Maintaining your budget can take a tremendous amount of personal discipline, flexibility, and daily upkeep. Budgeting is not easy, and it can take years to master your own finances!

With the right tips and resources, maintaining a healthy personal budget can seem less daunting of a task.

Keep Your Personal Budget with You

One of the most common beginner’s mistakes is not keeping your personal budget handy when you go out. Whether you choose to carry a ledger or use an app on your phone, your budget needs to be accessible in order to be useful.

The easiest way to maintain a healthy personal budget is to update it with all your expenses as soon as they are made. Keep track of your purchases to accurately determine how much you have left to spend. If you are tech savvy, most budgeting apps can calculate this for you!

Where most people fail with budgeting is the mentality of “updating it later.” But unless you have the mind of an elephant, it’s likely that you may forget to keep track of all your expenses. Keeping your budget with you can also help you maintain some discipline. When you feel like making an impulse purchase, it helps to check if you can afford to spend those extra funds. Those new pair of heels may look nice, but if it means not eating out for at least 2 weeks, is it worth it? Considering your purchases and your personal budget can help you cut back on any extra spending!

Track Your Personal Budget to Maintain Your Finances

On a weekly basis, you should review your budget and spending habits. Calculate your spending, and if you have exceeded in any category, it may be time to start finding out where you can cut back. If you find you are still coming up short, one way you might be able to balance out your budget is to take out a loan such as a title loan.

Change Your Spending Habits to Stay Financially Healthy

Whether it is eating out less, or trying to change some of your spending habits, changing your spending habits can be beneficial to your finances. If you like to eat out during the week, this is a spending habit you may be able to change by making your own lunch during the week! If you’re spending $8-$10 per day on lunch, you’ll be able to save up to $50 a week just by making your own lunch.

Plan for Extra Expenses

One guarantee in life is that there will always be extra expenses and financial emergencies that come up. Whether it is a car battery that needs to be replaced, or a medical bill that needs to be paid, extra expenses are a guarantee that you need to plan for.

At the beginning of the month, it can be helpful to dedicate a small portion of your income toward a savings account. This can be your emergency fund, so that when a situation arises, you’ll be covered! Ideally, you will want to dedicate at least 10% of your monthly income to an emergency fund.

Besides financial emergencies, you may also need to plan for additional expenses. Planning for a holiday or wedding can be part of maintaining a healthy personal budget.