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Originally Posted On: https://crediteck.ca/articles/basic-budgeting-hacks-you-can-use/

 

Almost everyone wants to save money, and make their budget go farther. Stretching your dollar with finance and budgeting hacks can help get the most bang for your buck.

While we could suggest things like don’t spend more than you have, which surprisingly has a need to be said more often than one might expect, we’ll try to break down some of our recommended and favorites, along with some practical tips from others below.

Use Cash

Use cash for most of your purchases, where you can. While some might not want to give up credit card reward points, when you use cash it can help you stay on budget.

Keep Receipts

An easy one that anyone can do is to keep all of your receipts, or write your own – at the end of each and every day. List all of your expenditures. When the end of the month comes, group those expenditures and create yourself a simple overview of where you might be spending too much (or even too little) and get some insights to how you are doing with your budget.

Monitor Spending

Good habits lead to good practices, so making it a habit to review your own spending and monitoring your spreadsheets helps to keep your own finances in view, top of mind, and remind you of outstanding debt that you might be trying to pay down.

Avoid Expensive Upgrades

There are all kinds of toys and items that we all want the latest of, but more often than not it’s a desire more than a necessity. Just a few of these culprits include mobile phones, laptops and even cars. If it aint broke, don’t fix it and make due. There is a vicious upgrade cycle that many fall victim to, which leads to more monthly payments, and less savings. If you can do without, make due with what you have when it works.

Ditch Credit Card

Another Crediteck credit card tip is to not actually carry one in your wallet, as this only increases the temptation, which can easily disrupt your budget with a few purchases. Leave the cards at home if possible.

Now here’s a bunch more budgeting hacks, many you can use, to get back on track with your personal finances so you can pay down your debt and take that trip you always dreamed of, buy that must-have gadget, or simple save more for a rainy day.

Separate Yours Savings

When you keep your savings in a separate account, it’s less likely that you’ll borrow from it or use it like a checking account. In the long run, this can help many to save more effectively.

Plan For Unexpected

You can’t plan for the unexpected, and since life is full of surprises, you should be ready. It might be repairs or a dozen other things, but having an emergency fund is never a bad idea.

Money Automation

No, we’re not talking about printing it, but how using automation can help. This is one of the simplest budgeting hacks you could hope to find. Using automated withdrawals from your paycheck can make it a whole lot easier to save.

Cashback

When shopping online you should use cashback with every purchase that you make where this is an option. The more you save, the more you have to work with as a budget.

Cut The Cord

It’s been growing in popularity, isn’t now time to cut the cord? There’s so many streaming services available now like Netflix, Hulu and more that maybe now is the time to do it.

Cut The Subs

With all the companies that have moved to a subscription model, there’s a good chance that you might have some that you hardly use or even forgot about. Review and remove some!

Invest In Envelopes

While it’s not for everyone, the envelope budgeting method has proven to be a favorite for many. It’s an easy way to allocate funds to help control your spending and reaching financial goals.

Audit

For some, there can be a fear of looking at your bank statements. But if you really want to budget like a pro, you’ll need to discard this fear so you can review things regularly.

Micro Investing

You might think you don’t have the funds for investing, but there’s an easy way that is worth exploring. Using a service to roundup your spare change, it accumulates into a little nest egg.

Debt Attack

The sooner that you pay down your debt, the less interest you’ll have to pay. In the long run, this can mean more money in your pocket and eventually more for your budget. The place to start would be the debt with the highest interest.

Credit Card Conundrum

Do you know the details of your credit cards? What interest rate do you pay? Do you only make minimum payments? All good places to start. It’s also worth trying to call and see about negotiating better rates.

Budgeting Basics Hack

One way to organize your money is the 50-20-30 Plan. This is where 50 percent goes to necessities, 20 percent goes to long term savings, and the other 30 percent goes to lifestyle choices. Working within these guidelines is a good approximation for many to use.

Some last minute thoughts that are worthy of anyone interested in better budgeting;
brown bag your lunch more, never go grocery shopping hungry, and don’t spend more money than you have.

 

If you’re looking for even more hacks on budgeting and frugal living, we’ve compiled some of our favorites videos to share with you below. Take a look for more ideas on how to save on groceries, everyday living and just saving money in general.