Control Freak: Budget Trackers and Monthly Planners

We have just arrived to the 2nd part of how I organise my expenses each month. At this point, I may look like a control freak, I know. But I promise I really enjoy doing this procedure at the end of the month.

In the evening of a Friday or Saturday morning, I go to a coffee place, get a nice drink and a brownie and start making the numbers.

More budget trackers? Kiira, aren’t you a bit obsessed with your expenses?

Okay, I think it’s really good for me to have this control over my expenses for 2 reasons. The first one is that I actually love doing this, I love writing down everything and later one making the numbers. The second one is that I am not a “stable spender”. I don’t usually overspend, but I occasionally allow myself to spend silly money on things that could have been easily avoided.

For example, last month I spent A LOT on the “eating out” category. This wasn’t because I was having lunch with friends twice a week. Most of the times were deliveries that I ordered out of LAZINESS. I would finish work and think “oh, I think I need to stop at Tesco to buy dinner” and 10 minutes later I would think “well, I feel like having some donburi dish, I will order something nice from Wagamama”.

This situation was repeated several times this month, which means that my numbers in the “eat out” monthly planner went a bit too far.

Actually, we don’t need to take these planners as if its only purpose was to save some money, we can use it as a tool to balance the distribution of our expenses. The reason why I ordered that many takeaways is that I was feeling inactive…

Let’s imagine that you are in the same situation: Next month, instead of spending that amount of money in takeaways, or expensive coffees…You can treat yourself in a different way. Treat yourself going to the hairdresser, or have a nice massage, go do your nails or get yourself a new watch. The purpose is to spend your money on things that make you happy. That way you can improve your quality of life. Don’t allow your laziness and low motivation taking it away from you every month.

Not everybody needs it

I think it’s important to remember that this is not a technique for everyone. Some people don’t need to have this control because they never spend extra money. So, if you are not into “delivery food”, you don’t love expensive coffees, nor video games, nor buying clothes every week. Nor going to make your hair/nails every single week… Then you probably don’t need a wide selection of monthly planners.

My partner would be a nice example: He just buys clothes when he needs them, always prepares his coffee at home, almost never treats himself at the hairdresser and is a natural saver. His favourite treats are video games and nice perfumes, but he manages these indulgements quite well. On the other hand, I can overspend in clothes on one month because of “sales”, and the next month on takeaway because of laziness and the following month on personal care because I wanted to try several treatments during the same visit to the salon, or maybe because there were some nice discounted items in Debenhams, so improving myself in this matter is important and it’s one of the reasons why I started the blog. And I couldn’t be happier!

I do have improved, but I am still far away from being perfect, and even though I keep enjoying some delivery food and plan on going to the hairdresser soon.

I want to try to keep control over it. If you love treating yourself, you can do it with discipline.

In conclusion, I use several planners and calendars to track my budget. And I am willing to share them with you. My favourite and best budget tracker ever will be shown in my next post. And I am going to create an excel for you too. This way, you can download it and modify it any way you want… In order to make it your best tracking tool.