So a little while ago I started a series called ” Saving for Travel series” with the first post hitting the hard topic of Budgeting! Check it out here…….

In this second part of the series I will explain to you how I make my budget work, helping me to save for my Travel goals.

So after I have completed my spending diary and written down what my budget is ( if you have know idea what I’m talking about look back here on my first post) it time to put the budget into practice. There is 5 ways I accomplish this;

Using the sections in my wallet I divide my cash for different areas of my budget.

I have multiple bank accounts;
Between the three banking institutions I use I have 9 separate accounts, all for a different reason. Most are for specific travel plans that we have, I have already started saving for our UK trip in 2022! and Jays 18th birthday trip, while another accounts are specifically for Christmas / Birthdays and general emergency savings. Most financial institutions will let you have multiple accounts but check the fees and interest on each so you get the most for your money. Money for these accounts are automatically transferred weekly from my pay into their accounts before I get a chance to spend it! All this can be set up via the Internet or ask your friendly bank teller to help!

I pay my bills of ahead of time;
I automatically set up weekly bank transfers to each of my utility providers, using the same way you would to pay the bill online with BPay. So for example if in my budget I have decided that it costs us $20 a week for electricity then that’s what is set up to pay each week via BPay, so that when I get the quarterly bill I never have anything to pay because I have paid it ahead of time. This took me a little to tweet to get exactly right, but even if I have been a little out it, I have never received a bill that has been more than $50 owing and the majority of the time I have been in credit! These weekly payments will be shown as individual credits on your account with the date made, so if you want to cross reference, you can.

I use these clips to divide cash to pay certain bills, you could use zip lock bags, envelopes etc

Divided cash
I have a spot where I put a set amount of money (determined by the budget!) away for my water bill and anything car related. Because we rent I can’t pay in advance our water bill, the real estate bills us, so each week I physically put away some cash ready to pay for the bill when it comes through. Same for the car expenses, money put here covers my rego and most other car related items (not fuel) like new tyres ect. These two items could have been put into their own bank accounts, but I was getting too many to keep track of so decided to go ” old school” with this area of the budget and it’s never a huge amount of cash, so I’m not concerned about losing.

Money in purse
I take out all cash allocated to groceries, fuel and “play money” and separate it in different areas of my wallet. This is so I can visualise what I have to spend on each of these, and know what I have left!

Its amazing how quick savings add up by emptying your wallet of coins and spare notes.

Money boxes
Lastly I have two money boxes, ones for silver and one for gold coins /notes. This is where all my spare cash goes and is used for various things. The silver may be used for pocket money for the kids, maybe school canteen, or other stuff where we need change, while the notes and gold coins varies in its use, presently it is being saved for my weekend away with my mum and sister. It’s is amazing how this little habit of throwing the change in each day /week can add up! And even if you don’t do anything else that I recommend, this is something that is easy to do, most of the time with great rewards!

So give some or all of this a go and you will be saving up for that travel goal in no time!

Do you have any saving / budgeting tips?
Please share below!

Safe travels
Kerrie

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