Five budgeting strategies to try

You don’t have to be a maths whizz to be good at budgeting your money –ultimately it’s just addition and subtraction. Once you realise the importance of a budget, all you have to do is choose the best budgeting method suited to your goals and personality. Here’s to finding the best personal budget system for you!

The cash envelope system

Sometimes kicking it old school is the best bet – it worked for our ancestors after all. If you’ve got a safe spot and you prefer seeing your money physically sorted according to your needs, this could be a helpful budgeting method for you. Keep your day-to-day spending money in specifically allocated envelopes, setting aside money for things such as groceries, eating out and miscellaneous purchases each week. Your bills can come off your accounts and the rest is saved.

The 50/30/20 system

This clean-cut system involves splitting your salary into three categories – often used by first-time budgeters. As the name suggests, you spend 50% of your take-home income on the necessities such as bond payments, accounts, groceries and so forth. Then 30% goes to wants – AKA the fun stuff such as hobbies, new shoes and dinner with the girls. The remaining 20% goes to paying off your debts and toward actual savings.

Automatic savings

Setting up your bank account to automatically take care of all the important payments such as bills, saving and spending takes most of the stress out of the budgeting equation. Once everything is paid for and you know what you can spend, the rest is up to you.

Mobile app systems

If you’re all about living life from your phone and like knowing exactly where your money goes, this could be your ideal method. Do your research and find a reputable app that’s best for you, then link your bank account and let the algorithm do its magic. You’ll get handy reminders about what your money is spent on and you can keep tabs on what you have left. 

The multi-account system

This is ideal for strict savers who want to ensure they don’t get tempted to spend cash all willy-nilly. You can open separate accounts for each specific goal and send money to each account – for example, one for spending and one for strict saving toward an emergency fund that won’t be touched or considered for spending.

You might think budgeting is unobtainable and restrictive but budgeting actually takes away the stress of managing money, allowing you to plan your expenses and then be free – all while helping you to reach a goal. Winning!