Overestimate Your Spending to Improve Your Budget
It’s so easy to blow up your budget. This is partly due to the fact that we often underestimate our costs. One simple way to combat this: err on the side of overvaluation.
My parents taught me this trick as a child. “Round up your expenses,” Dad said, “because it’s better to spend less than you expect, the more.”
Personal finance blog Femme Frugality recommends much the same. Her golden rule of budgeting? “The budget is liberal. Spend conservatively. ” Femme explains:
A huge budget means that if you think you’ll spend $ 75 on gas this month, you’ll be spending $ 100. This means that no matter how much you think you need, you plan more. This means you can’t push the numbers down to unrealistically low levels to match your income.
When you get your numbers, you’ll see if you need to hurry up to attract more. This is much better than walking to the end of the month and realizing that you should have hurried up to make more money because now you don’t have enough food to put it on the table.
Of course, conservative spending means saving money whenever possible and being mindful of your spending. This is a simple rule to follow for better budgeting. Check out her full post at the link below.
The Golden Rule of Budgeting | Femme Frugality via Rockstar Finance