On Afternoon Outlook from Thursday 25^th February, Don Devlin spoke to Siobhan Slevin from Kilkenny MABS Office where they spoke about budgeting

WHY BUDGET?

A budget lets you know what you spend your money on each week.

A budget helps you plan for special occasions e.g., Christmas

A budget helps you to make plans for the future

A budget stops you borrowing from friends and family

A budget stops you spending on impulse

A budget helps set money aside

A budget puts you in control of your spending.

TIPS ON HOW TO BUDGET

To create a budget you don’t need anything fancy or an App to do it, simply get a page and drawn a line down the middle, one side is income and one side is expenditure.

MABS have a free budgeting app or on the website www.mabs.ie you can complete your budget in the self-help category.

You make a list on the income side of the payments coming in to a household eg. Wages, social welfare, children’s allowance etc.

You then make a list on the opposite side of all that you pay each week.

You need to look at what bills you have each week or month, how do you pay your bills, in the post office or bank by direct debit or standing order.

If you get paid weekly you should pay your bills weekly. This can be done in your post office for household bills such as Electric Ireland and Bord Gais and Kilkenny County Council Rent.

If you get paid monthly pay your bills monthly.

If you get a 2 monthly bill such as Electric Ireland you divide the bill by 8 to get the weekly amount. Everyone has a phone with a calculator so this can show you how much you should pay weekly if you are planning on paying your bills weekly.

Then total up both incoming money and outgoing money – if your outgoings are larger than your incoming money, then you have budgeting problems.

A big tip for people is to keep a spending diary of what you spend in a week, so many people spend and tap without realizing and this will cause issues as you will not know where your money is going. Every time you put your hand into your pocket simply write it down and total it up at the end of the day. People are often surprised by how much they are spending without realizing it.

Always make a shopping list before you go to the supermarket, try not to shop in local shops do a weekly shop in a larger supermarket. This will help you to save money in the long run. Also a big tip don’t shop when you are hungry…….