Now that the lockdown is easing, we all have hidden pressure to go out and enjoy ourselves, which leads to more expenditure. However, if you follow this simple guide, you can ‘Make Saving Simple’, keep yourself in the black, and switch careful planning you can afford those guilty pleasures that we all long for.
The hated word in any discussion is ‘budget’, it normally causes more rows in a family circumstance than any other as you are talking about money and money is a limited resource. However, if you implement a simple budget you will be surprised at how quickly (even from small amounts) your savings will develop.
Remember putting a budget is not about stopping you spending, it is about making you realise what you spend on, and then by looking at this expenditure you can decide what is important and what you can adjust to make a saving (if possible); or even, if you need to get help.
I have created a simple spreadsheet for those who have access to Microsoft Excel, and I also have created a PDF so that those who do not have excel can download the four sheets of paper and fill them in that way.
The four sheets are:
- Summary
- Needs
- Debts-Savings
- Wants
If you are using Excel, all you have to do is fill in the Needs / Debts-Savings / Wants sheets and the totals will automatically complete the Summary Sheet. Then you will need to fill in your earnings figure.
If you are using the PDF sheets, you will have to fill each item in yourself, then use a calculator to get your totals on each sheet, then manually fill in the Summary Sheet and total the figures in the first section, and then fill in your earnings in the second section.
Once you have completed this then subtract your expenditure in box 1 from your earnings in box 2 – if you end up with a minus figure, then you will need to go back to box one and see what (if anything ) you can adjust so that you end up with a positive figure.
“When your income is £20 and spending is £19.98, the result is happiness. When your income is £20 and spending is £20.02, the result is misery.”
Downloads:
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Why is it that public institutions seem to be able to waste money by defending cases for years and preventing them going to court until the last minute? Isn’t it time we had a yearly review of every case which is currently with, or has been settled for these institutions like for example the various police forces and NHS Trusts, we need to understand how much money has been used to defend these cases both in terms of legal costs and also in terms of staff time, and in the final analysis also for any settlement costs.