Everyone knows what a budget is and how helpful it can be for saving money. But what do you do if you’ve tried every budgeting app known to man and every spreadsheet you could find online and still spend too much? 

That’s what happened to me! And in today’s post, I want to share what I did instead. Because despite how it may feel, there is a remedy for your spending habits. There is a way to budget that works for you. You just have to find it. 

https://youtu.be/gXyt5kpsMMI

Now, this may not be the thing that works for you. And this post is certainly not financial advice. But if you’ve been struggling to make budgeting work for you, it may be with a shot!

Why traditional budgeting didn’t help me save money

To be clear, it wasn’t that budgeting apps, spreadsheets, and Etsy templates just don’t work. They just weren’t Christina-proof. Because that’s the thing about budgeting — you have to do what works for you. 

And while I know a lot of people enjoy these things, I definitely did not keep up with constantly tracking my expenses or playing with the numbers. I’d have a few-day streak going then soon found myself forgetting about it when I missed a day.

It wasn’t helpful for me, and I was always judging myself for not keeping track of it. Which made it even harder to save money! 

Plus, I’m really good at spending money. If I know the money is there, I might swipe my card. And when I have all of my money in one place…well, you can imagine how that went. 

How I budget differently

The method that finally worked for me? Allocating funds to different accounts. Of course, now it’s a little more extensive with real estate and investing, but I started out by categorizing my funds into things like essentials and fun money. 

And when I started making money from my biz, I would put a portion of my “paycheck” into each account — automatically.

That meant no need to worry about remembering to do it and accidentally spending what should have gone towards groceries or bills. Or the constant push and pull of, “Do I really need to put that much into savings?” and then deciding to change my budget (which negatively impacted my goals). 

Automatically transferring funds meant my bank did the dirty work for me and I knew exactly how much was in each account. It also meant that I could track what I was spending and how much I had left without having to think twice about it. All the number crunching was already done for me, I just had to check my account. Easy!

Allocate your funds

Everyone’s budget will be different depending on your goals, values, and responsibilities. However, I do think that there are a few staple accounts that you should have to make your life easier. 

Again, this isn’t financial advice. I’m just sharing what has worked for me. Alter as you see fit!

• Bills: Things like electricity, wifi, rent, gas, water, etc. Bonus points for setting them to automatic payments too (thank me later). 
• Savings: This is the hardest one of them all if you’re a spender like me. I know it’s hard to put money aside that you’d rather spend on an LV bag, but set it and forget it. It will help you out tremendously!
• Subscriptions: I have credit cards that I use solely for subscriptions, of any kind. Things for me, Netflix, stuff for the doggos. And once I opened the account, I set payments to automatic withdrawals and shredded the cards so I wouldn’t spend the money on anything other than subscriptions. Then, I just make it a part of my budget to pay this off each month. I’m racking up all the benefits without having to put myself into debt!
• Fun money: It’s not realistic to think that you’ll never spend money on entertainment, going out to eat, or a “treat yourself” purchase. You can still do this — just set a budget for it so you don’t go overboard!
• Debt: Make paying off debt a priority. Have an account the payments automatically withdraw from. This basically gives you guardrails, like at the bowling alley, to make sure you don’t miss a payment and prolong things. 
• Business: Of course, you want to have a separate account for your business too. This makes it much easier to track your expenses and helps you when tax season rolls around. 

Use the 50/30/20 method

This isn’t the only thing to budgeting though. Allocating expenses is just a small part (for me not so small…it was game-changing, but whatever. You get the idea) of getting on track financially. 

If you want to learn more about how I budget in both my business and my personal life, check out the video below! I’m breaking down the 50/30/20 budget, showing you how I adjust it to fit my needs, and how you can too.