If there’s one thing that almost everyone has in common, it’s money problems. Whether you don’t make enough money at your current job or your rent is too high, it’s difficult to get to a point in life where you feel like you’re making enough money.
Since most of us can’t immediately find a job that pays twice what we make, we need to look for other ways to make the most of our money. Have you been trying to save up for a family vacation, but nothing seems to work? Here are some tips for budgeting and saving money for your next trip.
Make a Budget
Have you ever taken the time to write out all of your bills and their due dates on a sheet of paper? It may not sound like the most groundbreaking budgeting method, but it’s a great way to figure out how much money you have left over each month.
Expenses are also an important part of budgeting because they don’t show up in your standard list of bills and they fluctuate. You may only have to spend $200 on groceries next month, but that same bill might jump to $300 if you need more food that month or choose to buy something a bit fancier. To get the most accurate picture of what you’re spending where, look at a few of your bank statements and see how you’ve spent your money in past months.
Once you’ve got an accurate budget written out, you can compare it to your income and see how much you can save. If you bring in about $2,000 each month but only spend $1,700 on bills and expenses, there’s another $300 left over that you could be saving for vacation.
Stash Cash
Have you ever heard of the envelope method of budgeting? Essentially, you allocate your money for different expenses and put it in separate envelopes. If you’re going to spend money on groceries, you grab money out of the grocery envelope.
This method of budgeting works for two reasons: it separates your “balance” into separate categories, and gives you a physical representation of where your money is going. When you take $100 out of your grocery envelope and spend it on groceries, you’ll see that you have a finite amount left.
Budgeting with cash or envelopes works well because it doesn’t allow us to overdraft and it can easily be separated for use on different expenses.
Be Realistic
The most important thing to remember when trying to save money is to be realistic. Everybody wants to save a lot, so it’s natural to write up a budget where you’re spending pennies on groceries and saving $1,000 a month. The truth is, you’re better off coming up with a realistic budget that you’ll actually be able to stick to. That way you get the feeling of accomplishing something since you’re actually able to stay within your budget, and you can still put plenty of money away for safe keeping—it will just take a bit longer.
