Making Budgets and Staying Within IT || LOH#169

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For a very long time now, I have been making home budgets. Making a list of my expenses and income gives me a clear grasp of what I am to work with.

I have learned the importance of budgeting and it's been helping me ever since I have started.
I do make a monthly budget since my monthly income is not always fixed, so I work with what would be coming in monthly.

One of the things I take seriously is savings. It is very important to me, even though I save a small percentage of my income but I always tell myself better little than nothing and of course the saying about little drops of water...

One of the many reasons why I save is to have something to fall back on when push comes to shove and though I sometimes default with my saving goals, I always make sure it doesn't happen frequently.

I have promised myself that no matter what I don't want to ever be broke.I dislike that situation where I am just helpless and need something to fall back to and sees none.

One of my financial goals is to live within my means, so whenever I go shopping and see something catching my eye, I try to see if it's what I can afford at the time before deciding if I am to go for it or not.

Of course that doesn't stop me from living a little as I sometimes spoil myself but I do so moderately since I can't afford to live luxuriously, I make do with what I have.

But whenever I find myself in that situation where I am tempted to buy on impulse, I ask myself: Do you need this? Will It make a dent in your savings? That's one of the strategies that I use when tempted to buy on impulse but on rare occasions and I mean very rare, I do indulge and buy on impulse especially when there is some excess cash with me at the time.

Sometimes no matter how much I strategize, the temptation is always there to spend. But one of the things that helps keep me going is that I have always promised myself that no matter what, I do not want to be in debt for any reason.

I do believe most people want to save but what some people lack is commitment and discipline. It takes planning to make one achieve their set financial goals. Sometimes the limitations in our budgets come directly from how we think about money and ourselves. In other words if we see ourselves attaining a certain financial goal, then we will accomplish it.

This is my response to one of the questions posed by @kerrislravenhill in the Ladiesofhive Community Contest. You can also join in here

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23 comments
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Bang, I did it again... I just rehived your post!
Week 192 of my contest just started...you can now check the winners of the previous week!
!LUV
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Poor shopping habits are like drugs. It took me quite some time to replace old shopping habits with better ones. If I really wanted to own my modest home for my kids to grow up safely I had to change. Practice the good ones, cancel the cable and magazines, I even stopped going to shopping malls just to avoid the temptation. Google advertising is another story Lol!
Thanks for sharing @rukkie

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I even stopped going to shopping malls just to avoid the temptation. Google advertising is another story.

Hahaha I think I am going to have to adopt this as well. I can't be tempted with what I can't see.

Thanks for having me.

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View or trade LOH tokens.


@rukkie, You have received 1.0000 LOH for posting in Ladies of Hive. We believe that you should be rewarded for the time and effort spent in creating articles. The goal is to encourage token holders to accumulate and hodl LOH tokens over a long period of time.

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I agree with you completely, the hardest thing is often discipline. By nature, I don't like to spend, but sometimes when I go out I want to please others.

It happens very rarely, so I know it's no big deal. And often I can afford it because I spend very little outside these outings. But I have friends who go out a lot and spend much more than they should.

They have no security fund.

As for me, my goal is to have 1 year's salary as a security fund. I'm a freelancer, so my income isn't stable and I need to be able to keep myself fed when I can't find freelance work.

I usually save 70% of my earnings. Which is a lot. But over the course of a year, it doesn't amount to much because, in fact, I often use these savings to buy big things. For example, for my new plot of land.

I'm not going to go into detail about my strategies here, I'd have to do a whole series of articles to explain them properly. But to come back to what you're saying: budgeting is the most important thing to start on the road to financial independence

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Wow! It's a good thing your savings are aimed towards achieving something big. Getting a plot of land is no joke.

I can't wait to read those articles whenever you get to write them.

Thank you so much for coming around.

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And thank you for motivating me to make them. To be honest, before your article gave me the idea, I had no intention of talking about it here. But actually, I figure it might be interesting, so I jotted it down in my list of article ideas 👌

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In today's day and age, temptation is everywhere so having the discipline and the determination to save and stick to one's budget is a blessing. It's good to read that you are determined to not get into debt. I believe you are doing well :)

!LADY

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Thank you so much. I appreciate you stopping by.

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I find it hard to save but I’ll try hard to save because saving helps a lot. And the urge to buy things keeps you away from saving. Saving and budgeting is what we have to learn how to do in the long run.

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I totally agree with you. Without budget, we might find it very hard to save any money.

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Many people face impulse buying but to remain in control, you must wear discipline like a garment. I love your tactics of staying within budget
!LADY

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I am glad you do. Thank you for coming around sis.

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