Managing your money

To find 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, read on – it may be a good idea to start budgeting.

Budgeting is not just about how much money you spend it is also about where you spend your money. Thinking about where your money goes also gives you opportunities to look for ways to manage your money better.
Here are some ideas to get you started.

• open a separate bank account and make an automatic payment into it every time you get paid – ask your bank about this, or
• take out a set amount of money every time you get paid and leave the rest in your bank account. A good way to save but you need a lot of discipline.

Pay off your debts as soon as you can because 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 – and you’re not tempted to use the money for other things. Ask your bank about automatic payments.

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 is a big step but it’s just a start to help 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.

Making a budget plan is just a step towards helping you to start thinking about how you manage your money and what things you would like to change for the future.

There are 3 steps listed below to help you make your plan. You can print these of and use them to make your plan. You should do them one-by-one to build your plan over time.

MoneyMates are groups that you can join where you will get support from people going through the same things, share ideas about how you can increase your budgeting skills and get more information about things you can do to manage your money.

A financial mentor is someone who can work with you face to face to help you to:

• understand what you would like to achieve
• support you to complete a Financial Plan of Action to help you achieve your goals
• support you to negotiate reduced payments
• find other people who may be able to help.

They’ll also offer encouragement and support as well as give you the right advice for managing your money.

Get more information about where to locate MoneyMates peer-led support groups and financial mentors on:

You could also ask your local Work and Income service centre for information about financial capability services close to you.

Anything you discuss with your financial mentor will be confidential.

When you meet with a financial mentor, it may be helpful to bring these things with you so they can start to work with immediate pressures you’re facing straight away:

• details of your household income
• bank account statements
• your regular bills
• details of any money you owe such as mortgages,
• hire purchases and credit cards
• details of any other expenses.

A financial mentor’s job is to support you - which may include giving you advice; they may also make the most of other relationships and networks in the social sector or your community to support the work you are doing, for example, mental health, addictions, housing, etc. If you need help with these things, your financial mentor will be happy to give you details of people who may be able to help.

If you’re finding it hard to meet your costs there are a lot of ways we may be able to help. Talk with us or see: