GR Managing your money
Dealing with money can be pretty stressful, there's bills to pay, groceries to buy, maybe you're even looking at moving out of home, trying to budget and make sure you're using your money wisely is a tough task.
There me are a few ways we can get caught out with our money like loans and getting behind on different repayments, or maybe you still live at home and work for some pocket money, either way it's important we know how to manage our money so that we know exactly what we're spending it on and don't get ourselves into too much strife. If you budget correctly you should be able to avoid the 7 day two minute noodle diet, I mean they're pretty good but not that good.
On Monday 14th we'll be having a Getting Real on this very important topic, join us live 8pm AEDT or jump on and say " hi" now!
That's a really good point @loves netball Do you reckon we get a little too fixated on money?
I know a lot of people want to have lots of money because it kind of represents freedom or at least safety and security what do you reckon>
You've all pretty much moved onto the next question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway 🙂
What are some of your budgeting tips?
I think this is a great place for our next question:
What is a budget? Do they work for you?
What is a budget? Do they work for you?
A budget is sort of a plan on where each bit of your money will go, like allocating every dollar to a certain category and then using that as a guide on how you'll spend. And then tracking your actual spending against the budget to check how you're doing, if the budget needs to evolve or if you need to change your spending habits to meet the financial goals you want to meet.
I haven't figured out how to make one work for me, cause as I mentioned with the previous question the whole "tracking how you're going" part just seems to be a lot of effort. Perhaps I need to find an app that can scan receipts, OCR them, and chuck it into a table. I've heard of using barcode scanners but ain't nobody got time for scanning things at the store then again when they get home.
Great question @Alison5! To me, a budget represents a good goal to work towards, whether it be for a holiday, a new car, a house etc. it gives a great reason to strive towards achieving a goal, no matter how fast it takes you to get there! Personally, I find budgets work the best for me because they allow me to track my expenses
I wonder @Bay52VU if you allow yourself to change and alter your budget, does it kinda defeats the purpose of it? I understand that income can change and there are expenses etc but how do we ensure that we stick to our budget?
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
So from my perspective I don't think it's defeating the purpose at all, unless the only reason someone's changing it is contradicting what they originally set out to do by making it in the first place.
Not often @Alison5, however I used to. Last year I was working a casual job, a shift a week and was almost always just scraping by. Working a lot more definitely helps, and having my end goals in mind always really helps. I know that I need to put away enough for bills and food, and save enough for a plane ticket and a bit of spending money as well. Otherwise, I don't get to see the person I love for at least 6 months until they come here. Its a huge incentive for me
What is a budget? Do they work for you?
Budgets do and they don't work for me.... every year or so and i do something like this and look at how i am doing... then that's generally enough for me to think about it all and work out if i am spending beyond my means or not!
Actually thinking about it more, I also "budget" by looking at my bank account, how much went in in the last month vs how much went out... if i spend as much as i earned or spend MORE than i earned... i know i have a big problem! If I am about 20 percent a month under what i earned... so if i earned 1000 bucks spent 800 bucks and saved 200 bucks then I consider that as doing okay. And I try and save a bit more than that when i can 🙂
I generally estimate by the month, and factor in what my lowest amount I could earn would be over 4 weeks. Use that, then minus food, petrol, bills, the occasional meet up with a friend, then estimate how much I can save as a minimum every week 
What are some of the things that help you manage your money better?
Not having money. Or putting most of the money in my savings account so I can't access it easily, and only having a certain amount of cash in my wallet
Hey guys! Sorry I'm late, was attempting to find the SUPERMOON hahaha no luck!
Money saving has been essential for me in the past year actually! I finished uni and started working full time pretty much, and also met my boyfriend! Who lives in America. So I try and save up as much as possible, to make one trip a year
Things that make money difficult, are many of the things @Ben-RO said! I'm a coffee addict, and found that when I started making cups at home, I'd say about $30 a week! Also, bills aren't great either
I think having a goal to work towards helps me from spending. So saying, I want to reach x amount of savings or saving up to buy a certain item etc.
@Ben-RO It's great because I can't buy things online and if I want to register for a fun run, I have to go through my parents and pay them back
@loves netball you can use a debit card for online purchases/fun run registrations, if you have one, although perhaps I shouldn't have told you that 
@letitgo my parents keep telling me to get a debit card, but I'm happy not having one
How good are you at managing your money?
I say relatively good. I'm lucky because I still live at home. I just save most of my money and take out some money every once and awhile so I have cash on me.
When I move out, that'll be the real test of my money-management. Although, I probably don't earn enough to survive. 😛
