Budgeting can be a hard thing to do, especially with the daily financial demands of family, children, and unavoidable expenses.
During my journey to minimalism, I learned how important it was to downsize and realized I needs to start changing my spending habits once and for all.
If you want to start living a simple life and learn the value of living with less, here are some minimalist budgeting tips that have helped me along the way and hopefully benefit you as well:
10 Minimalist Budget Tips
1. Have a serious talk…with yourself.
One of the biggest aspects of minimalist living is to identify what your goals are going to be.
While this seems difficult, it really is not.
A huge part of this process is, to be honest about what you want and where you’re going.
When having this talk with yourself, set boundaries for your financial outlook, and STICK WITH THEM.
If there’s no willingness to stick with the boundaries, minimalist budgeting just isn’t possible.
Setting these financial goals will help you set a solid list of priorities to meet.
2. Distance Yourself from Financial Distractions
Financial distractions lurk in every corner of our tech and even traditional mail.
These forms of marketing are meant to trap people into spending more money than they need to.
This can be a dangerous situation for someone trying to live by minimalist views.
3. Put a Stop to Un-necessary Spending
The absolute biggest key to minimalist budgeting is to ensure that unnecessary purchases aren’t made.
This can be impulse buys or even overindulgence in spending. It is critical that the question is asked, “Do I need this?”
There are many things we may think we need, that can be considered unnecessary.
These purchases really put a dent in the goals and priorities that were set up.
This is discouraging and can cause a slip back out of the lifestyle that’s being created.
4. Focus on Owning Things
Borrowing leads to owing which leads to debt.
This terrible cycle is something that keeps many out of the minimalist budgeting mindset.
So to achieve this, it is critical to focus on owning things. The more that is owned, the less that is owed.
That may sound overly simple, however, it is a feat to conquer and a well deserving one in the end.
5. Limit Yourself to One Financial Account
The overstated saying “less is more” really is applicable when it comes to minimalist budgeting or minimalist living in general.
When specifying the one account it can be stated that one savings and one checking is acceptable.
This leaves room for an emergency fund in the savings account.
But overall, this limitation of accounts will really set forth the boundaries and even perhaps the boundaries that were set up during the talk to yourself!
6. Shoot for Pre-Determined Payments
Having a direct debit set up to process payments automatically will enforce budget boundaries.
If you know for sure you have money coming out to pay important things like loans or things like that, you will inherently know that you must limit spending that particular week.
Not only does this foster a healthy budgeting plan, but will help keep you responsible for paying things on time!
7. Make a Budget Plan
Making a budget plan is important to keep on track with minimalist budgeting.
This includes accounting for weekly expenses you know you’ll have like gas, groceries, monthly utilities, etc.
Having this list readily available will keep all minimalist budgeting concepts at the forefront.
8. Be Aware of Any Future Purchases
This tip focuses on the debate between “need” and “want”.
Be aware of any future purchases that you may have. Consider whether or not they fall into the “want” or “need” categories.
If it seems like it will slip outside of the budgeting plan that you’ve implemented or breach any priorities that have been set up, you should question the decision.
This helps to make the right decisions.
9. Spend Less than What You Make
While this sounds obvious, it is critical to implement it.
Falling into debt holes that become too deep starts with spending more than what people make.
Affordable finances are achievable and having the right mindset is important.
This means knowing that just because you need to spend less isn’t going to terrible.
It will be for the greater good of happiness through minimal budgeting.
10. Less Room is Needed
When sticking to a minimalist lifestyle, this often leads to the shrinkage of excessive things in our life.
When approaching this concept it especially helps the minimalist budgeting because small apartments or houses mean less money will be spent.
This helps to make the transition into minimalist budgeting all the more exciting and meaningful!
I hope these tips can help to guide you towards creating a minimalist budget.
Do you have a tip of your own to share? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!