Nothing about budgeting gets us excited either but we can all admit it is a handy skill to have.

Learning how to budget helps you manage your money so you can make sure you have enough to get you by between paychecks while also putting away some for that car, holiday or anything exxy really.

What is a budget?

A budget is a money plan. You list how much money comes in and how much money goes out. If you do it properly, there’s some left over to go into your ‘live your best life’ fund.

Okay so how do I budget?

Everyone does their budget differently but it’s as simple as:

Money in – Money out = surplus

The basic steps to build your budget

1. What is your ‘Money in’?

Calculate what your get paid after tax (you can find this out in your pay slip). If it’s different from pay to pay, grab some of your old pay slips and work out the average.

Once you know how much money is coming in each pay cycle, this becomes your ‘Money in’ figure. If you have side hustles or government payments, make sure you include that in your total ‘Money in’ figure.

2. What is your ‘Money out’?

This one is a little more complicated to figure out! Your ‘Money out’ is everything you spend like food, Myki, rent and yes, even those Afterpay payments.

The best way to see what you are spending is by pulling up your transactions through Internet Banking and going through and tallying what you always have to spend money on every pay cycle.

This becomes your ‘Money out’ figure.

3. What’s left behind?

This is the easy bit. Take the ‘Money out’ figure away from the ‘Money in’ figure.

I have money left over!

If you have money left over, this is what you can put aside for whatever you want. It adds into your savings!

What if I have nothing left behind?

If you have larger ‘Money out’ figure than ‘Money if’ figure, then it’s time to start looking closely at the ‘Money outs’ and figuring out what is an absolute necessity (need) and what is a splurge that doesn’t need to be bought in that pay cycle (want).

Everyone’s needs and wants are different so don’t feel like you have to fit into someone else’s version of needs and wants. This is all about YOU and what you need and what you want.

You might be thinking ‘this budget thing is too simple, there has to be more to it’. What you’re doing is starting with the basics and you can build on it.

The best thing about budgeting is you can always revisit it and make it better. Start with the basics and get better and better the more you do it!

You might surprise yourself. Budgeting might just become a ‘fun’ part of your life! Especially as you watch your ‘live your best life’ bucket grow.