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Track your expenses
The best way to kick-off a budget is to start tracking your expenses, including debt. This way you know exactly where your money is going, which helps you find areas of spending that you might be able to pullback.
Housing – rent, mortgage, body corporate fees, etc.
Utilities and other bills – electricity, water, gas, phone, internet, credit card payments, etc.
Transport – petrol, registration, maintenance, parking, rideshare and public transport fares.
Leisure – streaming services, concerts, galleries, sporting events – anything you do for fun.
Food – groceries, dining out or home deliveries.
Health and wellbeing – gym fees, medication, insurance, doctors and specialist fees, etc.
There are a few ways you can go about tracking your expenses that will make it a bit easier to manage your money overall:
1. Use an App
Some banking apps (cough – like ANZ's) help you to automatically track and assign your spending to different categories. With a click of a button, you can know how much you’ve spent on things such as bills, transport and the gym.
2. Use a Spreadsheet
Download your transaction list and pop it all into a spreadsheet (with or without formulas!). A spreadsheet can automatically calculate how much you’re spending within a certain period, so you can start painting a picture of your finances.
3. Go Paper-based
If you prefer, you can go old school. Print out your statements, grab some colour-coded highlighters and get all high-school note taker on it. Or print off an expenses tracker and jot down the costs by looking at your transactions in your banking app or paper statements. The point is knowing where your dollars go – and how frequently you need to allow for these costs (weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly).
Brain hack
Did you know that the act of forgetting is actually part of how we create memories in our brain. And because of this process, it is far easier for us to remember things that happened to us recently than it is to recall details from 6 months prior.
This 'recency bias' is why we can’t rely on our memory alone when creating a budget – you are more likely to remember and give importance to expenses from the recent past and are likely to overlook or underestimate expenses from previous months.
Look back through your spending and finances as far as you can to get an idea of your spending trends, debt repayments and any rogue recurring items from year to year. Things like car registration or Christmas shopping can often be missed and wind up being a budget killer when the time comes.
From the important things like food and shelter, through to miscellaneous items (streaming services, anyone?), make sure all your spending is accounted for including savings and any debt payments. You’ll want to add savings goals and debt to your budget.
If your expenses seem to outweigh your income so far, then it might be time to make some decisions about what you can afford to go without next time around. The best way to do this is to review your 'wants' versus 'needs'.
The information set out above is general in nature and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on the information, you should consider whether the information is appropriate for you having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs. By providing this information ANZ does not intend to provide any financial advice or other advice or recommendations. You should seek independent financial, legal, tax and other relevant advice having regard to your particular circumstances.