How do you make a budget that actually sticks?
The first month, an income that is different every time, pay that arrives every two weeks rather than every month, sinking funds for the costs you can see coming, and how many categories you can keep up with before you stop bothering.
How do I start budgeting when I have never budgeted before?
Spend the first month recording what you actually spend, without changing anything and without setting any limits.
How do I budget with an irregular income?
Budget against your lowest realistic month rather than your average, and treat everything above that as money to be assigned rather than money to spend.
What is the 50/30/20 rule, and does it actually work?
The 50/30/20 rule puts 50% of take-home pay towards needs, 30% towards wants and 20% towards saving and debt, and it works well as a first sanity check and badly as a permanent target.
How many budget categories should I have?
Between five and eight. Fewer than five hides where the money went; more than eight is a filing system you will abandon within a month.
Why does my first month of budgeting always look terrible?
A first month of budgeting collects every annual and irregular bill that happens to land in it, and gives you no earlier month to compare against — so it overstates your normal spending almost every time.
How do I budget when I get paid every two weeks?
Build the month around your two paydays rather than around a monthly total — split the bills into two piles by when they are due, cover each pile with the paycheck that lands before it, and treat the two months a year that hold a third paycheck as extra rather than as normal.
What is a sinking fund, and how is it different from an emergency fund?
A sinking fund is money set aside a little at a time for a cost you know is coming — car servicing, insurance, Christmas — and it differs from an emergency fund in that the emergency fund is for the costs you did not see coming.
What is a zero-based budget, and do I need one?
A zero-based budget gives every dollar you have a job — spending, saving or debt — until none of it is unassigned, and it is worth the effort for anyone whose money disappears without their being able to say where it went.