6 Budgeting Tips To Better Your Finances Today!
The information provided in this budgeting tips blog post is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. The author of this post is not a professional financial advisor, and the content presented here is based solely on personal opinions, experiences, and research. This blog post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may earn a commission if you click on the link and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. Please note that I only recommend products or services that I personally use and believe will add value to my readers.
I know budgeting can seem tricky, especially when you’ve tried over and over again but can’t seem to break the pattern of living paycheck to paycheck.
My husband and I used to feel the same way when it came to our finances.
In this post, I will give you SIX of the best budgeting tips we have used to improve our finances and explain how they can help you succeed!
Get ready because we’ll be going over these 6 tips:
- Creating Actionable / Exciting Goals
- No Spend Challenges
- Weekly Budget Meetings
- Weekly Meal Plan / Prep
- Sinking Funds / Buckets
- High Yield Savings Accounts (HYSAs)
And if you still want more… I have created the Beginner’s Budget Blueprint course that goes more in-depth over budgeting and improving your finances. You can snag here or at the end of this post!
Tip #1: Create Actionable / Exciting Goals
I know you may think this is silly, but it is proven that having goals in any aspect of your life creates motivation and triggers action.
Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps have made creating actionable and exciting goals easy as we have been on our financial journey, especially when we were paying off debt and using the snowball method.
Paying off our debts one by one from smallest to largest as fast as we could helped keep our momentum going during our debt-free journey, and because of the snowball method, we were able to pay off over 30K in debt in less than one year!
If you want to read more about the baby steps and how we improved our finances so quickly, read these posts:
Setting actionable and exciting goals is KEY to keeping you motivated throughout your journey and driving you to financial success.
Tip #2 is an excellent example of creating these types of goals for yourself.
Budgeting Tip #2: No-Spend Challenges
No-spend challenges are not as scary as they may sound and can greatly impact your budget, finances, and spending habits.
With no spend challenges, you generally set a time period where you would like to not spend any money except for the necessities like bills, gas, groceries, and any other essentials you have planned and in your budget.
While you are still spending money, these challenges motivate you to live frugally and are eye-opening to how you unintentionally spend your money.
Doing these challenges can really alter how you spend your money in the future and is a great and fun way to challenge yourself!
No-spend challenges are great when you want to jump-start your financial journey!
Tip #3: Weekly Budget Meetings
I talk about this tip in this blog post (and course!):
But looking at your budget and finances regularly is CRUCIAL, especially when you are on a team.
When my husband and I started budgeting, we would have mandatory weekly meetings to discuss our bills and what was being spent weekly.
At first, it may be a chore, but eventually, it becomes a habit.
Now… My husband and I are ALWAYS discussing our budget and how to save more or pay off debt faster.
It’s fun for us; we love pushing ourselves, and the feeling we get from seeing our hard work pay off!
And if you haven’t created a budget yet or your budget isn’t working for you… now is the time to access my Beginner’s Budget Blueprint course!
My husband and I have paid off over 30K in ONE year because of the budgeting method discussed in my course!
BEGINNER'S BUDGET BLUEPRINT
Learn how to budget step-by-step with 4 modules, over 15 video lessons, a 40 page course workbook, + budgeting spreadsheet!
I also recommend a monthly budget meeting to plan the month and get an overall idea of goals + plans.
Do a meeting every time you get paid and disperse your check accordingly. I loveee waking up on payday and putting money where it needs to be. You will, too!
And make sure you check in when you’ve been spending or doing anything that involves your budget!
Budgeting Tip #4: Weekly Meal Plan / Prep
Grocery and meal planning are challenging topics to cover in a few sentences, but this tip has been HUGE for my husband and me.
In all honesty, I love to cook! It’s one of my favorite love languages!
But when I’m tired and hungry after a long day of school, working on my blog, and going to the closing shift at my bar job, I do not want to cook. And I’m sure you get it.
For us, there was another problem: we threw out good food and leftovers so much that we felt like we were wasting even more money and food than we were eating out!
That was until we learned how to cook easy and quick meals, and what our favorite grab-and-go type foods were for nights and days, we just do not want to cook.
Now, we fill our carts with fresh fruits and veggies, plenty of protein, and our favorite snacks, drinks, + frozen pizzas on nights cooking is out of the cards.
Our meals are simpler than ever, delicious, and we eat healthier than ever, all while saving us lots of money!
Tip #5: High Yield Savings Accounts (HYSAs)
I have an entire post dedicated to this, so I will briefly describe it here!
I’m sure you’ve seen TikTok creators, bloggers, and ads all telling you about high-yield savings accounts, and it’s for a reason.
A recent article from The Buy Side from The Wall Street Journal says that with online savings accounts, “it’s now possible to find an interest rate that’s 10 times the national average—5% and sometimes even slightly more!”
This is why my husband and I keep our emergency funds, sinking funds, and other savings in a High Yield Savings Account with Ally!
With Ally, there are no monthly fees or minimum amounts required, the money can be transferred to other bank accounts in 1-2 business days (which has saved us a time or two from poor decision-making), and our favorite feature is the buckets for sinking funds!
Read more about HYSAs here:
BLOG POST: High Yield Savings Accounts: What They Are + Comparing The Best
Budgeting Tip #6: Sinking Funds / Buckets
Budgeting can be stressful when it feels like random things are always coming up; I get it.
But with sinking funds, you can lessen the impact of these things!
Sinking funds are funds you set aside for things that may happen in the future.
For example, my husband and I have a few different funds, like for our car and our pets. Many people do this for holidays, birthdays, vacations, healthcare, and more!
We usually keep these smaller amounts in cash or a bucket in our Ally High Yield Savings Account!
These have been lifesavers when we’ve forgotten to plan things or when minor emergencies like a flat tire or vet bills have come up.
I encourage you to add a few sinking funds to your budget!
You NEED a budget if you want to succeed financially. These budgeting tips are ONLY helpful when you already have a budget in place.
Because I believe in this SO much and want to help others get out of debt, build wealth, and create the lives of their dreams, I have created the Beginner’s Budget Blueprint course to help you dive deeper into budgeting and do just that!
In this course, I take you step-by-step through overcoming your false money beliefs, setting your financial goals, organizing your finances, creating your budget, staying consistent with budgeting, and SO. MUCH. MORE!
If you’re ready to improve your finances, learn how to budget, get out of debt, and create your dream life, you need the Beginner’s Budget Blueprint course!
BEGINNER'S BUDGET BLUEPRINT
Ready to take control of your money for good?
Your step-by-step guide to stress-free budgeting is here!
My husband and I found each of these budgeting tips throughout our journey to be extremely helpful, and I hope they help improve your finances, too!
Make sure you enroll in the Beginner’s Budget Blueprint course + sign up for my email list for more budgeting tips and resources to help you create the life you love!
