BudgetMama

Don’t you find nothing brings our finances closer to the front of our mind more than Christmas? A Popular topic of conversation around September is, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s nearly Christmas already!!!!’

As we begin to see signs appear saying ‘Layby Now for Christmas’ and ‘Taking Christmas Orders Now’ we can’t help but begin to get a little stressed, especially if we are already living that pay cheque to pay cheque lifestyle already.

Now there are all sorts of ways to relieve that stress, but it’s a little late for me to get into that only two days before Christmas! But, what I would like to talk about today is preparing for the year ahead, as with Christmas upon us and the New Year looming around the corner there is no better time than now to start thinking about your budget.

We’ve heard a lot of doom and gloom over the past year about corporate collapses, mortgage crisis, rising unemployment and the global economic downturn, however, it is possible to ride through these difficult times by taking one evening to really have an honest look at our spending habits and see where we can make improvements.

Take some time out as early in the New Year as possible to pull out old bills and note the pattern of spending they represent. For example, your power bill may reflect much higher usage at certain times of the year due to heating or air conditioning. Once you have identified this pattern it will be much easier to prepare for it so that paying those higher bills doesn’t cause undue pain in the year ahead.

You may be wondering how knowing you’ve got big bills coming will change the pain they cause. Well, it’s really as simple as calculating a figure to set aside out of each pay cycle to put towards those future bills that will make your life so much easier.

Preparing for future dated expenses is one of the most important aspects of planning and budgeting successfully. It’s easy to feel that some weeks you have little or no bills to pay and therefore have more money to indulge in other areas, however this is really an illusion because on the weeks you do have a big bill arrive you will really feel the strain on your budget trying to cover it out of one pay cheque. In fact, many people I talk to about budgeting tell me that they feel they are in a constant catch up mode because having to pay a big bill meant they got behind in other commitments and so begins the cycle of stress trying to make ends meet.

So, get a bit savvy with your finances. Look over 2009 and work out how much you actually spent on bills over the entire year. Divide that figure by 52 and you will have a weekly figure to set aside. Set that money aside somewhere separate from your regular everyday bank account, it could be a money jar, but a free online bank account is ideal.

If this concept is entirely new to you and you have absolutely no funds set aside for bills then you can expect to still have weeks where you will need to top up your jar/bank account to cover a bill, but don’t give in, persevere and stick to that regular set aside figure, and within a short time you will find that your household budget will be so much more manageable. In fact, you will even find that you have more money to indulge on other things than you did before as you will be breaking out of that stressful lifestyle known as ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ and replacing it with a budget that you are in control of, rather than the other way round.

Bring on 2010!

It’s been ages since I made a post I know, but for those of you who are keen to improve your budgeting skills then you’ll be glad to know my absense was due to me revamping my site, adding some video tutes for my subscribers and also getting busy with some family stuff….on the subject of which, Christmas is almost upon us and I’m feeling a tad old, I used to be able to shop till I dropped, or should I say it took a lot longer to drop when I shopped! Now I need to come home for a Nanna nap after only a hour and a half!

Anyway, I’m pleased to say I have managed to get through my gift shopping without pulling out my credit card once, maybe that is because I no longer own a credit card, but it is also because I am becoming quite expert at planning and budgeting ahead of time for everything……PLUS, my family no longer buy gifts for each other (in the grown up arena anyway), so most of my spending is on food and festivities. I shall write a blog post on that very subject soon.

For now I am off to add the sign up box for my BudgetMama Boot Camp course into the sidebar of the blog, and while there I shall add a new category to my posts which will be all about me. A lot of people have said they would like to get to know me on a more personal level. I know I know, it is absolutely and entirely worthy of a whole new blog, but for now I shall just make it a category of this one