What I've spent today
$100 centrelink
$172.56 Mobile Phone
$565 rent
$200 into savings
$29.40 Train fare
This weekend I was at a party and I was talking to a friend about saving, spending and budgeting (yeah I know real livewire I am, don't worry she's into Personal Finance anyway). revealed how much difficulty I'm having sticking to my budget and the smaller issue Im facing with receiving bills from my "before budget time" that I hadn't accounted for in my new budget. Anyway as I was talking about everything I realised I've been putting to much pressure on myself to be "perfect", I expected I'd be able to instantly manage my finances without any issue anymore because now I'm paying attention to them.
It sounds really juvenile now that I think about it but I can see there's a lot more to managing your personal finances then keeping a budget and reading a few blogs and online articles. Which is why I've decided this month I need to alleviate the pressure off my budget and simply track my spending to get a deeper understanding of where my money is going, yes I'm still going to work around a framework of a budget, I just wont freak out when I'm over an allotted category and decide to blow it all because I wasn't perfect.
Stats so Far
Travel Savings $801.97
Credit Card Debt $2155.10
Centrelink Debt $617
You sound a lot like me, I was starting to freak out and wonder if the whole budget thing was going to work for me and it was all because at the beginning you are trying to pay bills while putting away money for the next round, these first 2 or 3 months are definitely the hardest, but stick with it and don,t worry about being perfect. None of us are !!!!! But definitely stick with the tracking it,s your secret weapon.:)
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