut down risky spending habits, and more.

What are the 4 components of a budget? ›

The Key Components of a Budget

Learn about net income, fixed expenses, variable expenses, and discretionary expenses and examples of each.

What is a good budget plan? ›

In the 50/20/30 budget, 50% of your net income should go to your needs, 20% should go to savings, and 30% should go to your wants. If you've read the Essentials of Budgeting, you're already familiar with the idea of wants and needs.

How to spend money wisely? ›

6 Steps to Manage Your Money Wisely
  1. 1 – Lower your monthly expenses. ...
  2. 2 – Pay off your debt. ...
  3. 3 – Create and utilize a budget plan. ...
  4. 4 – Create an emergency fund. ...
  5. 5 – Lower your credit card usage. ...
  6. 6 – Contribute to your retirement savings. ...
  7. 5 Impactful Ways to Overcome Financial Stress. ...
  8. 7 Ways to Boost Your Financial Literacy.

What is the 50 30 20 rule? ›

The 50/30/20 rule is an easy budgeting method that can help you to manage your money effectively, simply and sustainably. The basic rule of thumb is to divide your monthly after-tax income into three spending categories: 50% for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings or paying off debt.

How does the 10 rule work? ›

Lesson Summary. The 10% Rule means that when energy is passed in an ecosystem from one trophic level to the next, only ten percent of the energy will be passed on. An energy pyramid shows the feeding levels of organisms in an ecosystem and gives a visual representation of energy loss at each level.

What is the 70/20/10 rule money? ›

The 70-20-10 budget formula divides your after-tax income into three buckets: 70% for living expenses, 20% for savings and debt, and 10% for additional savings and donations. By allocating your available income into these three distinct categories, you can better manage your money on a daily basis.

How much can you afford 20/10 rule? ›

The 20/10 rule of thumb is a budgeting technique that can be an effective way to keep your debt under control. It says your total debt shouldn't equal more than 20% of your annual income, and that your monthly debt payments shouldn't be more than 10% of your monthly income.

What is the 80 20 20 budget? ›

The 80/20 budget is a simpler version of it. Using the 80/20 budgeting method, 80% of your income goes toward monthly expenses and spending, while the other 20% goes toward savings and investments. Of course, the 80/20 budget rule won't work for everyone.

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