Saving Starts With Budgeting

    Planning for big life milestones like buying a house, having a baby, buying a car, retirement, and emergencies are important to feel secure. For most of you, your savings account probably looks a lot like your budgeting right now (and that could be good or bad). This is because the first step to saving money is understanding how much money you have and where it goes. This is a budget! In its most basic form, a budget details out how much we make in a given time, how much we spend, and what we spend it on. It can feel tedious sometimes, but doing this regularly can change your life. When you write out everything your spend, you can easily recognize spending trends and make changes. It also forces you to face the reality of your expenses. 

While 4 streaming services may feel necessary, spending $60 a month on TV is much less appealing. If you got rid of cable because it was too expensive, why are you spending more than that on streaming subscriptions now?

    If this doesn’t relate to you, you might think “Wow those kinds of people are silly!” but everybody has their own spending struggles.

Maybe other people need to look at their spending on eating out? How many times a month are you eating out? This includes snacks and coffee. Maybe it doesn’t feel significant at the time, but It’s crazy how fast those 4$ items add up, huh! All of a sudden, you’ve spent 100$ on food that you could have made at home for $50. 

    This doesn’t mean don’t eat out or don’t buy subscriptions. It just means that being aware of how much you spend and what your options allow for informed decisions. When you have your budget completed, you can see how much money you have left at the end of each month to save or to pay debt and this can help you make informed goals. It can also help you find things you’d like to spend less if you are looking to save more than what’s currently available. 

    Register for a free account with us, and you can access a budgeting sheet to help you get started. There is even a basic savings sheet to help you make goals and see how many months it would take to reach them. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We would be more than happy to help you.