Video Transcription

The Money Hacks Challenge: Budget better

Just thinking about the thousand dollars that I spent this month that I won’t be seeing again.

All right, so this is my budget for the month. At the top here, we’ve got how much money I’m spending a month and then all of the bills and essential things I need to pay for. In my personal budget, I’m going to put my earnings, my expenses, and also keep track of any savings I’m making so that I can work up towards something I want to get later on—which is a big cinema camera.

I found this app called Pocketbook, which is a really, really good app. It’s completely free. What it is, is essentially like that budget sheet that I wrote up, but it links with your bank account. So whenever you make a transaction, it automatically categorizes that payment into, for example, if it was a bill, groceries, a house product, or whatever. It’s just a really good way of keeping track of things without really having to do anything. Just as a visualizer, it’s really helpful to have.

Now I can see where all my money is going, and that’ll help me save in the long term.

I think the hardest thing about planning out my finances for the week was realizing that I actually spent a lot more money than I thought I did and that I didn’t have a conscious relationship with my finances and money. So that’s something I’m really excited to try—thinking a bit more consciously when I’m spending and tapping.

I’ve never really budgeted before. I didn’t find the motivation, and I didn’t think that I needed to. But thinking now, after all of this, you just realize that was silly because, one, it’s so easy, and two, this is a skill that you’re going to have for the rest of your life. You’re going to need to know how to budget, whether you’re rich or poor.

Budget in a way that works for you and make your budget work for you.

Video by Reach Out