Spendee, can I keep spending or not?
Knowing every morning how much I can spend in given category to be able to stick to the planned budget is priceless.
“Keep spending. You can spend $50 each remaining day.”
This is one of the messages you get in Spendee in Budget section if your planned budget is still in “green” numbers. No problematic calculations, no Excel sheets, no prediction models. I open budget section in Spendee and check out, how am I doing and how much money I have left for remaining days. The best part is that I have this information all the time with me (unless your phone is without battery) thus I can flexibly decide on the spot, whether to buy something or not.
Budgeting in Spendee in 5 steps
Hopefully, you were using Spendee for some time now. Thus you got some valuable insights into your spending habits already. If that is your case, please follow these easy steps to get budgets doing the hard job for you.
1. Analysis
Before you set up a budget, it’s good to do some reflection and first analysis. Check out the overview of following month in Spendee and try to answer following questions:
1. Did I expect those results? If not, what has surprised me the most?
2. What are my variable and fixed costs?
3. Is there a category within variable costs I spend too much money on? If yes, could I lower the costs?
4. How much money would I like to save in this category?
5. Is this amount realistic?
2. Identifying budget category
If you answer those questions, you should be able to identify your biggest pains. Usually, it is the best to start budgeting for expenses that are variable, like drinks, cinema, coffee, lunches. When identifying those, try to set a realistic amount for your first budget. Also, you can try to start from the weekly budget that is easier to stick to and gradually increase the difficulty and set a budget that will last for the whole month.
3. Set the budget in Spendee
If you have a free plan, you can configure only one budget, which is ok for the beginning, but more you got Spendee addict, the more budgets you will create. You can create budgets per wallet, and you can set it either for All Expenses or one of your expense categories. I would recommend placing your first budget for a category you want to spend less on. It will be easier to stick to it. If you’re going to for example create a budget for “Coffee”, make sure that you have “Coffee” category in the list of expense categories.
Follow steps below to create your first budget:
1. Click on Budget icon
2. Tap “Create your first budget.”
3. Add name to the budget and Amount
4. Choose category you want your budget for
5. Select a period and starting day
6. Turn on notifications to be aware when you are about to exceed the budget
4. Try stick to the budget
Sticking to the budget might be difficult, but you can do it. Make sure that you set up a realistic budget and that you reward yourself when reaching the goal. Start with small budgeting challenges and take it step by step. When you can stick to a budget for a week or two, you should be able to hold to a budget for a more extended period. When you can stick to one budget, you might be ready to start sticking to more budgets from different categories. Moreover, Spendee makes it easier on you, as you will get notified when you spend 75%, 90% and 100% of your budget.
5. Keep calm and track your money
It is essential to have 360° views of your finances, and apps like Spendee makes it easy for you to be on top of your money all the time. Budgeting is not a one-off thing. When you start with your first budget the beginning might be rough, but sooner or later you’ll get into it, and you will identify gaps for budgets more comfortable and you will be able to stick to them easier. You just need to have in mind that tracking your incomes and expenses is the only way how you could get a real picture of your financial habits. In Spendee you either connect your bank account and have all your incomes in one place or track your expenses manually.
