Do you make room for you, in your budget?

Budgeting may mean saying no to some things, as its not in the budget right now… You may have to prioritising some needs over others, some wants over others.. this is all part of creating a budget.

My Hand

While creating a budget, you should prioritise your 4 walls first.

Your 4 walls are; Your housing, your utilities, your food and your transport.

Next you should look at other bills and direct debits, make sure you have allocated enough money for these.

After these categories you have your variables, the costs that can go up and down. You will decide what goes in these categories by deciding what your priorities and due dates are.

Some of these may be Sinking Funds, some may be household expenses, but either way there should be categories that are for both you and your family to use without feeling guilty.

Bowling

You need to make room in your budget for you!

In our budget I try to save about €20 a week for me to spend on whatever I want. Some weeks I spend it all, something may catch my eye or I might meet a friend for coffee. Other times I might save it up and spend it on a bigger item. Today I got my nails done, €25 well spent!

We also make room in our budget for my daughter to do horse riding lessons, my son to do GAA and support his love of software development (which can get very expensive!). We also give them pocket money, and enjoy saving for days out in the summer. My husband also uses revolut vaults, and puts personal money in one for him.

Horse

By allocating money to yourself, and also to family members, you are giving yourself a little freedom, freedom to treat yourself without it affecting your budget.

I am never going to tell you to not buy yourself a coffee, to say no to drinks with friends or to bring back the dress you love.. That’s the beauty of budgeting! You have budgeted a certain amount for you, and how you spend it is totally up to you and what is important to you!

Now myself and my family have done a no spend year. At that time, our priority was to save every extra bit of money that we could get our hands on, so that we could get the keys for our home. That was our families priority at the time, but we knew there was a time limit, as a no spend period is not sustainable long term.

Long term I believe allocating some money to spend as you wish, for everyone in your family, is going to help you and your family stick to that budget.

Think of it this way, are you better allowing yourself some personal money while keeping to your budget long term, or depriving yourself and then finding it all too restrictive.

Do you allow room in your budget for you?