Write about your approach to budgeting.
Lists. I make lists for everything. From the basic to the luxury items. As a couple we decide what constitutes a ‘want’ and what can be pushed to a ‘luxury’ category. And I have lists for everything. Basic grocery, basic cleaning supply, basic home stuff, school stuff, wires cables, plants, fertiliser, pet food, kids treats, birthday gifts, gifts for others for events.
When there are disagreements, in categorisations, then I save up to purchase the items. So these items then are not budgeted for, they are in the ‘spoil yourself’ category- like a reward. These items are rare and really valued. For most other items I prefer to get the stuff I want at sales, and discount days.
My categories include: the basic grocery (kitchen/laundry/washing/cleaning)
The basic school (books/stationary/bags/devices/uniforms/shoes/fees/events/trips/camps)
The basic home wear(inner wear/jackets/tracks/tees/socks/footwear)
Extracurricular sports(football accessories/basketball/athletics/other interests)
Going out (trousers/shirts/shoes/accessories)
Home setup(couch/tables/chairs/study-room/ electronics for home/ beds/mattresses/sheets/duvets)
Miscellaneous (spare bulbs/iron-box/iron-table/ac maintenance/ cleaners/ car wash/ deliveries/ subscriptions)
These are the expenses I keep a track of, I have a rough idea of what these are every month if every year. This budget becomes crazy in the month of May, but seems awesome in February and in March it’s touch and go. The miscellaneous list fluctuates, sometimes I need to get a particular kind of fixture that is a bit beyond my budget. Sometimes I replace it with something cheaper. But the only issue comes up with the annual maintenance costs for electronics or home appliances. These work well for the first four years and then things go crazy, and replacing a motor here or a condenser there kicks the budget to the kerb. But the lists above work really well to accommodate most common expenses.
The siphoning off works well when you use cash for transacting purchases. Usually, what happens is that some months, I have guests staying for a longer duration, more mouths means more food means more expense. And as an alternate, the following month, this will drop when it’s just us. So the food and grocery carries over and I spend less and this ensures that there is some savings. Typically this amount may not be a big amount and over the course of a year kind of balances out. But when I am looking at the splurge list, every penny from this savings works in my favour.
Splurge or ‘I earned it’ or ‘this is my reward’ purchases are few and far between. Typically this ends up being a device or gadget that we upgrade or replace. These are never in the budget. These are sponsored, from the amounts I may have siphoned off from the monthly expenses. Or from a reward amount or some investment that matured.
The splurge list includes nonsensical items, that the kids may have wanted, but because it’s in the splurge list, odds are they outgrow the want before I have the funds to foot the bill. Again a plus in my favour. This list definitely includes books, all of us read a lot, so books are an expensive habit, that we nurture with the money we’ve saved. Devices, subscriptions to services, holidays, staycations, eating out at expensive restaurants, movies in theatre- reclining seats all fall in this category. Every weekend cannot be a ‘steak’ night out. But once in a couple of months, we try to do the family night & go all out.
I started my married life having no clue of budgets, or how to function as a family on my own. One of the first lessons I was taught by my oldest sibling, was to live on a specified amount every month. And this amount had to account for all my expenses including sanitary pads and bath soaps. The first couple of months were a disaster- if I got the pads, I could not afford the soap or the shampoo and if I got these, then I could not travel anywhere. It was crazy frustrating, but once I figured out how to accommodate what I needed with what I got, it got progressively easy.
But this was just for me, and it got slightly confusing when I had to do this for two people. So post marriage, we did a couple of months of madness, then got into the groove of living at the limit. It’s been more than a couple of decades and we’ve figured out some crazy rhythm of budgeting that’s helped us. If you are super disciplined then budgeting becomes easy, but if you like to live life on the edge like I do, then get to the task of siphoning off some for that rainy day treats that lift your spirits but dip your budgets.
Just a little more 