Its the end of the year, we are all planning for the new year deciding what we want to accomplish next year. You are probably looking at your budget if you have one and looking to see how you can do a better job of sticking to your budget. If you don’t have a budget you are probably saying to yourself, I need to budget but I can not stick to one.  In a recent post Simple Financial Tips – Budget Busters, I discussed some common budget busters, which may help with your budget planning as well as help you stick to your budget.

Sticking to your budget is important but the way that its designed may be preventing you from sticking to it.  Maybe you have designed your budget to tight.  Maybe you have designed it to loose or baggy.  Maybe you have designed it just right.  So how is your budget designed:

Tight

This budget has no room for error.  If you make one simple miscalculation such as buy four apples instead of three, use one extra gallon of water, or one extra kilowatt of electricity your budget is shot.  You have put so much pressure on your budget it can not breathe.  You have your fingers crossed at the beginning of each month hoping that your budget does not pop.

Loose

Your budget allows you a lot of freedom.  Its kind of loose and baggy.  There is a lot of room for error just in case you do plan to overspend one month it will not impact your budget.  But it does cause you to overspend in some area since you just pool all of your money in to one large category.   It enables you to hide your overspending in some categories since its loosely maintained.  But you will never break your budget since it loosely maintained.

Just Right Perfect Fit

This budget is perfectly maintained.  It fits just right in all categories.  There are no worries if you overspend in one category because you have a planned for it.  You are not pulling your hair out at the end of the month wondering where you money was spent or your fingers are not crossed hoping that you use the allocated amount of water and electricity for the end of month.  This budget allows you to relax and not stress.

Take Action Step

Now its time for you to review how your current budget is structured and decide if you have a tight, loose, or just right fitting budget.  Then be honest with yourself and make some adjustments where needed.  By doing this it will help you stick to your budget and stay on course.

Remember take one step at a time to simplify your personal finances so you can live the financial lifestyle you desire.

If you would like learn more tips to help you simplify your personal finances make sure you subscribe to simple financial lifestyle email newsletter and subscribe to RSS feed for blog updates.

Do you want to live a simple financial lifestyle? If so having a budget is key to creating a simple financial lifestyle. But many times we fail to budget because _________ (you fill in the blank) excuse. This week’s edition of Simple Weekend Reading features some recent articles I have read that I believe can help you with budgeting so you can simplify your personal finances.

I don’t have time. Is your reason for not having a budget? Brian at My Next Bucks offers How To Build a Kick Ass Budget in 15 Minutes. I believe we all have at least 15 minutes we can spare to create a budget.

I don’t need a budget. Is that your excuse? Jason at One Money Design offers Budgeting 101 which explains why and how to create a budget.

I don’t know what a budget should look like. Is that your excuse? Money Funk to the rescue. She posted 7 Free Printable Budget Worksheets. These budget worksheets can get you started and they are free.

Even if you do create a budget you must be realistic. To help Laura from Green Panda posted on Five Nickel Live Within Your Own Means, Not the Means of Others. Make sure your budget is something you can live with.

Is your spending habits causing your budget problems. Maybe this is the problem. Are your Credit Cards Weapons Of Mass Financial Destruction? posted by Financial Samurai.

I don’t know what budgeting system to use. Wojciech at Fiscal Fizzle offers his take on the YNAB 3 vs. Mvelopes (First Reactions) budgeting systems.

Still not sure which budget software to use. Fiscal Greek offers You Need a Budget (YNAB) 3.0 Personal Finance Software Review.

Hope these articles will help you create your budget so you can develop the simple financial lifestyle that you desire.

If you would like learn more tips to help you simplify your personal finances make sure you subscribe to simple financial lifestyle email newsletter and subscribe to RSS feed for blog updates.

Here are this week’s tips to help you simplify your personal finances by helping you avoid these personal financial budget busters:

Splurge or unplanned purchase – we all do it but we must limit it or at least budget for it.  If you know you have a tendency to buy things at the spur of the moment instead of planning just put it in your budget.  Hopefully you are not buying high ticket items every month.  If you are you may need to look at your spending.

Medical cost – Unplanned medical expenses are usually something you really can not plan for.  But you can have medical insurance in place.  Having adequate medical insurance and a reasonable deductible or co-payment will lessen the impact of those unplanned medical expenses.

Unplanned repair bills – just like medical expenses you can not always predict when they will occur.  To lessen the impact on you budget have preventive maintenance done on you car, home and any other thing that could break.  You can schedule these out and prepare for them in your budget.  Many  times even if you do preventive maintenance things will still need repairing.  This is why you should have an emergency fund in place so your monthly budget is not impacted.

Eating out – this is where I could use some work.  Its so easy to just go out to eat instead of planning ahead and have dinner at home.  Try limiting the times you go to dinner each week.

Increase insurance expenses - we can not control how much our insurance premiums will increase each year.  But what you can do so your premium does not bust your budget is review your insurance policies each year to make sure your coverage is appropriate.  You may want to even shop for another insurance providers if the increase is significant.

By avoiding these budget busters you can hopefully create a budget and stick to it.  What are your budget busters and how do you avoid them?

ACTION STEP

Take action by reviewing your spending and think about what is causing you not to stick to your monthly budget.

If you liked these tips and want to learn more, make sure you subscribe to simple financial lifestyle email newsletter and subscribe to RSS feed for blog updates.

Til next week take one step at a time to simplify your personal financial life.