Top 5 Money Management Tips

Being good with money is about so much more than just making ends meet. We all have hopes and dreams for what we would like to experience or obtain and money can help us get there. This is why managing your money is important. But do not worry, you do not have to be great at maths to budget well, you just need the basics like addition and subtraction. Whilst basic skills like this will be important when it comes to keeping a close eye on your financial situation, don’t forget that you can enlist the help and expertise of a financial consultant if you want to make sure that you are doing everything correctly, which is essential when it comes to your finances. However, adapting your skills in adding and subtracting is all you need to be successful in this area. So with that being said, today I am going to give you my top 5 money management tips.

Have a Budget

Many people do not budget as much as they would like too. Mostly because they do not want to go through what they think will be a boring process of listing everything little thing they spend their money. Which then leads to a boring maths session of adding up numbers. If you are not great with money, you do not have room for excuses with budgeting. If all it takes to get your spending on track is a few hours of working a budget out each month, why would you not? There is to much focus put on the process of making a budget itself. I prefer focusing on the value budgeting brings to those aspirations we talked about before.

Give yourself a limit for Unbudgeted Spending

Even after you have made your budget, you need to give yourself some space to make mistakes. There is no point in creating an impossibly strict budget without any give to it. You will fail if that is the approach you take. We are all human after all, so accept that you are going to make mistakes by overspending and compensate for it in your budget. But if you do end up being good and spending less then you thought you would in your budget, you can use the extra money to reward yourself for a job well done.

Track Your Spending

We often do not think about how all the little purchases add up. But the small purchases often have a bigger impact than the larger ones because we make, so many smaller purchases compared to single large ones. Start tracking your spending by taking a good look at your bank account. This is easier to do if you have mobile banking because you can see all your monthly outgoings.

You might prefer to save receipts and write your purchases down, which are perfectly valid approaches as well but might be harder to keep track of if you are prone to losing receipts. Writing down spending you want to avoid is a good idea though because it will help you remember what you do not want to spend your money on.

However, know that buying commodities does not always add to the extra expenditure. Your utility bills can also contribute negatively towards it. That is why it is imperative for you to keep track of your electricity and water bills and do the needful to keep them in check. For instance, if you see that your electricity bills are soaring high, then it might be the time for you to become energy efficient. Likewise, if your water bills prove to be higher than usual, you might need to consider calling plumbers to check the pipelines.

Make sure you are getting the Best Deals

You can save so much money by doing price comparisons across a variety of providers with any product or service. Do not take the first price of anything you are looking for. You can save a lot of money on your utilities, for example, if you use popular price comparison websites. It would be smart to even compare the price comparison between price comparison websites as well though. 3-5 comparison websites will often give you a good gauge of how much you should be spending for the level of service you require. And if saving time is your motivation for not using these comparison websites, then why not look here for a price comparison extension that could be simply added to your browser?

Limit Credit Card Purchases

Credit purchases can be enticing, you think that it is only $30 extra a month and you can have this big expensive thing you want right now. But do not go down that rabbit hole. Credit card interest adds up and you will end up paying a lot more then you expected in the long term. You will save so much money if you decide to save up for the item you want instead.

To conclude, there are plenty of great approaches to saving money. Many start with a solid budget and keep a keen eye on where their money is going. This is helpful, but don’t forget that we are human and will spend more than we mean too so allow for that in your budget. Do not forget to shop around and you will be on your way to a big pot of savings in no time.