Topic: Trusting your budget in times like this. - page 7. (Read 1556 times)

As you mentioned, with the way the economy and inflation are today, it’s hard to stick to a budget even if you plan carefully. Try to prioritize your immediate needs and cut out any bad spending habits. It’s also helpful to keep an eye on necessities you use regularly and buy them in bulk when they’re on sale to save money over time. Having multiple sources of income can also alleviate the pressure on your budget. Maybe consider freelancing or looking into starting a small business.

You can start by staying positive and reviewing your spending and habits.
I don't know which country you are in, but right now, inflation and income inequality are happening all over the world.
The best things you can do for yourself are to aim to earn a good income. To quit your bad habits.
To think about your economy holistically. Make deductions and organize your economy, and observe your spending in between.

I wish you good luck.

It all depends on each person's basic needs which are sometimes uncertain. For example, every week you allocate a list of needs with a limited amount, then you must follow the benchmark. Regardless of the uncertain price, at least the price range per week can still be the same as the previous week. If possible, the expenses in that week can be used for the following week. I understand that the economic cycle of each country is different, the price and basic goods depend on suppliers who often hoard goods.

Having a budget is very essential but the economy situation of the country makes it look as if the budget is not working. I could remember going to the market recently to get groceries with a budget but ended up spending more because of hike of product price and cost of production.

I think someone can have a successful budget if he sets out plan on how much to save and spend based utilities and bills. At some point, multiple source of income will boost your budget and been disciplined crowns it all.

Sometimes, the issue isn’t your budgeting; it’s your income. You need to focus on boosting what you earn. If you’re only depending on your job, think about ways to start earning on the side, like starting a small business for some extra monthly income. The reality is, if you’re in a country where salaries don’t cover a comfortable life like sending your kids to good schools or accessing top health care, it’s time to get creative. Expand your thinking because that’s where you’ll start to see new opportunities.

The cost of living in most countries are getting higher everyday therefore salaries are never enough. In my country the item that you buy today for a certain amount, you shouldn't expect to buy the same thing at the same amount in the next week. Inflation rates are drastically increasing and everybody with responsibilities needs to have plan b inorder to survive. Complaining about harsh economy doesn't help anybody, so finding solutions on not being broke and in dept is a necessity.

If you fall into the category of people who's incomes are never enough for them despite how they tried to cut cost and manage, then you seriously need that plan b. Get a better paying job or get a second job because the goal is to increase your earnings. You can learn a skill and be using it to earn money to augment your salary. Find services that are in demand and learn the skills so you can earn extra money to support your income. Remember that it's very important to try and survive bellow your income, even if you're rich and spend according to how you earn, you might end up poor.

I don't think you are the only one who does that because sticking to a budget will sometimes not going to be easy on someone not because they spend unnecessarily but because cost of living varies and you cannot use because of the budget you set  and stop attending to your family needs, let's take for instance your salary is $1k and out of this total money you brought $600 for family consumption and leaving $400 for your save and it happens that base on how prices changed the $600 could not served the month, you cannot say that touching the savings will be a bad thing, so for those who their economical system are something to be concerned about are those who can hardly set this kind of budget we are talking about.

Like you have savings and make budget but inflation makes the budget not work as you will spend more as the price of goods and services are increasing. In my country, as inflation increases, the price of dollar increases, but our government discouraged us from domiciliary account so I prefer to hold some USD-backed stable coins. It is risky but it is worth it. Not only that, for long term, I prefer to buy bitcoin at low price and hold it. I also prefer tokenized asset that are gold-backed now. Gold-backed and fiat-backed assets are risky because they can depeg. It is good to know the risks that are associated with them.

But is immigration to developed countries like Germany, Australia...as easy as you say? I think a lot of people in countries with double digit inflation rates want to leave their country and go to a more promising land, I believe everyone has thought of that idea. But not everyone has the opportunity because as far as I know, if you want to go abroad to work, it costs a lot of money, even illegal immigration costs a lot of your money, not to mention legal immigration. This is a solution but not for everyone.

When it comes to solutions, most people will give advice like finding extra income or taking high-paying jobs. But is everything as easy as we say? We advise others to do this and that to improve their financial situation, but have we succeeded and helped someone around us? Things are not as easy as we think, there are many solutions but they need to be suitable for each person and each situation.

Managing financial management is very necessary so that expenses do not exceed income. The first step you have to do is create a realistic financial budget and adjust it to your daily or monthly needs. You also need to prioritize needs over wants, then determine the goals you want to achieve in the future. Immediately invest unused or cold money to avoid excessive spending, this can be done gradually and then periodically evaluate the results of financial management, you will enjoy the results after being able to manage financial management well.
 

The easiest way is to work out what your bills are, add 10% to that sum & then you can spend whatever remains from your salary on things you enjoy. It’s probably a good idea to have an emergency fund too.

It's no longer how to be a good budgeting person but on how many sources of income we have to attain the cost of living that we have. We might be living below our means but sometimes, it's not really enough to cover all of the cost from the bills, food, rent, gas, etc. And that's why even how good you are in budgeting but the cost keeps on rising and there's no way that most of them are going to decrease in the future. So with that, the one best solution is to make more money. More hustles, more investments, assets and businesses that will generate more income to keep up with the fight of inflation. I think that there's no other solution unless you're really into budgeting and you will be able to sacrifice other important means of your bills but most of us won't be able to do that.

It's really very hard to manage our budget, specially if your salary and is not that big or enough for you family. However, the way I do it, is that I literally write down in a notepad the bills that I have to pay in a given month, like credit cards (yeah, it's killing me), then everything else like internet, electricity and water bills.

And then what's left, me and my wife work it out on how we gonna budget for a week. Although I'm into crypto and see I step aside as well some money to continue my accumulate and then if everything else fail, I just a small portion from my crypto saving.

Sometimes we think that we have spent more than the budget and consider it a waste, but it could be that when making a budget we made a mistake in setting or not taking into account the increase in food prices or other things that are routine and mandatory for us to spend, so going back to setting a budget and sometimes records what we spend enough to help evaluate whether our budget is right and when we exceed it we are wasteful or we made the wrong budget.

Usually we make a budget based on income, pay close attention, it could be that our income is no longer sufficient so we need to find additional income so that we will not be stressed because we always spend more than what has been budgeted and need to create other funds and this is like a reserve budget that we can use when the main budget has passed.

But actually the theory is always easy, what is difficult is being disciplined in managing money, what is not important, we should be able to reduce spending.

I make budgets all the time. I make an emergency budget, a monthly expenses budget, an investment budget, a dooms day budget… one can create a budget for almost any situation. The main problem is, do you have the cash flow? Unless you have a decent cash flow, you can’t make a budget for anything and a decent cash flow comes with a decent job or business. Usually owning a business is much more rewarding than having a white collar job btw. If you don’t have that kind of income you should focus on that problem first. It makes a whole lot of difference to have $10k monthly income than having only $3k.

It is difficult to manage a budget, especially within an unpredictable economy where prices of staples can suddenly increase. What works for me personally has been building a more flexible budget that takes not just projected income into account but also unexpected expenses, placing room for wiggles on items like groceries or gas prices, which never quite seem to stay put.

Though inflation does indeed appear to be cooling in some regions, the instability certainly is a reality that continues with high costs for housing and services, for example, In Indonesia inflation rates have experienced a few ups and downs in recent years, sometimes spoiling even the best laid budgets. Just this year, inflation has actually been kept in check-staying at about 3%-but rising prices of everyday goods still make it tricky to stay on track. And so, living in a country where inflation is still a very relevant concern, it would seem as though, no matter how much you plan, you will overspend sometimes. What has helped me is updating my budget more frequently and setting aside extra money for months where prices spike. Doesn't work perfectly, but that little cushion goes a long way in an economy that's so unpredictable.

I totally concur. Containment of one's budget becomes difficult. More so when price of things Keep going up and up. No matter how much advance preparation I can do, But an unexpected rise in cost or surprise bill can undo everything.

What I have been trying to do the last little while This has been to inject some flexibility into my budget. For instance, I give myself a 'buffer' category for specific price or cost surprises. This helps me worry less when the grocery bill or other essentials fall short. Suddenly spike Another way that helps is to track more expenses. Sometimes just seeing where money is going helps adjust sooner rather than later to the end of the month knowing I spent too much money.


I can understand budget issues, especially when you live with other people and have other financial responsibilities. Controlling expenses is certainly much easier if you just manage your own expenses. I think it's great that you have a system where you set aside only 35% of your money for your needs while leaving the rest in an untouchable account. Such discipline can literally be a lifesaver when unexpected expenses arise.

For me, I find that budgeting is much more difficult when living with family or sharing finances. Because you can't always predict what's going to happen, things like medical bills, tuition, or even minor emergencies can often derail the best laid plans. What helps me is having an emergency fund that I regularly contribute to that is separate from my main budget. That way, if something unexpected happens, I will not strip myself of my daily allowance or overspend. I agree that living alone makes budgeting easier because you have more control over your spending. I think once you go out You will find it much easier to plan your weekly and monthly expenses.



I can definitely relate to the constant balancing act when it comes to budgeting! It is such a problem. Especially when unexpected expenses arise. same as you I prioritize what's important when booking. Receipts and groceries before anything else. But I found it important to do other things. Life happens and sometimes you have to make changes.

One thing that changed for me was a budgeting app that can track real-time expenditures. It truly gives me much responsibility to know what I'm doing. I can immediately see if I'm over-spending on something such as eating out or entertainment. I also have "miscellaneous" money for unpredictable expenses that tend to throw things off balance. That helps me decrease my anxiety and stick to the plan. I agree that reviewing your budget weekly has made all the difference. It has assisted me to spend much more than I should because I have reviewed at the end of the week instead of waiting till the end of the month. Other significant savings strategy which I adopted recently is to categorize spending into "Needs" and "Wants," making it easier for me to know what needs cutting first.

It will be very difficult to follow your budget if your country is experiencing inflation. The amount you assign to projected expenditures will keep increasing, which makes the budget ineffective.

The easiest way I can think of ito help you maintain a budget in a country experiencing a constant increase in the price of commodities is to cut projected expenses. Maybe you will have to remove some items that are not basic needs in the budget. I am also facing the same problems in my country and had to cut the amount I spend on internet and TV subscriptions to avoid a deficit.

This is a very good idea but the problem is that moving to these countries is also expensive. The increase in racist activities in these countries, especially Germany, is discouraging.

Budgeting can feel like a constant balancing act. I’ve found that the key for me is staying flexible while also sticking to the core essentials like housing, food, and bills first. I’ve started giving myself a little wiggle room in my budget for unexpected expenses, which has helped reduce stress when things go off track.

One thing that’s really helped me is tracking my spending more frequently. Instead of just checking at the end of the month, I review it weekly to catch any overspending early. It also helps to categorize my spending, so I can quickly see where I’m exceeding and where I’m doing well.

I’d love to hear what strategies have worked for others too because this is something I’m still working on.

if you're staying alone without too much external responsibilities, it's easier to curtail your expenses than it is when you're staying with other people like family members who you're assisting in one way or the other in terms of footing thier bills. Budgeting is very important most expecially in times like this when cost of living is very high and the wage is almost constant. Here's what I do. I have different account that houses my fiat which is what I make use of for most of my spending. Once my pay comes in, a take out only 35% of it for all my needs while the rest is stored in a form I don't usually touch except I have exhausted all options available. Because I'm leaving in a large household where you can't really assume an amount that's enough for your weekly or monthly expenses, I just try not to spend above my weekly set out amount even though i don't really have a defined amount I have set out for my weekly ot monthly expenses.

Once if start staying in my space fully, it's going to be much easier to have a budget that's relatively achievable since I can project all the things I will be needing on a weekly basis and stay disciplined not to spend above those needs. Overall, budgeting is very important and it's one way that helps you manage the resources you're earning such that you're not spending above what you're earning and that you're using your money to what's the right thing.