How I budget my money every month
My mindset
Budgeting is when we decide how to spend, save, invest our money now but with the future in mind.
The whole idea is to strike a balance between your current needs and future needs. We should not deny our families of good things just to save aggressively. Neither should we splurge every cent and leave nothing for retirement.
Everything was quite straightforward for our family until we had kids. That changed our perspective because we have a lot more decisions to make.
What type of diapers to buy? Which enrichment to invest in? Do we spend 4k on preschool? Do we get a car?
Challenges and what finally worked
Making so many micro-decisions about money was mentally draining.
The biggest one was not knowing how much I could spent any point in time. It led to a lot of overspending.
Spreadsheets wasn’t for me as I didn’t have time to fiddle with the formulas.
I was looking for a reliable seamless system that I could commit to long-term especially with my husband so we could budget as a couple.
I stumbled upon YNAB and never looked back.
Coming Soon
Good things take time!
I am working on articles to share my two core budgeting principles. After years of struggling, these 2 were the ones that helped me to STICK to a budget and break the overspending vicious cycle.