Money Makeover Tip: Create A Monthly Spending Plan
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July 02, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Main image by: PinkMoose
A spending plan is not a budget or a means for sacrifice, skimping, or depriving yourself. Creating a spending plan is a great way to plan out your finances and figure out what is important to you.
1. Take a piece of paper put a line down the middle center. On the left side list all of the money that comes to you each month, from working, child support, gifts from parents, etc.
2. On the right side of the paper, list all of your monthly expenses. Your list might include rent/mortgage, food, eating out, entertainment, phone, child care, clothes, doctor bills, investments, retirement payments, or savings for vacation/home/car.
3. By putting your monthly numbers down on paper, you create clarity with your money. You can easily see where your money is going and make adjustments and changes according to where you would like to spend money and what is important to you. For example, if you see that you are spending quite a lot on eating out sacrificing your vacation savings, you might want to slowly adjust this and maybe allocate $100 more or so a month to saving for a vacation and less to eating out.
4. Having clarity about where your money is coming and going is the first step to changing spending patters. Just by writing your monthly numbers out each month and getting clear on your money, you will find yourself automatically adjusting spending patterns.
5. Don’t beat yourself up or put too much pressure or too many goals on yourself. Changes come slowly. Know that you are making changes in your spending so that you can have the things that are important to you!
