How to Find More Money in Your Budget

I try sharing my story to remind readers that there is a way out that with hard work dedication determination motivation it's all about having a plan for your money and that's what gives you the truth people holy crap it just changed my life we're like oh man you go work no more credit card debt today we're going to be talking all about budgeting and what you need to do as far as the budgeting process to get ahead on your financial goals maybe you want to pay off a little bit more of your debt every month or have a little more to save with your income so I'm gonna show you that process here in just a second using my budget by paycheck workbook and this month because the process and the method is gonna be the same no matter what income you have what debt you have or what savings goals you have it's a matter of customizing those steps in that process so it works for you here's the thing before we get on to that though there's a couple of things I want to mention if you are the person out there who is saying I don't have enough income at the end of the month to make a heavy debt payment or to make any real progress on my financial goals I really feel like I don't have enough income to do that I live paycheck to paycheck there are you only have so many options your options are one you can decrease your cost your spending or expenses option number two you can increase your income because right now as of today as we're sitting here you are bound by your income limit but that doesn't mean that you're restricted to your your earning potential so anyone has the ability to go out there and earn extra money it's a matter of how much do you want to change your current lifestyle your living situation because going out and getting more income getting a second job all of that is going to have some changes it's gonna make some changes in your life for me one of the things that I did in the very beginning I did a couple of different things um one of those things was learning how to do photography and that's something that I did on the side I got very lucky I ended up having a friend who was in real estate who got me into some real estate photography it wasn't a lot it was like an extra $250 a month but it took time out of my life to learn how to do photography it took time away from my son on the weekends when I was out shooting houses and so it's going to be a change if you decide to use the income route but that doesn't like I said it doesn't mean that you are restricted or bound by your earning potential you're just restricted as of right now with the income that you have so you have to make a decision right now are you going to choose the cutting expenses or are you going to choose getting going out and getting more income now one has significant and more I would say how do I wear this when you choose to get out to choose to do more income you have a lot more opportunity on this side than you do with cutting expenses because you can only cut your expenses so far I mean you still have to have the necessities food shelter clothing those things you need to have so you can only cut your cost and your spending so far so that's what you really need to start thinking about if you are the type of person who's saying I don't have any money left over after paying my bills now today I'm going to show you how to find the hidden dollars in your existing income and budget that you didn't know you had and of course the first step is always tracking your spending tracking your spending is the number one thing you need to do if you decide to choose to cut your spending or your cost without full awareness of where every dollar is going you cannot start making those changes to cut your spending it's just plain flat it's simple it just like that you just you have to do it not only that tracking your spending it also has some changes in your life it's gonna take time for you to do it and make it a habit I do mine every single day I track my spending every single day in fact if I don't do it I feel like I'm forgetting something it's like one of those things where you're walking around you're like feel like I'm forgetting something today but I don't know what it is that's how I feel when I don't track my expenses because I've been doing it for the last eight years every single day but I'm gonna show you very quickly what this looks like in the budget binder so if you are the person out there wondering how to make better progress on your financial goals this is gonna be it so let me quickly show you my budget by paycheck workbook okay so the first step that you need to take with any budgeting program method or process is tracking your spending I don't care what the financial experts out there tell you if you're skipping this step you're not going to be successful with your budget plain and simple oh man it's so important but if you are choosing to cut cost now this is how I'm going to show you how to find the dollars you didn't know you had and what I mean by that is cutting out careless or mindless spending okay those are dollars that are being spent on things that just are kind of like oh where did my money go this month and you're gonna use that money now for your financial goals this is what you need to do to track your expenses okay you need to track every dollar I don't care if your numbers match at the end of the month I don't care what you're tracking you need to be tracking anywhere there's money movement movement if you're using a credit card you need to be tracking that spending if you're using your checking account you need to be tracking that spending if you're using cash you need to be tracking that spending every dollar that you spend now when you are thinking about cutting cost or finding the dollars you didn't know you had income plays a role some what do you need to track overall the income that you make every month to start cutting costs no but you should it does you know every time you receive some income write it down but when you are tracking after you track every single dollar you are going to be aware okay when especially if you do it for a couple of months now I do suggest tracking your spending for more than a month if you do that it's gonna be very put in your face if you're gonna have one of those aha moments like oh my gosh I'm spending how much getting food every month or I'm spending how much I'm getting close okay having those aha moments is the first step but once you have your your expenses and spending track like this you can create what I like to call an expense list or a bill list very quickly I can show you here is my bill list or expense list these are all the bills that I have to pay every single month that's the first step identify your regular bills because once you do that it start it's time to start going through these line-by-line now when I first started and I literally had didn't have any money for groceries leftover at the end of paying my bills I didn't have enough groceries I didn't have enough sometimes to make an extra debt payment what I did was I went through all of my regular bills first and I asked myself this question so rent do I need it and is there a way or possible way to decrease it no rent is rent I have to pay that car wash subscription regular bill do I need it absolutely not get rid of it there's $22 in your budget right there AT&T do I need my phone yes is there a way to decrease it possibly I would call AT&T at this time and say hey I'm having a hard time making my payment every month is there a way or a program for a cheaper monthly payment figure out your options do investigative work start making phone calls so maybe they can decrease your plan a little bit with some options you didn't know that we're available to you that might free up some money in your budget Hulu do I need it absolutely not cut it out same with Spotify do I need to be making these house savings these automatic monthly savings no I don't cut it out dental insurance I need a Vista is there do I need my electricity and water yes but is there a way I can decrease it absolutely there are things in your everyday life that you can make a habit to decrease your energy usage how many times are you washing clothes what are you doing with the water when you're washing the dishes start doing research on how to your energy costs Netflix do I need it no life insurance I'm is that a need at this time if I'm struggling to make ends meet it is not daycare need it for my son car insurance do I need it yes is there more a way that I can decrease this or save this yes I would call my insurance provider tell them the same thing I'm having a hard time making my monthly payment is there another option that would work for me that won't cost me as much do you see how I'm going through these first start decreasing the bills you feel you have to pay every month next thing that you need to do is you need to identify your variable spending food fun purchases clothing every time you make a trip to the coffee shop coffee shop runs get rid of them look at how many times you're eating out every month can you make a better effort to eat at home in the food you already have start cutting costs now when you're decreasing your variable spending like your food your fun that type of stuff don't decrease it so to a point where you're gonna fail every month you don't want to be it so restrictive we're budgeting then becomes absolutely impossible maybe cut your food spending by $50 if you're spending $100 on getting coffee well for me I would just cut that out altogether but if you feel like it's a habit and it's gonna be hard to cut out of your budget maybe get that down to okay I'm gonna make it a goal twice a month I can go to the coffee store being aware of the things that you can change with your spending is the key and you can't do that until you know where your money is going so that is how you are going to you're gonna track your expenses like this you're then going to make a bill list that looks like this and then you're going to after your bills are tracked and you have that bill or expense made and you can start going and cutting cop cutting costs on those then it's identifying that variable spending now if you are barely making ends meet start from a blank slate and what I mean by that take care of your monthly debt payments that's it don't worry about saving don't worry about anything else if you at the end of the month are having a hard time putting food on the table for your family you take care of what you need to and then once you start seeing signs of success with this cutting it cost and you start saying hey I'm noticing some extra dollars at the end of the month now now that I've cut my spending then you decide what is the best option for you to do with those new-found dollars is it saving is it putting more towards debt but start with bare bones first so that is really the three things key things that I would do if you were feeling like you are you'd like you don't have enough money and for me this is where I would start because I'll tell you right now going out and finding extra ways to make extra income getting a second job taking time away from your family taking more time out of your busy schedule to go and do that is a lot harder than working with what you already have this is what you have tackle this first and then if you have literally cut all costs and spending that you possibly can then you start looking at other ways to increase your income and to subscribe you

Channel: THE BUDGET MOM

Views: 20,736

Rating: 4.9591374 out of 5

Keywords: budget, budgeting, paycheck budget, expenses, expense tracker, income, extra income, save, saving, save money, debt, pay off debt, bills, personal finance, money, frugal, frugal mom, thebudgetmom, the budget mom, dave ramsey, cash envelopes, cash envelope method, cash envelope

Id: LkOmUMCLzJc

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2019