Planning your income and expenses makes it easy to know if youâre getting in debt or if you can save for the future.
Advantages
- learn how to manage your money and know where it goes
- avoid always being short of cash
- have money on hand when you need some
- avoid making financial faux pas when you grow up and when youâll have more money and bigger bills to manage
- put money aside every month for other projects
Drawbacks
- Keeping a budget is not much fun. But if you choose a simple method that suits you, you could learn to like it!
The inconveniences of not having a budget outweigh the drawbacks of drawing one up.
Did you know?
Ideally, you should set aside 5 to 10% of your monthly income. The secret of success? Budget your savings amount like you do expenses!
Budgeting tools
Calculator
- Draw up your budget using the tool weâve developed for you.
Box
- Each time you spend money, keep the receipt or bill in a box.
- If you didnât get one, write the purchase amount on a piece of paper and put it in the box.
- Put in your pay slip or write on a piece of paper the amount received as a gift or allowance (your income).
- At the end of the week (or month), add your expenses. Did you spend more then you earned? Oops!
- The next step: Sort your expenses by category (outings, restaurant, movies, clothing, etc.). Itâll be easier to determine which expenses to cut.
Notebook
- Enter your dayâs expenses in a notebook when you get home.
- By entering each amount spent in a category (restaurant, movies, clothing, etc.), youâll know exactly where you spend the most and where you can cut to save more.
- Remember to also enter your earnings (babysitting, gift from grandmother, allowance, etc.).
- Deduct your expenses from your income to know if youâre managing your money effectively. If the total is negative (in the red), you have 2 solutions:
- spend less
- earn more money
Cell phone
- There are even applications that help you keep track of your income and expenses, (e.g., on the iPhone).