Do you get to the end of the month and wonder, why do I have so few pennies left over? It can be hard to save money and seem even harder to learn how to budget to achieve your dream life. But I’m here to remind you, yes you, that you can do it. You can both save for your big life goals, and enjoy the special/ sometimes spontaneous moments in life along the way too.
1. How to (make a plan to) manifest the life you want.
I’m all for spirituality. I think it helps both our mind and improves our day-to-day life more than we realise. But we can’t just wish & merely hope our life will turn out a certain way. We need to put action behind it too. Along with a positive mindset, we also need a concrete plan in place to fulfill our dream life. That’s why I love journaling.
This journal by Inspire Spirit is a great tool & it perfectly blends the right amounts of spiritual/motivational quotes with templates to help you make your plan become a reality. Whether you have a goal to save for your first home, save for a car or that holiday we all want, this journal will help you. Inspire Spirit are a great small business here in the UK. They lovingly make Life Journals from eco sources such as the vegan leather covers & eco-friendly paper.
And you can see for yourself, they’re really aesthetically pleasing too and show you how to budget. Now is as good a time as ever to support your local small businesses as well as get your life on track! This is not a paid post, but I do get a small % of the sale price when you use the below 20% code, guys. I am always transparent and only promote products I use & believe in, and this is one of them.
Also we should all support our unique and heartfelt small businesses lately. Especially those who care about their product’s quality as well as being passionate about helping people. With that being said, I have a discount code for you all to purchase the same journal I have below (the blue is cute isnt it?!). Use the code THESPEND&SAVE20 for 20% off your Journal! 🙂 Let me know in the comments below what colour journal you prefer and what your life goals will be.
2. Write down your Top Goals, but don’t overdo it.
Ok, so you want to have a new successful side hustle, a new car, a boss b*tch empire as well as a flashy new home? (Don’t we all.) But this can be the downfall when people set their goals and don’t know how to budget. They put too many things on their list to achieve, that in the end they don’t achieve any at all. There’s no such thing as quick money, or quick successes (for the majority of people). You need to be honest with yourself, and write down your #1 goal and then split it out into steps on how to achieve it. If you focus on 10 different things at once, your mind will be in overload mode, and you may get burnout.
If your goal is to become a content creator for example. Don’t create a YouTube channel, a website, an Instagram page and an online shop all on the same day. Pace yourself. Write down a clear plan. I’m not saying you can never have all these things, but you need to tackle them one by one. You need to split them out into achievable targets, figure out how to budget each avenue too. Otherwise you may get frustrated if none of them are working out. Be consistent and have a plan in your journal. That way you can look at your plan regularly to remind yourself of how much you want it and that you CAN achieve it.
3. Figure out your personal timelines.
The great choice with this journal is that it breaks up your goals by month or by week, whatever you choose to decide. So you can pick yourself how best to hit those targets and get started on how to budget your life out. I recently started a book called the The 12 Week Year, and a really valid point they made was that we all suffer with procrastination. And we tend to push all of our goals to the end of the year subconsciously. And that if we shorten the deadline in our head for our new year’s resolution from 1 year to 1 month, we genuinely can hit our goals faster, and do more with our time.
This has been proven time and time again. Have you ever had an assignment due in 2 weeks and you leave it to the night before the deadline to actually do it?! Yes. We’ve all been there at some stage! That’s why our own goal targets are important to set. Otherwise you may never reach them.
Name your goal. Do you want to buy a house? WHEN. Make a specific plan. If it’s in 3 years time, how much money will you need to reach it by then? Work backwards to figure it out and cut your target into bitesize achievable chunks. For example, a £20,000 deposit in 3 years time, this works out to be about £556 you need to save every month. That can be your monthly goal in your journal.
Whether you can save purely from your 9-5, or you get creative and make money online as a side hustle to reach this goal. Having a set target in mind will help you get motivated and reach your goal faster. If you want ideas on how to make money online or as a teenager, check out my blog posts here on how to do it! Use your journal to learn how to budget and get on that path to success.
There’s some great side hustles tips to increase your cashflow without any previous experience needed. Sometimes we have to get a bit creative with our money to make it go further. It doesn’t have to be boring or strenuous on your health or time. There are ways to increase your income from the comfort of your home town. Even as I write this, I have organised a dog walk in my area, that’s an extra £15 in my pocket at the end of the day! You can easily do this too.
4. Answer the Question: Who are you doing this for?
If you are writing down goals just because you think that’s what other people expect for you, then drop that pen right now! You shouldn’t listen to others views on how to live your life or how to budget your money! If you don’t really want to go on a trip with friends that’ll cost you £2,000, don’t go. Same with your living situation. If you secretly hate living in the city, and need to move asap, make a plan to do it. You don’t need validation from anyone else.
You will have a feeling deep down as to what you truly want to do with your life, who you want to surround yourself with and why you want to do certain things. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently or try to guilt trip you into coming away from your plan. If you want to save 70% of your income by living at home so you can buy somewhere in cash in a few years time, that’s your decision. No one elses. Well, maybe your parents might have a say on that one…!! Learning how to budget your money will always lead you on a great path for success. It will make you conscious of any excessive spending on things you don’t need. Minimalism helps with your spending too. Having less things equals having more money! (win win.)
Thanks all for your continued support everyone. We are growing our community here & love to hear your comments, so do feel free to share. I am always transparent with my content and I only work with and promote products I believe in. I also use affiliate links for Amazon mainly to help showcase great books. The above book from Amazon, The 12 week year, is an example of what I read recently that is very thought provoking and provides guidance in how we can all achieve our goals. No FLUFF here guys ;). Thank you all &, as always, stay safe.
The Spend & Save X