Budgeting

To work out if you need to budget, ask yourself:

• do I worry about money?
• do I often have no money to pay my bills?
• does talking about money with my family cause arguments?
• am I unable to afford the things I want?
• am I always in debt?
• have my costs increased for some reason?
• have I given up hope of having money for holidays or retirement?

If your answer is YES to any of these, it may be a good idea to start budgeting.

Here are some ideas on how you could help to pay off your debt, or save some money.

Open a separate bank account for savings

Open a separate bank account and make an automatic payment into it every time you get paid. This can be your savings account and you can see it build up over time. 

You can ask your bank about setting up an automatic payment.

Put some money towards your debt every time you get paid

Pay off your debts as soon as you can. The longer you have a debt, the more interest you're charged and the more money you owe.

An easy way to pay off a debt is to put a bit towards it every time you get paid (but only after you've paid your bills). You can organise to pay it straight from your bank account so you don't have to think about it. Then you're not tempted to use the money for other things. Ask your bank about setting up an automatic payment.

Only buy the things you need if you really want to pay off your debts and get closer to reaching your goals.

Putting together and planning a budget helps you understand more about how to manage your money. Everyone can benefit from managing their money better and it's a good idea to do a budget plan, or redo the one you have, to make sure it's still helping you.

There are 3 steps listed below to help you make your plan, with a separate worksheet for each step. You can print these off and use them to make your plan. You should do them one-by-one to build your plan over time.

Step 1 - Your money

Budgeting is not just about how much money you spend, it's also about where you spend your money.

You can use this to write down the money you get. This can help you to set goals to see if there are any ways to reduce your costs and money you owe. It also helps you think of ways to start saving.

Step 2 - Your goals

Setting goals is a good way to start helping you decide how you spend your money in the future. It is about changing the way you manage your money to see if there are any ways to spend less and increase the money you get.

Step 3 - Managing your money

A budget plan needs to change when something different happens in your life. You might move house and have to pay more or less than you were paying before. Or you might get part-time work which means you have more money now.

Your budget plan should show any new income or costs for you and your family/whānau. You might need to set some new goals so you keep planning ahead for you and your family/whānau.

Enter your income and expenses into this budget worksheet to get you started.