There are so many people that sit down at the beginning of each month and write out a budget. Then they go on about their lives and wonder why they run out of money mid-month. This can be very frustrating for many people. They think that because they have written everything down that it should work. The problem is that they haven’t committed to living the budget. Here are the five things you can do to commit to living the budget.
1) When you finish the budget you should sign it. This may seem silly, but it symbolizes your commit to following through. Although this will not make a big difference to some people, a few will take the budget much more seriously. If this doesn’t work for you, you can commit to your spouse that you will stick the budget.
2) Switch to cash only for everything but your bills. You should pay cash for groceries, gas, clothing, and fun money. This will help you to stop overspending. It can also make sticking to your budget so much easier. You just need to decide how much cash to keep back during each paycheck.
3) You need to sit down at least twice a week to go over what you have spent in each category. At the same time you can balance your checkbook. These meetings will only take a few minutes and help you to stay on budget. They will actually relieve your stress and worry when it comes to money.
4) You can adjust the budget categories as needed throughout the month. The key is to not spend more than you make, so if you overspend in groceries you can cut back on your gas or on your fun money to cover the difference.
5) If you need a little motivation to stay on track then you can set aside fifty dollars in your budget. This money can be used at the end of the month to do something fun with. However, this money will be assigned to cover mistakes if you over spend, so you will not be able to use it at the end of the month if you are not disciplined.
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