Alli Williams

not sure how much money you’re going to be bringing in month-to-month and figuring out your spending and money goals overwhelms you. Once you have established what you need to save for your one month initial emergency fund, create a budget using an average baseline of income. That’s why, in addition to a minimum one month emergency fund, you need to get one month ahead on expenses. Once you have your minimum one month emergency fund set up and you’re working off of a baseline budget, use the leftover money from your budget, or any excess money that exceeded your baseline budget, and use that money as a buffer in your checking account.

Figure out what went wrong The first and most important step to getting back on track if you go over budget is figuring out what exactly went wrong. If you haven’t done so already, track a month of expenses to get your actual numbers — not just your ideal budget numbers. It means that when you sit down at the end of the month to create the budget for the next month, it doesn’t mean that what you write is set in stone. For example: If you overspent in your grocery budget by $200 and you have a “Personal Care” budget that has $200 in it, move that $200 to the grocery fund so that you are no long “over budget” in that area.

Here are 5 ways you can reduce impulse spending today: One of the major reasons that budgets, or spending plans fail, is because they are too restrictive. You also have the option to put these emails in a “roundup email” that way instead of getting 50 sale emails a day, you only receive one. Much like unsubscribing from retailer emails, this tip to reduce impulse spending is about putting barriers up for yourself. Time is the ultimate victor against impulse spending, but it takes time to train your brain to think like instead of favoring a quick endorphin release with a new purchase.