Learning How to create a Budget for the First Time

There is a lot I am in control over in my life right now.

My routine/daily schedule – check

A healthy lifestyle – check

Healthy friendships – check

A good work routine and flow – check

But there is one thing I am absolutely horrible at managing.

And I have always been the worst at this.

And this is my financial situation.

Handling my own money, I have always handled so irresponsibly.

It’s gotten a little bit better over the years, I’m no longer in a lot of debt.

But my relationship with money used to be the same with food.

I preferred to look at an empty wallet just as much as I enjoyed looking at an empty plate after a huge meal.

Whenever I got paid, I would spend all of it almost right away.

And not necessarily on myself, but friends, family at times even strangers, so at the end of the month I would have to loan money from friends or the bank.

Either that or collect bottles for food.

I used to do that a lot before I turned 30.

Every time I realised, I had to do something about this, and start looking into my finances, I kept postponing it.

Ill do it tomorrow or next month, and so went the years, and an even larger debt.

At 33 I moved back home with my mom, to start saving money for my own apartment.

At that time, I started to dream about becoming independent.

Opening my own business and brand one day.

And my hobby expenses increased.

I spent more money on computers, tech gear, gaming stuff, and in all that time I saved zero.

I’ve lived at my moms for more than 5 years now, and I still haven’t saved a dime.

I’ve tried to but after our washing machine broke, and my computer graphic card broke, all of my hard saved money was spent in a day.

3 months ago, I had enough of this.

And I realised I can’t keep saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” because at this rate, tomorrow might never show up, and then what happens, when my computer needs to be replaced, or something else needs to be replaced.

I realised its time to do the work and create my own budget and start looking at my wallet in a different light.

Just as I have learned that its okay to leave a bit of left over food on my plate rather than eat it all on an already full stomach.

Just because I have money doesn’t mean I have to spend it all in a month.

So how do I make budgeting fun?

Excel is the answer.

Well at least my answer.

I use excel for my schedule and work plans, but I’ve never actually used the calculative abilities it provides.

I never really realised its perfect to create a budget.

I never bothered to learn it.

Until I talked to my mentor, and he told me I should try it.

He gave me a template of how a budget could look like, and a week after I went to work, trying to understand this unfamiliar template.

Then it hit me.

I’m going to learn how to create my own. From scratch in my own style.

I love being creative, I love learning new things, so I started to look at this with a more positive outlook.

Creating a budget became fun.

I put all the numbers in, and it calculated it all out for me.

I expected to see a huge number left on my account afterwards but was shocked to see that my expenses were way to high.

I hardly had anything left atter bills, food, subscriptions had been paid, and I realised that won’t do if I have to start saving for my future dreams.

So, I took a harder look at my finances and had to pick and choose between my expenses.

Choose what to keep and choose what to stop buying, paying for.

And after a day of really deep diving into this, I felt so relived and immensely proud of myself.

I finally have a plan going forward.

I still need to learn a few things, but I know ill get the hang of it soon.

Its all practise.

The more energy I put into wanting to save and change my finances and work I put into it, the more it will change into something positive.

And not consistently be in the red.

I wish I had learned this a little bit sooner.

I wish someone would have sat me down when I was 18 to explain to me the pitfalls of borrowing money from the bank, not making a budget, and how important it really is to save.

I have always hated math.

Numbers make my eyes glaze over, wanting to fall asleep.

But I’ve learned just because I hate numbers doesn’t mean Ill have to hate making a budget.

If I decorate my excel spreadsheet in a splash of colour, with a few small prints on it, it will be a lot more fun to look at then just a bunch of numbers on a page.

I’ve learned yet again.

Its better too late than never

I am grateful that I finally rise up to the challenge of learning how to handle money in a better way.

Step 1.

Make a budget in excel, notepad, skecth book.

Step 2.

Do it in your style, make it fun to look at. Colourful if you are creative.

Step 3.

Regognise whats really important to spend money on, and what is a luxary, that you dont really need.

I had issues with step 3 but I also realise that when you save up for something you really want, once you eventually buy it when you have saved enough its a great feeling.

Impulse buys always left me with a sour taste in my mouth. especially if I had to borrow money for food.

Realising this makes step 3 a lot easier to swallow.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blogpost, and ill try and change that a bit.

But I’ve been so immersed into making videos on my new You tube channel

(MissFaylyn Plays Sims)

I still plan to one day when I can afford the camera I want, down the line, ill start taking this Blog to You Tube, but that dream has to wait in line a little bit longer.

Firstly, I have to work a little bit harder on saving for a few rainy days before I spontaneously buy something I can’t afford yet.

I hope you an amazing day

Until next time 🙂

MissFaylyn Out…