How to stick to a budget

Personal Finance Money & Budgeting
1

Hi,

Just joined Emma recently and it’s fantastic. But i’m struggling to come up with a viable budget.
I heard a good rule to go for is the 50% on needs, 30% on wants and 20% on savings. Easier way for me to look at it is 80% on wants and needs and 20% on savings.

How many people are actually achieving this. From initial findings I’m spending far to much on groceries/general shopping/household.

2

Hey @edp33 :wave:

First things first, welcome the Emma Community.

What would say your current percentages are for wants, needs and savings?

3

Don’t have clear view of wants and needs separated, but combined I would say they are around 95%, but overspend when it comes to big events like birthday and holidays. I have savings so not in the red. But definitely spending more than earning !

4

What is it you want to achieve with your budget? Do you want to save more? Spend less?

5

both :slight_smile: spend less, hence save more. I have events throughout year, holidays, birthdays etc that I don’t budget for and they take me over my regular income as the outgoings is very close to the income. I will see if I can make savings on the outgoings, i.e save on groceries, cut back in other areas. Fastest thing to make a difference would be to get wife back into employment!!! and we are hoarders so need to have a carboot sale …

6

Thank you! :rocket:

The best way for me is to set a Total Budget in the app and stick to it.

7

I’ve tried that but wife prefers buying things with cash so I have no visibility where that goes, and supermarkets, have fuel, groceries, homeware and clothing, so again hard to see what that goes. Heard about the Curve card, and having seperate accounts, but that isn’t supported yet, Is there anything out there to help with that, or do I need to have several current accounts for each shopping trip?

8

The best way I’ve found to cut back is to figure out what’s important to me. I sit down, write down all the things that make me the happiest or passionate then pick the three most important :writing_hand:

Because these priorities make me the happiest in life, it’s not such a sacrifice to spend less on other things that aren’t getting me to where I want to go. For example, while getting an Uber Eats delivery is nice, I’d rather put that £30 towards seeing my family because they bring me more joy than a Nando’s.

If you’re just putting money aside for the sake of it there’s not much motivation to not touch it. The pay off needs to be better than the joy you get from spending it now. I also make it annoying to access my savings. Like having savings with a different bank and not downloading the app. I despise entering my password so it acts as a deterrent :nerd_face: