4 Replies
The ideal answer to that would be to track all your income and expenses so that you can work on a budget. I tried that and found it too tedious especially since ako lahat gumagawa sa bahay. My solution? Never go out of the house on a weekday. I leave the house once a week para mag-grocery then I bring along a certain amount na yun lang dapat gastusin. If may extra sa weekly school allowance namin ng anak ko, yun yung pang-reward niya on grocery day.
What I do is I list down all the payables for the month and the succeeding months and ung projected income. From there, I can determine how much goes to expenses which includes bills, groceries, and other payables and savings. I also set aside a portion for miscellaneous.
I maintain an excel sheet. Andun lahat yung mga monthly expenses namin, then may column para sa budget so I know magkano ang allotted for that item, then may column para sa actual spend for that item. That way I can track if nag-exceed ba kami sa budget or not.
I also have a list of the monthly bills and I set aside an amount for miscellaneous. I project the budget at least 2 months in advance so it won't be very difficult for me in case something comes up.