Hey darling hivers
Welcome back to my blog, thank you for always choosing to read my articles, means a lot to me. Well todays blog post is courtesy the #hive-learners
It’s the first weekly featured content for the week. You can check out the question here if you wish to participate.
Budgeting, this word used to be very foreign to me earlier in my growing years, me Rookie budget, it wasn’t my thing. I was a spend thrift. I was a careless spender of money, and impulse buyer and a ‘if I broke I broke’ kind of girl. I think this attitude was rooted in the fact that I knew I would never typically be broke because I had siblings who were happy to fund
my Life style and make me comfortable throughout my university days. Once my account is getting to a certain limit I used to term ‘red‘ in those days,
I would target what sibling is next to bill on my list and I would start calling the person a week to when I think the money I had at hand would get exhausted.
Well wasn’t that a form of budgeting in its self ? Lol
Let’s look at what budgeting is first,
Simply put budgeting is making a personal plan on how you intend to spend your money, be it a long term or short term plan, be it your regular monthly income or a money freely given to you. Budgeting helps me know what I am spending and what I am saving, and how I am to spend the fraction I plan to spend. You see the key word here is planning. Like every other thing in life, we must also plan our finances if not we would go broke or not have savings to fall on to in times of need.
To me Money is a spirit, and it has its own way of running off one’s hand if not properly assigned. One motivational speaker said you need to send your money on errands that’s how they (money) know not to be useless or run out. Well I agree because if you are careless with your money or funds, it would run out without you knowing or using it for anything tangible. Have you ever noticed how free money that you typically did not plan for runs out, and at the end of the day you find yourself now a mathematician, trying to calculate how you spent that particular money? It has happens to me many times.
remember the key word here is planning.
Well I learnt, I learnt to plan, to save, to budget. Thanks to my partner who is the most meticulous money spender I have ever come across in my entire life, I learnt to budget. First he stopped me from buying things on impulse. I still struggle with this sometimes under the slangs of;
all die na die; you only live once, I will buy what I like that’s why I am working
But other times I catch myself and stop myself in my tracks of impulse buying.
One major factor to consider while budgeting is your income, the size of your income has a lot to do with how you plan to spend and save it. How do I budget my funds or income, if I remember vividly I think I have a post on this type of issue way way down my blog, I have multiple streams of income, but I always make sure I split my income into parts, I am going to be telling you how;
Savings: i take 50% of every job I do and throw it straight into my savings, this savings is a no go area, i build this money to a certain extent and then I invest it and get good ROI for it while still saving my original money.
Bills and salary: the other 50% I split into 25% and one half I spend on bills; which I consider my salary, I try to pay myself always, thankfully my bills are not too much of a burden for me, thanks to my husband who carries majority of the financial responsibilities, but I try my best to contribute when I can and have to. That is why I am his help-meet.
Miscellaneous: this one is emergency money, one I have in my account for buying things I need around the house without going to my husband for funds for things I can buy myself, I plan this money for market, in case the one given to me doesn’t cover what I need to buy, in case I need to stop and buy gas for my car, etc. like it’s name it is an emergency fund for everything and anything, and here is where I sometimes fall prey to impulse buying. Lol
Another income I budget is my monthly allowance. Well yes, my upkeep funds. This money is my favorite it means a lot to me, I could have allthe money in the world but you see this money, I don’t buy any major thing personal for myself if I haven’t received this money. I plan for it, when I have to buy or pay for something and I have used up this particular funds, I put the thing on hold till the next month. If whatever I need to buy, let’s say cream, hair, cosmetics, shoe , payment for hair revamping etc is pending, and
I have exhausted this particular funds, I put everything on hold till the next month. With this I have been able to stop myself from spending unnecessarily and impulsively. Most times before I get my allowance I already have a list of the things I have to use it for and I just wait patiently for pay day.
Gifts and threats: I also budget for gifts for my partner and taking him out on dates. That money sometimes comes from miscellaneous or from my personal monthly allowance. I tell myself, this is how any times I want to take this man out this month, and this is how much I would need and then I either remove it from the money or save out of multiple miscellaneous funds that month from every job each week.
This are my budgeting habits
Do well to tell me yours in the comments below, I would love to know how you budget your funds.
Thank you for reading this
See you in my next post.
