5 budgeting mistakes you want to avoid

Creating a monthly budget for yourself or your family is an excellent way to stay on top of your financial situation. However, when it comes to budgeting, there are a few mistakes that are regularly made. 

In this article, you will be introduced to five budgeting mistakes that you want to avoid.

1. Estimating instead of recording

A very common budgeting mistake is to estimate instead of record expenditures. Even though it may seem tedious at first to record all your expenses, it is the only way of knowing exactly how much you spend and on what each month. Once you start recording your spending accurately, you will know exactly where your hard earned money goes each month.

2. Spending too much on gifts

Spending too much money on gifts is another common budgeting mistake, mainly for the fact that most people completely forget to add gifts to their monthly budget. Not a month goes by where a relative or a close friend doesn’t have a birthday, a wedding or a christening and most of these events involve some form of gift giving. To stay on budget, don’t overspend on gifts. Also, make sure you add a small amount for gifting to your monthly budget.

3. Forgetting to budget for fun 

Another aspect of budgeting that many forget is to budget for fun. Not only do you need to set aside money for beer and wine but also for weekend trips to the outdoors, meals out with friends and whatever else you do to enjoy yourself in your free time.

4. Forgetting to budget for saving and investing

When setting up your budget, it is important to also set aside a sum each month for saving and investing. At the end of the day, if you want to secure a bright financial future for yourself and your family you need to start saving and then investing to grow your wealth. 

5. Not budgeting at all

The biggest budgeting mistake you can make is not to budget at all. If you want to improve your financial well-being you need to know where your money goes. That way you know what to cut back on so that you have more money left over at the end of each month that you can invest.