With a zero-based budget, you would generally put all of that leftover money toward savings or debt payoff. So what do you do with any leftover money at the end of the month or paycheck cycle? In fact, I have an entire list of Amazon products that I absolutely do think are worth prioritizing (and could save you tons of money in the long term)! It’s all about priorities. So then I get to decide if spending that money on a new blender or new pair of shoes is more important to me than saving for a new car or covering future medical bills. Instead of seeing that $6,000 in the bank and thinking I have $6,000 of spending money, I look at my YNAB budget and see all of the jobs I’ve given that money. Therefore, when you take money out of one category to cover overspending in another, you get to really see that change in jobs and priorities.įor me, it gives my money real meaning. It just means that all your money has a specific purpose! It has meaning! It doesn’t mean that they can’t explore other jobs and careers and be moved around. Zero-based budgets are great because every single penny of your money has a job. If you want a zero-based budget, but don’t want to have to do the math to keep up with one, YNAB for sure is the place to go. In my first 2 months of using YNAB I went from having basically nothing in savings or checking to saving over $6,000! They are great with responding to questions, and they have tons of free workshops and a youtube page that walks you through step by step how to use their software. If you use that link you’ll get your first 34 days free with YNAB! You don’t even have to put in your credit card information. So now, I use YNAB to track my zero-based budget. It’s great if you prefer pen and paper, but I often got confused about my balances if I missed a transaction or if an amount changed in my account between pending and processing. I actually used this when I first got started budgeting. Some people choose to do a manual expense tracker like the one that the Budget Mom offers here in her budget by paycheck workbook. So with the zero-based budget, you need to have a means for tracking all of your expenses because every penny counts in this budgeting method. But it just goes to illustrate the idea that the money coming in should equal money going out (this includes debt and savings as “expenses”). Obviously, those numbers are just made up for ease of calculation. For now let’s go over the methods so you can start to narrow down which one might work for you!ĭisclaimer: this page includes affiliate links that help keep content here at the Avocado Toast Budget free and frequent! Thank you for your support. You’re not committed to one method forever, so don’t get too worried. I love getting to go through different budgeting methods and decide which works best for me and my lifestyle at the time. This is the fun step in your budgeting journey. So for today, let’s just focus on the 7 most popular budgeting methods/types, what they are, and if they are right for you. I could spend an eternity detailing all different versions of every kind of budgeting method, but that’s not why you’re here today. Okay, awesome! Now that we have our foundation laid, let’s focus on what kinds of budgeting methods are out there (hint: there are limitless types of budgets). If you haven’t checked those out yet, go review those before reading this post. So far we have gone over what a budget even is and how to build up an emergency fund to get yourself set up for success. How can anyone expect you to start budgeting if you don’t even know where to start? That is where this Budget Basics Course comes in. There are so many different options to choose from! And who even knows what half of those words mean? If you are new to the world of budgeting, it can be completely overwhelming.
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