Personally, I hate the B word. It’s like the D word for me – diets! You can start one but will you stick to it? And if you fall off, will you feel worse afterwards?
If you’re like me, but still want to keep track of your finances, where should you start? In my book, Talk Money to Me, I outline in-depth my 30 Day Anti Budget which is an exercise in choice and awareness. In a nut shell, you:
-
- Track all of your spending for 30 days (do this twice a year) your bank app can help but you really need to dig in to costs like cell, subscriptions, etc.
- Categorize your spending
- Multiply by 12 to see the full impact
- See where you and your family will trim the fat (unused subscriptions, etc.)
Above, you'll see my Anti-Budget updated for COVID. You can see that the average Canadian spending nearly $5000 a year adding up all the categories. If you just trimmed that back by half for example, you’d have nearly $2500 saved for emergencies, debt repayment or more.
If you'd like to go further and try your hand at a tradition budget, here's some fantastic resources rich with budgeting worksheets, calculators and more:
- Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
- Get Smarter About Money (Ontario Securities Commission) budgeting resources
- FCAC Budget Planner