BUDGETING TIPS DURING A PANDEMIC

Budgeting is a fundamentally important skill you need to use especially now. It guides your overall personal finance and influences your daily lifestyle. Budgeting is like a compass for your spending habits. It makes certain that you will always have enough money for the things you need and the things that are important to you.

The importance of learning how to make use of a budget is a financial lesson that cannot be overemphasized especially at a time like this and

So, if you’re ready to manage your finances through budgeting, this post is for you.

Let’s get started!

1. Save before you spend.

The ultimate purpose of budgeting is to help you keep more of your money. So you should save money before you spend any. If you want to get the most out of your budget, determine a specific percentage of your income that will go to savings. Then, when you make any form of income, deposit that percentage of money into savings before you spend on anything. 

Save money first, and live off of whatever is left. Rather than spending first and saving whatever is left over.

2. Automate Your Savings Plan

remembering to save can be a struggle. Automating your savings is an easy way to implement your savings plan. Schedule automatic transfers to your savings to build your emergency fund. You can open any UBA savings account and set up automatic transfers on specific days, preferably payday to build for the future. This ensures that you're saving instead of spending and over time, help your money grow steadily.

3. Use One Spending Account

The more accounts you have to keep track of, the more complicated budgeting becomes. So if you are married it is likely that each of you have multiple credit and debit cards and this can make budgeting can become a complete mess.

To avoid trying to keep up with expenses and to maximize your budget, use one debit card like the UBA prepaid card for spending. This way, you are both able to merge budgets, add expenses to your budget and keep track of your spending as a team.

4. Plan for Emergencies

Emergencies don’t come with advance notice. It just shows up and you want to be prepared for them. When it comes to budgeting, you cannot take emergencies out of the equation. This is the time to set aside a part of your overall budget for anything that can happen. Under no circumstances should you neglect emergencies. Unexpected costs can include things like a long hospital stay due to an injury, theft, your phone falling down and breaking, etc. Chances of these things happening are not high but they happen anyway and sometimes can happen all at once. You need an emergency fund separate from your main savings account to help you deal with these problems when they come up.

With so many unexpected surprises waiting to sneak up, your first line of financial defense is your budget. Whatever stage of life you are in, budgeting should play a large role in your finances.

Hopefully these budgeting tips will help you get the most out of your money and ready for whatever the year may bring on.

#WeAreInThisTogether