We often fall back on calendars to get through our overwhelming schedule. From doctor appointments to project submissions, we keep noting our engagements. But we fail to do so with our finances. Call it a lack of habit or fear of realization, most of us don’t like to keep track of our budgets.
Before we start with the budget calendar, knowing what budgeting entails is essential. Budgeting is a practice that you enforce on yourself. By keeping track of your expenses and income, you develop a budget that helps you escape living from paycheck to paycheck.
What Is a Budget Calendar
A dedicated tool that helps us keep track of the expenses, income, and important financial dates is referred to as a budget calendar. A budget planning calendar can be anything from a piece of paper to an app, complete with features.
Whatever you choose as your preferred mode, the fundamental features of a budget calendar remain the same. An effective budget calendar should contain the following.
Revenue
Your paychecks are your revenue if you rely on fixed salaries. If you are self-employed, your revenue is based on the weekly or monthly income that you expect. Your budget schedule should let you monitor your portfolio to compare the due bills and revenue to analyze your financial well-being.
Bills
Marking the date of due bills prevents you from making impulse purchases. A budget calendar planner is responsible for reminding you to pay the bills days before the due date. With having a deadline on bills, you’re less likely to forget and face financial consequences.
Savings
Most use an automated withdrawal system to transfer money from their salary or business accounts to savings accounts. Mark these withdrawals in your budget calendar to ensure that you don’t indulge yourself in overspending before these dates. If you are consistently drowning in failed loans, a budget planner can help you keep track of your expenses, simulate debt pay downs, and give detailed credit utilization statistics.
Variable Expenses
Add variable expenses beforehand on your calendar to keep yourself in check. Variable expenses include tire changes, vet visits, gifts, oil changes, and so forth. If something else comes up on a particular date, note them down on your calendar.
Why a Budget Calendar Matters
A personal budget calendar should be followed by everyone. Even if you are unable to spend most of your income in a month, a calendar for planning will help you make the most out of it.
Track Spending
Spare half an hour every week to note down every small and big expenditure that you’ve made throughout the week. You may need to assign a threshold at this point. If you’re able to spare a dollar before making a dent in your income, write down everything that goes over it.
If your threshold is $10, write down anything that leaves your bank account over that.
By tracking your weekly spending, you are left with statistics. Analyze the pattern, and if need be, curtail costs where it’s possible.
Deciding Where to Make Cuts
Maintaining a calendar budget review routine makes you visualize where you are overspending. It may be your outings with friends, expensive gadgets, or gifts. Whatever it may be, you always can make cuts on the expenses without sacrificing it all.
Shed a Light on Your Income
If your financial well-being is being hampered even after considering budget cuts. It may be time to shed light on your income. You either need to change your career, get a side hustle, or deduce expenses to an extent where you are breaking even. Facing a net loss and reaching savings isn’t a sustainable financial strategy.
Planning for Future
Sustaining a financial plan is the key to a happy future. With the increasing living costs, having a strategy to at least maintain savings and continue insurance is what a schedule and budget calendar is intended for.
Go over your budget and expenses after a month and before your payday to understand what went wrong and how you can correct the courses through the next cycle.
Going Debt-Free
Going debt-free consists of two strategic plans. One is the debt snowball method, the other one is the debt avalanche.
In the debt snowball method, you start with paying off the smallest debts and keep maintaining the large ones with the minimum payouts.
The debt avalanche method makes you pay the large debts at first to minimize the interests.
Whatever method you may choose, a department budget planning is necessary to sustain the plans without sacrificing your quality of life.
How to Make a Budget Calendar
There are readymade software solutions available that let you use a template or form to fill the details. But you can DIY budget calendars through spreadsheets or even a piece of paper.
Mark the Days of Income Received
Write down all of your paydays in the calendar. Color code them depending on your preference. It’ll be much easier to do if you have a fixed income than having a variable income. In the case of self-employment, consider estimating the total monthly revenue and note it down.
Mark Fixed Expenses
Fixed expenses include monthly bills, mortgages, and premiums. If you have other fixed expenditures, you may include that too. Check your previous bank statements to figure out the due dates. By tracking fixed expenditures, you are more likely to stay out of impulse purchases whenever a date approaches.
Mark Saving Dates
Note down and color code the automatic savings withdrawals. If you manually transfer money to savings, mark a date when you want to transfer the money. If you are saving for something like a house or a car, consider noting them down at the bottom. The note will prevent you from deviating from the goal.
Create a Separate Entry for Each Expense
Variable expenses that you can plan ahead—like an anniversary, dinner party, or a birthday—are to be noted down on the budget calendar. It’ll let you plan to cover the expenses of gifts and hosting a party.
Color Coding
Color code each of your paydays with different colors. If you’re getting paid twice a month, consider using different colors for each one. Mark the spending with the same color as the income that you want to cover it with. If your first check goes to cover your insurance, mark them both with the same color.
The Bottom Line
Hopefully, you’ve understood what a budget calendar is and why it is important to maintain one. A budget calendar helps you plan the future, go debt-free, and cut costs wherever possible. By shedding light on your revenue, bills, and saving, a budget calendar helps you improve your cash flow and curb impulse spending.
