{"id":4311,"date":"2023-02-16T09:28:31","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T09:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/?p=4311"},"modified":"2024-07-30T08:04:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T08:04:02","slug":"how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a Budget You&#8217;ll Stick To"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Kareena, a young 30 something woman recently joined as the head designer in a fashion designing company. Even after getting a large pay hike, she still was frequently worried about not being able to save much from her salary at the end of the month.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Well, in order to save enough by the end of the month, all you have to do is <a href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/how-to-set-a-monthly-budget-manage-expenses\/\">set budget<\/a>, budget and budget. And NO, you don\u2019t have to be a financial expert to do so! Just by spending 2-4 hours at the beginning of every month can help you manage your money for the entire month. By creating a monthly budget, you can calculate monthly expenses, especially that go towards bills, EMIs, rent etc, cut them down and manage them. It will also help you discipline savings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">To create a <strong>budget<\/strong>, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_75 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#1_Identify_your_income\" >1. Identify your income:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#2_List_your_expenses\" >2. List your expenses:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#3_Set_goals\" >3. Set goals:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#4_Separate_needs_and_wants\" >4. Separate needs and wants:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#5_Design_your_budget_with_the_50_30_20_Rule_of_Budgeting\" >5. Design your budget with the 50:30:20 Rule of Budgeting:&nbsp;<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#6_Put_your_plan_to_action_and_stick_to_it\" >6. Put your plan to action and stick to it:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/#7_Review_your_plan_regularly\" >7. Review your plan regularly:<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Identify_your_income\"><\/span><strong>1. Identify your income: <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Budgeting starts with your income. This is generated via your job if you work somewhere, if you own a business, take up side gigs, freelancing, and so on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_List_your_expenses\"><\/span><strong>2. List your expenses: <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Make a list of all expenses you need for the entire month, which includes- necessities like bills, EMIs, rent, groceries etc. and other essentials like investments, insurance, emergency fund etc.. Also list down expenses needed towards subscriptions, shopping, dining out or ordering in and seasonal expenses like any festival (eg: Diwali) or someone\u2019s birthday and any other expenses you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_Set_goals\"><\/span><strong>3. Set goals: <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Before you allocate your budgets to different things, it is important for you to set realistic goals. Start by identifying your short term and long term goals, which can be buying a car or traveling to your dream destination and set a time limit by when you want to achieve this like 1 year or 2 years and the amount required for example, 7 lakhs. This will help you understand how much money you need to save and invest each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_Separate_needs_and_wants\"><\/span><strong>4. Separate needs and wants: <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Once you have listed down your expenses, it is time to separate them based on needs and wants. Your bills, EMIs, rent, groceries, investments, etc. will come under needs whereas your subscriptions, shopping, dining out etc will come under wants. Now it is very crucial to understand the difference between the two. A need is a necessity, whereas a want is something that improves your quality of living. By listing these down, you can consider shifting something from your \u201cwants\u201d list maybe to the next month if you do not have the budget or are planning on cutting down on your subscriptions or shopping sprees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_Design_your_budget_with_the_50_30_20_Rule_of_Budgeting\"><\/span><strong>5. Design your budget with the 50:30:20 Rule of Budgeting:&nbsp;<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">&#8211; 50% of your income should go towards bills, utilities, rent etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">&#8211; 30% towards shopping, outings, splurges etc. This is your fun fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">&#8211; 20% towards your savings and investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"6_Put_your_plan_to_action_and_stick_to_it\"><\/span><strong>6. Put your plan to action and stick to it: <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Start executing your plan and make sure you stick to it, in order to achieve your monthly targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#ed147f\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"7_Review_your_plan_regularly\"><\/span><strong>7. Review your plan regularly: <\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color\">Now, we understand that there may be some emergency or sudden expenditure for a repair or maybe someone\u2019s last minute planned birthday, for which you might end up spending some money.\u00a0 Whatever the reason is, make a note of it so that you can adjust this by reducing your expenses somewhere else, or adjust it on your upcoming months budget sheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"976\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Monthly-Budget-Planner.jpg\" alt=\"Monthly Budget Planner\" class=\"wp-image-7171\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kareena, a young 30 something woman recently joined as the head designer in a fashion designing company. Even after getting a large pay hike, she still was frequently worried about not being able to save much from her salary at the end of the month.&nbsp; Well, in order to save enough by the end of <a href=\"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/how-to-create-a-budget-youll-stick-to\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  How to Create a Budget You&#8217;ll Stick To<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[656,667,655],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budgeting","category-money-hacks","category-saving"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4311"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7585,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions\/7585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lxme.in\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}