money News
Simple ways to plan for unexpected happenings to your budget
With the need to try and budget correctly the team at Squashed Bills have thought about ways in which we can help ourselves be more efficient on saving and having more money to spend at the end of the month.
Money is simply an exchange. It works because it is a system of payment. We have not always used money and centuries ago we use shells, beads and furs. Today people often choose not to use money and “barter instead”. For example if you baby-sit for your neighbours then they may offer to baby-sit for you the next time. Little has changed over the times with people always looking to use their currency or form of trade as best as they can.
Money can come from all areas but mainly it is the income that is earned from employment either self employed or employed; it makes the biggest contribution to our budgets and how much we can spend during the month and year.
The first thing to work out is where you spend your money and how cutbacks could be made to your budget. The main things which have to be paid are Mortgage or Rent, Council Tax, Utility bills these are deemed normally to be the most expensive and need to be paid before other items within the budget, but we often forget about the smaller things we pay for which can be:
- Vehicle expenses and maintenance
- Fuel
- Travel expenses Bus or Train
- Groceries
- Child care
- Social Life – Memberships, Dinning out, Drinks
- Life Insurance
These items can all add up on a monthly basis such as fuel, Groceries and your Social life costs, so it might be a good idea to look at where you are able to cut back or search for better deals to save you money.
The larger items are not as straightforward to budget as they are paid for on a monthly basis however, the costs of a Motor Car for twelve months, could be broken down into weekly payments of which you could store away, so the shock of renewing the car insurance, tax and possible repairs will not put a big hole in the budget.
Example
- Car insurance £300
- Car tax £200
- Mot £100
- Potential repairs £100
Divide the above by 52 weeks and you can see that the Car budget becomes a little bit more manageable and works out as £13.46 a week.
Overall there are many ways to improve your budget planning but taking a little time to write things down and plan could be time well spent, helping you become simply smart with your money.