Weekly Budgeting Helped Me Control My Finances

By Matt - Thursday, August 7th, 2008

Saying that weekly budgeting has helped me control my finances is a pretty bold statement but it’s true. As my regular readers have seen over the past month and a bit about the only thing that has really remained on my site while I’ve become busy is my weekly budget. Even that has been tough to maintain at times but I’ve stuck to it. I’ve always had difficulty budgeting my money and the net result has been that I’ve ended up living way beyond my means. Thankfully this is no longer the case. Granted I’m by no means in great shape but I am now living within my means and these weekly budget I’ve been posting have helped me tremendously.

Budgeting can be hard

For the uninitiated or even for the perpetually broke like myself coming up with a budget can be daunting. The worst part is putting everything down on paper isn’t the hard part, it’s the actions required to keep track of everything and get spending under control. By breaking my monthly budget down into smaller chunks I’ve been able to monitor my progress from week to week rather than from month to month. Adjusting my spending and realizing where all of my money goes and more importantly how this impacts my projected budget has been incredibly helpful. Keeping a weekly budget gives you the feedback that you need to control your spending quicker than with a monthly budget and the numbers aren’t as frightening if you’re new to it or daunted by your financial situation.

Starting small and understanding your spending

If you don’t know how you spend your money there is no way for you to cut back and really get a hold of things like credit card debt. This isn’t a problem if you make more money than you know how to spend, unfortunately not too many of us are in this situation. I knew I had issues keeping a monthly budget so I broke it down further to a weekly one. A week is also a great chunk of time since our lives revolve around a weekly schedule. Once I started seeing how I spent my money for a couple weeks I realized where my money was really going (as I missed my actual budgets). Once I was able to understand my actual spending rather than what I thought I was spending I became incredibly conscious of it. At this point I made an effort to change my spending and bring my weekly budget under control.

Part of the Bigger Picture

Now a weekly budget is only a small part of any person’s financial situation but when you realize you’re spending more than you think you are inevitably you end up scrambling to make ends meet. Combining these weekly budgets has let me see progress and along with a monthly budget I’m now in a far better position to make everything line up. It has been a great stepping stone because the feedback cycle is short and you can quickly adjust and see the results. I’m incredibly happy that I switched to this approach for keeping tabs on my spending; it’s been a crucial tool for me getting my financial house at least started down the road to being stable and under complete control.

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