How to Budget When You Are Broke It is such a simple pleasure but every time I get the ice cream out of the freezer I am reminded of the period in our lives when money was so tight the ice cream rarely made it into our shopping trolley. There is nothing fun about being broke, constantly juggling the bills and expenses is a stressful way to live. It is made particularly hard by the guilt you experience when do spend on fun stuff because you know you can’t really afford it! What I want to share with you know is the simple 5 step process I personally use and have used with hundreds of clients to show them how to budget despite starting from a financial position best described as ‘Broke’.
10 Fun Date Ideas That Won’t Make You Go Broke
Budgeting and going on dates are often a fearful combination of words. Many people think that it’s a “pick one or the other” type of scenario. However, “budgeting” and “dating” can live harmoniously together. And no, it doesn’t have to consist of cleaning up after the kids or getting work done around the house. If you are looking for fun date ideas that will not hurt your budget, why not try some of these creative ideas?
Five Tips For A Debt Free Christmas
Christmas time should be a wonderful time of celebration, family fun and relaxation…. well that’s the theory. The reality on the other hand can be quite different, especially when money’s tight. If you’re like most people, Christmas means stretching the limits of your credit card or dipping into the redraw facility. To help you keep your costs down and manage Christmas without the debt, here are 5 tips for a debt free Christmas!
3 Tips For Saving Money This Christmas
I am not quite sure where the year went but here we are again, less than a month away from Christmas. While Christmas is a wonderful time to relax, celebrate and spend time with the family it can also bring with it a whole lot of financial stress and uncertainty.
A Budget: The Foundation for Dreams Becoming a Reality
Just after we were married, my wife Lianne and I were fortunate enough to spend some time with a financial advice group. They helped us shape our thinking regarding our finances and our future. Like all young couples, we wanted to be able to travel, buy a home, have a family, for Lianne to be a stay at home Mum, send the kids to good schools and to be debt free as early in life as possible. We knew that being debt free would afford us so many more options in life but to achieve it we would have to be purposeful in the way we managed our finances.
You Want To Be Debt Free? Here’s What To Do About It
At Grandma’s Jars we are passionate about helping people take control of their personal finances and get out of debt. We have seen first hand the impact that debt has on people lives when it gets out of hand. Debt causes financial stress and is a burden that robs us off tomorrow’s cash flow making it harder to save and get ahead financially.
3 Things You Need For A Successful Budget
You know you should be budgeting. In fact, like most people you have probably tried to but just can’t seem to stick with it. It’s okay for a week or two, maybe even a month but… well, you know, life gets busy you fall behind for a couple of days and then it’s just too hard to catch up again. You feel guilty for letting it go but after a while the memory of your budget fades and you return to your old ways. For a while it seems to be going just fine, that is until your next financial crisis arrives! Sounds familiar? Like dieting, studying or exercising, sticking to a budget can be really difficult at times. We all have good intentions. We know we could do better with our money but it is so easy to give in when faced with time pressures, unexpected expenses and new shiny things that test our willpower. Today I want to share with you 3 budgeting tips that you can use to help overcome lack of discipline when sticking to a budget:
The Best Time to Start Budgeting
Waiting for the perfect time I love talking to people about budgeting. I know it’s a bit geeky, some would say a bit weird. However, the reality is 15 years of being a budget coach has taught me that a good budget can positively change the course of person’s life forever. Most people know that they should budget and they know they would be better off if they did but for some reason years come and go and, well, it just still hasn’t happened! One of the biggest reasons most people fail to ever get started is that they are waiting for the perfect time to get started. I’ll often hear things such as, I want to start a budget but I am just waiting until – I have started my new job, I have got a pay rise, I have moved out of home, I have finished studying, I have paid off my debt, the kids have started school, I have more time!
Four Ways Personal Budgeting Gives You Freedom
I will often meet people who, despite being in a bad financial situation, are seriously resistant to the idea of budgeting. Their biggest concern is that a budget will constrain them, that they won’t be free to spend on the things they want to spend on. While in some sense this might be true, I would argue that there is no fun or satisfaction in spending money you don’t have, even if it is on ‘stuff’ you really want. In this blog I want to share with you four ways in which a good budget will give you freedom. Freedom from guilt We have all heard of buyer’s remorse; that sense of guilt that comes over us when we have bought something and know we can’t afford it or really don’t need it. Buyer’s remorse typically comes on immediately after a purchase and robs us of the enjoyment that we hoped we would derive from the purchase. When our finances are a little out of control, it can be very hard to spend money on ourselves and really enjoy it. In the back of our minds there are nagging thoughts about the upcoming (or overdue) bills and expenses. Guilt associated …
How to Budget on an Uneven Income Part 2: The Penalty Rate Worker
Living on an uneven income does add some complexity to budgeting and managing your expenses, however with the right system and a bit of discipline it does not need to be difficult. In my previous blog I outlined the two broad categories of uneven income as: The Seasonal worker – This sort of income is typical in industries such as farming, sales and tourism where income comes in lumps followed by long periods of little or no income. The Penalty Rate Worker – This type of ‘uneven income’ occurs when you work shift work or in a job that includes overtime penalty rates.
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