I used to think budgets were just for people in debt

Last year I was making decent money but still felt broke every month. My friend at work convinced me to try the 50/30/20 rule for just 2 months back in January. I started tracking every dollar in a simple notebook and realized I was spending $200 a month on random coffee shop trips. Now I actually have savings for the first time in my life lol. Has anyone else found a budget method that surprised them with how well it worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

bettys5113d ago

Tbh the 50/30/20 rule is what got me too but I actually tweaked it a bit. I do 50/20/30 instead where 20% goes to fun stuff and 30% goes to savings. Sounds backwards but it made me actually stick with it. I found that cutting myself too tight on fun money made me just give up after a month. Now I have a separate savings account that transfers automatically every payday so I don't even have to think about it. Honestly the automatic transfer was the real game changer for me.

park.abby12d ago

Wait, so you actually do the opposite of the fun money rule and it works? That's kind of genius honestly. I always felt so guilty when I'd use my fun money up too fast, but maybe I need to try flipping it like you did. The automatic transfer thing sounds like a lifesaver too, I need to set that up.

claire_wells8712d ago

no bc i actually tried the 50/20/30 thing after reading about it somewhere and it totally worked for me too. but here's my question - do you ever find yourself accidentally spending more than the 20% on fun stuff because you know you have that extra 10% cushion? like i had to be super strict with myself the first few months or i'd just blow through it all. the auto transfer thing is clutch tho, i set mine up to go out right when my paycheck hits so i legit forget i even had that money to begin with.