Financial experts have taught us to always make a
budget to enable us check our expenses. A lot of people have adapted the use of
excel spread sheets to do the budget most times even before the salary account
is credited the money has already been spent on the spread sheet. There are
even spread sheets online that have being prepared to help with your wedding
budget so this way all you have to enter are the figures(yea; it is that easy
so what’s your excuse?). It sounds very encouraging and accessible, in fact I
know of people who work with it at every opportunity and they say it’s been
really helpful to them but how feasible is it? Whether feasible or not, I have realized there are certain things the spread sheet won’t teach you. Find them
out after the cut…
I have been struggling with my finances for quite a
while now (don’t look at me like you’ve not had your days too),I have the
tendency of being really extravagant, buying what I don’t need to pay later
(trust me that’s the fastest way to run yourself down) or even what I can’t
afford. This brings me to my first point of what your spread sheet will not
teach you:
- · It won’t teach you to curb your appetite: If you would agree with me, there are lots of things we do and even budget for that are irrelevant. That it is on your spread sheet doesn’t make it useful e.g the Spa treatment, fine dining at any restaurant of your choice, airtime just to mention a few. Why buy10.000.00NGN airtime monthly? Are you talking to God? If you spend that much to make calls that won’t bring in more money; then I think it is a total waste.
- · It won’t teach you to DIY (Do it yourself): this is a great way of cutting down expenses but unfortunately your spread sheet cannot suggest this or even teach you how. If instead of spending 6.000.00NGN on fine dining every weekend you decide to learn how to make that meal yourself at 3.000.00NGN, you have been able to save some money. Thanks to the internet now we can learn to do almost anything ourselves. This might shock you but I learnt to retouch my hair myself instead on spending 2.000.00NGN each time my hair is due.
- · Your spread sheet can’t teach you to abide by it: It is one thing to make your budget; it is another to work with the budget. It takes a whole lot of discipline to work with a budget, especially one that is typed and saved somewhere on a computer; the only time I may remember it is there is when I’ve spent the money and have come back to write for the next month..lol
This is not to discourage you from working with a
budget but to make it more efficient. For different levels of income earners
there is a higher level of discipline to be acquired. This discipline comes
from knowing the value of money, realizing that it is a visitor and may leave
at any time and having a strategy to make it last longer. You may think you are
struggling because you earn only 100.000.00NGN but even a person who earns
100,000,000.00NGN will face a similar problem if careless with it. What I am
trying to say in essence is this, curb for appetite for extravagant luxury,
learn to do those things that will save you a couple of bucks; when you do
these two and you are satisfied then go ahead with the spread sheet and abide
to it. You still have a few days before the month ends…Good luck.
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