It can be a serious proverbial weight on your shoulders to accurately plan for your monthly outgoings and expenditure with all the modern-day pressures and responsibilities you inevitably have.
Managing money is a lot easier than you may think and, as a general rule, the simpler the plan you put in place, the more likely you are to be successful.
With that being said, here are the top three ways to make smarter choices when planning your monthly budget.
- Buy Loved Ones Gift Cards For Christmas
Contrary to an older belief, gift cards and vouchers are actually an incredibly thoughtful and much-appreciated present as nobody has to fake a heartfelt thank you when unwrapping a present they neither wanted nor needed.
Instead, purchasing a gift card from a reputable and established online company such as CardCrazy discount gift cards, who provide a never-ending range of different stores and brands, will afford your loved one the opportunity to buy exactly what they want. Even more importantly, you don’t have to buy the vouchers until the last minute, which means you don’t have to suffer large hits to the bank balance in the run up till Christmas.
- Move All Direct Debits To The Same Day Every Month
Instead of having standing orders and direct debits coming out at random times over the month, it makes much more financial sense to move each outgoing payment to the same day every single month.
This way, you can keep track of what you need to have ready in your bank account for that day and everything you are left with after the payment day is what you have left to live on for the remainder of the month.
Additionally, choose the day carefully and ideally on two or three days after your monthly payday.
- Make Clever Yet Barely Noticeable Changes
One way to reduce the amount of money you spend every day on non-essentials is to first write down everything you spend, either in a small notebook or an application on your phone, to examine exactly what you spend on what and when.
When the day is done and you are confident you are not going to be spending any more money that evening, go through everything and highlight the particular items that either didn’t live up to expectations or simply were ultimately unnecessary.
Examples of such items include, but are categorically in no way limited to:
- Takeaway Coffee
- Snacks From The Gas Station
- Drinks Vending Machine At Work
- Increasing The Thermostat Temperature
- Unused Gym Membership
- Books and Magazines
- Name brand consumables
Instead, make coffee at home and invest in a takeaway coffee cup, make yourself a snack pack for the office rather than paying the extortionate price of office-based vending machines and snuggling into rugs, throws and blankets instead of turning the heating up. Cancel any unused memberships, join the local library instead of purchasing books outright and buy own-brand items instead of the more expensive advertised alternatives.
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