One of the wisest money habits you can adopt in 2024 is budgeting. It has saved me so much in the last year and I feel the need to rave about it.

I have found that nothing will expose you to the reality of your financial situation more than seeing your incoming and outgoings as well as what you spend on.

Budgets reveal your habits, how you spend your money,what you consider important and other areas you really need to be paying more attention to. They reveal areas in your life you need to be disciplined in.

They are not constant and those who have ever attempted budgeting consistently will know that they change almost monthly to reflect one’s actual spending.

It’s the perfect way to take stock of your life(financially) and account for every penny earned and if you are observant, it will help you to make some life transforming changes to your finances.

There is the common zero based-budget which is what I use and there are other popular ones like the 50-30-20 to represent needs,wants and savings, investments and the 70-20-10 to represent living costs,debt repayments and savings.

One of the benefits of budgeting is you being able to tell your money what to do ahead of time and that becoming your guide or the thing that disciplines you into not overspending.

This is obviously so much better and wiser than allowing life to take its course and feeling pressured to spend on unplanned things.

Budgeting has made me aware of how much I spend monthly now most importantly, whereas about 2 years ago,I only had a vague idea of how much my incoming(s) and outgoings were.

It’s made me aware of how much I need to bring in each month and how much I will allow myself to spend with my financial goals in mind.

Its helped me tackle debt and relieve myself of the unnecessary and blind commitment to wasteful and unused subscriptions.

Its helped me prioritise certain things like my child and parents when I never realised that I wasn’t paying enough attention to them financially. I have realised pouring into loved ones financially matters as much as loving them with words and that’s a value or practise I would like to continue.

It has also improved my finances and helped me improve my finance although I can do much better if I continue with the habit of budgeting.

Don’t ask if I will continue because I plan to.

There are several free downloadable spreadsheets from money and finance bloggers on IG and TIKTOK. I use Laura Ann Moore’s budget planner. Of course, you can use other formats other than spreadsheets if you are not familiar.

Just find what works for you and stick to it.

Anyways the TLDR is that; budgeting is brilliant and will help you with your financial woes and goals if you are consistent with it so practise it all year.

Will you be budgeting this year after this lengthy unsolicited praise of budgeting? Let me know how you get on.

All the best!