Don’t go crackers

For most of us, November started off with a bang! But unfortunately remembering the redemption from explosive chaos does little to help us manage our time, stress, skills and finances over November and December. It’s like we just go from one event to the next, our limited weekends disappearing under the demands of a myriad of social events – all costing us ‘a little here and a little there’.

Before we know it, we look at our bank balance and somehow our budget figures seem to be quite different to the reality – this can drive us crackers!

Here are some financial planning tips for the next 54 days…

1. Make a calendar with budgets: It’s easy to assume you’ll have enough money when you’re only spending a few hundred here, and a few hundred there. But when they all add up, you’ll find that what you thought would be a couple of hundred bucks, turns into a grand or two.
   Itemise all the events you have to attend and put in an estimate cost for each one. It’s okay if you go over, this is simply to help you understand where your money will be going in the next 7 weeks so that you don’t have an unhappy surprise!
2. Keep & capture your slips: Keeping your slips will help you check how accurate your budget calendar has been and will enable you to make decisions about the next event as to how much you should or shouldn’t curtail your spending. Knowing where your money is going empowers you to not spin into a panic when it’s suddenly less than you thought. Also – if you have extra left over, you’re able to enjoy some more guilt-free luxuries over this festive period!
3. Use cash instead of cards: If you budget R300 to spend at an event, and you have it in your pocket in cash, you’re far less likely to overspend. But if you simply swipe your card… it’s way easier to add on and extra R50 without even ‘feeling’ it.

Part of having me as your financial advisor, is that I’m here to help you plan and manage how you earn, save and spend your financial resources. If you feel like you’re going crackers… just drop me an email and let’s hook up!