While I don’t believe that you have to wait for a new year to start a new goal, sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re starting fresh, clean and raring to go.
Disclaimer: not an accountant (or anything like it). Use logic people. That’s what I’ve done here. If you don’t want to use logic, don’t, but also don’t come bitching back to me if the advice of a blogger isn’t specific to your personal circumstances 🙂 Mmkay? Cheers.
Budgeting for 2016
What are your goals?
Before you can start working towards you goals, you need to know what they are. Does your goal centre around a big activity, such as saving for a holiday? Or is it a smaller activity, like cutting your weekly expenses? Whatever it is, you’ll need to decide that you’re going for it before you can work for it.
Share your goals
Unless you’re the only person in your household, it’s likely that your financial goals will impact on others. It might be in a big way, like moving to a smaller house, or a smaller way, such as switching to non-branded food to save a little each week. I don’t believe that money has to be a negative topic (though it may be sensitive), but it does have to be one that is discussed with partners and household members when they are going to be impacted by it.
Think about what you forget
There are one or two bills I sometimes forget are coming, or I forget when exactly they arrive. My RACQ Â membership and my PO Box are the two I always forget. I know they come sometime between November and February but I never, ever remember when. My brain just does not retain those details. While these aren’t big bills (for me) they come at a time of year where I often have unpaid leave, so it does help to try and remember to budget for them.
What are your tips to get yourself financially organised for 2016?
I like to set reminders by way of information technology or I set them to pay online BPAY a day or so before the due date (on credit card if possible).
Our credit card is auto pay the closing balance , except I haven’t set up out low value one yet.
The banking apps / online also remind me my pending payments.
My tip for budgeting is to pay on time and say any late fees.
Next year is going to be a big one with school band fees, instrument hire and ongoing Orthodontic installments so I need to stay on top.
I’m pretty anal with our financial plans and have a very detailed system of recording everything and keeping track of it all. :/ But, I find that we can get so many extra things when we do it this way. For 2016 I’d love to fit some travel in to the budget.
My tips are to pre-pay your bills as direct debits from your bank account so the time the bill comes in the mail you’re in credit and there’s nothing to pay. I also have a big spreadsheet and allocate a monthly amount to every single expense so we know where our money is going and are never left without money.
I’m currently waiting to hear the outcome of a job interview (well, 2!) Vanessa so… I’m not quite sure yet. If I get the job and the salary’s okay my life will change a lot. I can’t even imagine what it will be like to have an okay income (not like my old full-time SO1 job in govt, but still…) and NOT have to fork out most of it onto my mortgage.
I’ve been on the dole for the past few months so anything more than I get now will be very exciting!
But yes, then I can work on a budget and start prioritising some of my ‘things I need’ and… ‘things I want!)
I’m going to try and not go overboard at Christmas… Mmmm…
Too late?
I always forget my RACQ membership renewal too! #teamIBOT
At least it’s cheap (compared to most bills).