The Biggest Mistakes People Make When Budgeting

All you have to do is make a plan for where you want your money to go and then stick to it.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

But you can easily make these budgeting mistakes when you start making a budget.

Don’t make these mistakes when starting your budgeting process!

I spoke about this topic on my Savings Segment on Fox TV. Watch the Replay here:

Unplanned expenses always pop up, plus you could be a family that experiences some irregular income.

But you can get ahead of the game with these easy budget planning ideas.

Even if you’ve been budgeting for a while, you can easily learn new tricks to stay on top of your budget.

And with these budgeting for beginner’s tips, you’ll start your budget with a clear game plan.

Here are some mistakes I’ve found when helping people create (and stick to) their budgets so you can be ahead of the curve and not make them also.

You’ve Gotta Be Realistic

One of the biggest budgeting mistakes that people make in the budgeting process is that they aren’t realistic when creating their budget categories.

And then, how can you know how much you should spend on each category?

That means you need to start with what you are currently spending.

Then, decide how much you should be spending, and figure out how to make those two numbers match.

You Can’t Ignore Your Bank Balance

One of the downfalls of even the most successful budget is thinking you have more money to spend than you actually have.

You may have a significant number in your bank account today, but after the bills are paid, you might not have that much leftover.

There are so many applications out there to help you track your spending; even most bank applications can do this for you. This will help you keep tabs on how much you’re spending as well as what you are spending your money on.

If your bank doesn’t offer this feature, then look into one of the many apps out there to help you with the budgeting process by tracking your spending. Mint, You Need a Budget, and Personal Capital are all great apps to use for tracking your spending and staying on budget.

Make Sure Your Spending Is In Line With Your Budget

Your budget is something you should revisit on a regular basis. I look at ours weekly… sometimes even daily… but that’s because I am a numbers geek and I love checking and rechecking that our money is doing what I thought it is doing. Remember, I’m an accountant by trade, so bean-counting is “fun” for me!.

Checking your bank account to watch that what expenses you thought were going to leave your bank account and comparing them to what actually left your bank account will not only help make sure you are never spending more than your budget but will also make sure that your transactions go into the right category.

Within the budgeting process, when too many things fall into the miscellaneous or uncategorized section, you can lose track of your budget and your spending with these budgeting mistakes!

Take five or ten minutes each week (or daily if you need to) to make sure your budget is moving along on the track you predicted. These budgeting for beginner’s tips can help you stay on track.

This is when the “making your money go where you told it to go” part kicks in. It needs to go into the correct categories so you know where you are overspending, or where you are NOT overspending and have more wiggle room!

Get Honest With Your Habits

If you are currently spending over $800 on eating out, it’s unrealistic to think you’ll be able to cut it out of your budget entirely right away without changing anything else.

If you’re eating out budget needs to disappear, you may need to adjust your grocery budget and include a few convenience foods (aka frozen pizza) to fall back on for busy nights.

You’ve got to get honest in the budgeting process with where you are spending and identify the correct categories where that spending falls.

For example, it feels better to say, we spend $1,000 a month on groceries, when in reality $200 is being spent on groceries and $800 is eating out at restaurants. By identifying why you are eating out so much (for my family it was because we were on the run to sporting events almost every night of the week) you can then plan for how to feed your family for less by either saving money when eating out or making easy meals and packing them to go with you.

Take a look at your spending habits and use those patterns to build your budget. While it is okay to make changes and try to spend less overall, it’s not okay to alter your spending into something unrealistic and therefore unattainable. Use these budget planning ideas to make your budget doable – and not so frustrating so that you are destined to fail.

Tracking Your Spending Won’t Replace A Good Budget

There is a HUGE difference between tracking what you’ve already spent and then deciding what you want your money to do before the spending happens.

This was a big problem I didn’t realize was happening to our family budget.

Each month we kept looking at our budget and wondering why we were missing the mark.

It wasn’t for lack of time spent on the analysis (remember, I love counting those pennies), it was because we were not adequately identifying how to spend our money before it was being spent. It was one of the biggest budgeting mistakes I kept making until I realized the problem.

Why?

Because we needed to break down the $200 into $50 per week, THEN we had to look at when we were going to the gas station and realize that a fill-up cost $60 (at the time). If we are filling up once a week, we are automatically going to overspend our budget! The gas costs more than we are budgeting.

So we either had to take the $40 from another category in our budget or figure out ways to drive less so we’d spend less on gas (we realized we were running kids everywhere without being strategic for where we were driving).

Tracking your spending will not keep you from spending all your money, and it will not prevent you from overspending. It can’t because it’s in the past!

Being aware of your spending habits can help you gain control of your finances, but it will not replace a good budget. You still need to identify how much you want to spend in each category, and then review it to figure out why you spent as you did.

Find A System That Works For Your Family

It doesn’t matter if you’re using an online budget, a piece of paper, or a spreadsheet.

You need to find a system that will work well for you and your family. Find a system that works, and stick with it!

It’s okay to try new methods every once and a while, but you should use a system that will be a good fit for your family and your needs.

Sticking to your budget can be one of the most challenging parts of the budgeting process.

But you can get ahead of the game with these easy budget planning ideas.

Even if you’ve been budgeting for a while, you can easily learn new tricks to stay on top of your budget.

And with these budgeting for beginner’s tips, you’ll start your budget with a clear game plan.

If you follow these tips, you’ll avoid one of the biggest mistakes people make when budgeting, and keep yourself from going over budget.

YOUR TURN: Have you created a plan for how you will spend your money? Do you use an app not mentioned here? Let me know in the comments below!

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