Budget has such a stigma to it. You hear budget and now you think you’re poor or incapable of managing your own money. You need to rely on a spreadsheet to tell you what you can spend money on.
We’re stubborn people and hate to be told what to do. Having a budget is like a boss telling you where you should allocate your monthly income. Instead, you should view your budget as an assistant. It’s a resource here to help you achieve your financial goals.
Perhaps you’re tired of being next to the guy who has everything planned and budgeted for. They know exactly how much they spent on food last month and are aware of all expenses daily. They are the type of people you hate; know it alls who seem to have their whole life together.
For others, they are struggling to pay bills, drowning in debt, but hey, maybe you’ll order a pizza tonight and block out those thoughts with some ice cream afterwards. I’m not saying people have an eating problem. I’m saying most people have a spending problem.
Budgets are tough. Creating a system that will help is a tough job to do. However, what’s even harder is sticking to a budget. But if all else fails, remember this one piece of advice: Spend less than you make.
But let’s break that down into something that will work for us in a budget. Don’t worry; the title of this blog post is for lazy people. I assure you, this will be easy and painless.
The purpose is to come up with a system that will work. For now, we’ll leave out housing and savings categories. Now, let’s cut some corners and create a budget that will stick.
Get An Overview Of Your Spending
It’s time to rip off that Band-Aid and look at your expenses. Take a good hard look at all the spending you do. It’s unfortunately a necessary step to take. If you don’t know where your money is going, you can’t decide where you want to spend your money.
For most people, you should take the last 3 months of expenses and break down everything in detailed categories. Or, if you’re lazy, review the statement from your bank or wherever you spend the bulk of your money every month. Analyze this and break your spending down into general categories.
The main goal is to organize your money and determine the weak points in your spending.
Go Shopping
Yes, you read that right. I’m not talking about the mall, but planning out your future purchases. You’re going to need pay the local kid to mow your lawn every Saturday or an upcoming vacation.
Make a note of all the money you are planning to spend in the future. Maybe go as far back as 3 to 5 years. We want this to be thorough so you’re prepared and ready to stick to your budget without any surprises.
Plan Out Future Expenses
For this next step, take the list you just made of all future purchases you’re planning to make. Add in estimates you think each will cost and when you plan to make these purchases. Divide these 2 to see how much you will need to save for each expense.
That is how much you need to save each month to hit those spending goals. If it’s too unrealistic, take a closer look at that list and take out some that aren’t completely necessary.
Set Up A Lazy Budgeting System
Now that you’ve set up your targeted spending in the last step, now it’s time to focus on your goals. In the past, I’m sure you never got this far because of an unforeseen expense or got reprioritized for something you forgot about or thought you desperately needed.
You’ve already set up monthly contributions to hit your future purchases. The way to stop your “can’t-live-without” purchases is to hide your money. Divert that money into a separate account when it comes in. You should set up multiple accounts for different things. Perhaps one should be for your daily spending and another for your bills and mortgage.
Keeping everything separate with help with organizing your finances instead of having it all squished into one account going to thousands of different places.
An easy way to organize everything and stick to saving for your future purchases and your goals is to let the bank do the saving for you. Set up automatic reoccurring cash transfers every time the money comes in. It will automatically transfer that money into the accounts you need it in, without you lifting a finger.
It’s essentially run on autopilot mode. All you need to do now is stay out of its way as you work towards your goals.
Stop Mindless Overspending
I know, easier said than done. We live in a world of materialistic desires. Everywhere we turn, we see a new sale or a new item that was released where we just need to have it. Our world would come crashing down and happiness would no longer exist if we didn’t have this particular item.
Life is full of temptations, but there are ways to keep your spending in check. You can follow different methods like the cash envelope, putting cash for all the categories of your monthly spending into envelopes. That will help keep everything structured.
Another method is the 50/30/20 rule. Keep your spending in check by spending NO more than 30% of your monthly income. I hope you can cut that percentage down even lower, but for the sake of this post I’ll let it slide just this once.
Stay strong and keep a constant eye on your spending.
Final Thoughts
Basically, the only work you need to do is the initial screening of your past expenses and creating categories of your spending. Everything else can go on auto-drive. You can live your life while your budget works for you. It’s the perfect solution for lazy people. Now go save some money.
