Budget Sense

Our blog is 1 year old! Thank you for helping us get here.

So, what have we (the bloggers and our readers) learnt? lots of things. Most importantly, things that will make a difference in your personal finance matters and at the end of the day put more money in your pocket.

Most importantly, a frequently recurring theme has been that of smart spending and efficient saving. You have to do your best to minimize your spending and maximize your saving. As you go along you will discover that this becomes easier, to the point of becoming a habit or a routine.  If you haven’t even tried toying with these fundamental and powerful concepts in personal finance, it is time you did.

When it comes to saving, anything and everything helps. Even small pennies and spare change.  In fact, we recommend you diversify your sources of saving for a better future.

We also learnt-and probably bored some people to death-about the very important and almost unavoidable concept of budgeting.  This whole blog is based on this powerful tool upon which any successful personal finance strategy would depend. We learnt that to manage your finances better and smarter, you have to have a budget. Once that budget is created, you then learnt to live with it, tweak it, update it and be creative with it to maximize your income value and savings.

Going forward, our focus and effort will continue to revolve around topics that help you get the most out of your personal finance. And we will continue to deliver that in simple and easy to understand language.

Please let us know if you have any topics you would like us to cover by emailing us at: moremoney@budgetsense.ca

And please don’t forget to leave your comments below.

It is early November and we are now less than 2 months away from Christmas, which is about enough time to do all your Christmas shopping.

But instead of putting it all on your credit card this year like you have often done, why not start budgeting and saving for it from now? you have at least 4 pay periods from now till the last few days before Christmas and if you allocate a small amount or percentage from each check towards Christmas shopping, you will have more than enough to get all you want for yourself and for your family and friends. And by doing this simple strategy, you get to spend January relaxed and not worrying about upcoming credit card bills.

For example, if you deduct $100 to $150 from every paycheck (less if you get paid weekly), you will have saved anywhere from 500-600 dollars for Christmas shopping which is close to the average amount that North Americans spend on Christmas shopping.

And as an added bonus, you can still go ahead and pay with your credit card to get their loyalty points, and then pay it back right away with the cash you have saved.

The depression that usually sets-in after the holidays are over,  can be partially eliminated this year by following this simple strategy. Not to mention, you are learning a very important lesson in budgeting and finance that can apply to many other situations in your life.