The habit of budgeting
I have always been a cautious girl in the economic sphere, that is, I have never spent more money than I have or consider I have available for something specific, my father taught me to save and my mother to make good budgets, having grown up in As a working class family, I have always understood the importance of covering basic needs first. As I grew up, many people, including my family, called me stingy, but when they had a financial emergency, they came to me looking for a loan. money, even if it were small, this is not something that makes me happy, that is, my happiness would be that my entire family, including me, had enough money now to cover all our emergencies, but what I want to say is that sticking to the budget is a habit very important to be able to live with low income.
Previously I always carried my finances in my head, I had and have financial problems like almost everyone in my country due to the crisis, but I think that none of that is as bad as noticing the changes in the body and mind due to age. 😅, it's funny but what I mean is that from my 30s onwards my memory is not the same so little by little I got into the habit of writing down my expenses and budget, because having all that information is only backed up in my head It was difficult, however, the habit I currently have with budgeting was acquired relatively recently.
Since my mother separated from her ex-partner in 2020, I took full responsibility for household expenses, so I got into the habit of budgeting money on a weekly basis, however, it was exactly 5 months ago that I started writing in a notebook everything related to my economy. In my notebook I write the total of my weekly income, I convert it into USDT currency. In my country the official currency is the Bolívar but that is not really the case in practice, we live in a dollarized system without being official, all businesses as well as salary income from all sources of private employment are in dollars, however , the dollar has an official value and a parallel value, Venezuelans are governed by the parallel or black market price, this price is a little closer to the USDT that is why this is the currency I use to write in my notebook.
In my notebook I write on Mondays, there I enter the income and I enter the fixed payments or expenses, for example for food at home, the cat's food is separate, the weekly payment for my son's chess academy. Every 15 days I make the payment for the water tank, monthly I write the payment for the landline and Internet bill, my mother's cell phone and mine, every two months the payment for the kitchen gas and I also include a savings part fixed and a part of provisional savings, the latter refers to a small saving for unforeseen expenses of the week, sometimes what I earn is not enough for the savings so I postpone them to the following week.
The benefits I get from writing my budget and expenses weekly, including saving my invoices as you could see in the photo, is that it allows me to know in time when an expense is becoming disproportionate compared to my income, I also notice the progress of inflation in dollars in my country, which increasingly decreases the amount of grocery products that I purchase with the same money and also allows me to make decisions, such as last month I canceled the cable television service because the price went up. and I wouldn't be able to pay the bill the next month, writing my budget allowed me to do that without having the unpleasant surprise of making it to the end of the month and not having money for the bill. For now things are not going well at all and I need to have an extra income to cover the basics, I know this thanks to this method of budget organization that I have acquired as a habit.
This is my participation in the topic proposed by @galenkp in Weekend-Engagement
Hola, veo que vives en Venezuela y te entiendo, aquí uno hace malabares para que le alcance el dinero, los salarios son simbólicos. Entonces tratamos de generar aquí y allá, estupendo que administre y creo que el que no ha aprendido con esta crisis, será que vive en otro planeta. La situación es dificil y poder ahorrar gracias a plataformas como esta es de gran ayuda.
Experience has taught us many things, especially good administration of few resources. Thanks for the comment
It's good that you got into the habit of saving and budgeting at an early age. In such an inflationary country, it's hard to make ends meet with the same money you used to earn, we buy less and buy less and spend more. Very good post
Thank you very much for the comment. It is an economy that has had many negative changes and you have to adapt more and more to the crisis, it is exhausting at times.
This is just the only way to survive, put everything about money in writing, do you know that few months ago I was thinking someone stole money till I wrote down all I did for the month and it became obvious that I spent to the last kobo myself, just like you am the breadwinner of my family because they are old and I earn once in a month so I write out everything and know how to manage the little that comes in.
I think it's great that you write everything related to money, it's a great strategy for managing a home, it's good that you realized it. Hugs
Do you know that I wish I started early because I would have known how I spent my money
Nice post
Thank you 💕
You're very welcome.