It is Day Eleven of the $1,000 Plan. Last night Hubby and I worked our way through evaluating the overall household budget and I made suggestions as to how this could be done better.
One thing that clearly stood out was the need for us to do better when it came to utility payments. Some payments had been set up as automatic payments for quite some time, but there were other payments that clearly needed to be made into automatic payments as well.
Some payments needed to be adjusted to be done as partial payments, over a greater length of time, rather than a lump sum payment biannually or annually; as this tended to really make things very tight and uncomfortable on the financial front for a bit.
When you have the option of setting up automatic payments to go out close to, or immediately after a salary or wage payment comes through, it cuts down on the worry about making and keeping up with utility payments.
Nothing is worse that having a dark cloud hanging over you, with worry and concern about whether you can meet a financial obligation.
Some utility payments may only require payment once a month, others may require payment fortnightly or even weekly. However, difficulties arise when you leave any payment for too long and suddenly it becomes quite the mountain to conquer.
Making steady payments can eleviate a lot of stress. It is much better we have found, to keep on top of payments and where possible to make partial payments, rather than have a substantial billing suddenly hit the wallet at the end of the month, bi-annually or even annually.
As a property owner, it is highly likely you may have to pay both local and regional property rates if you are based in Aotearoa New Zealand, like we are. These billings can be quite hard on the pocket if you do not make partial payments over the course of the year, particularly when you are a single income household.
In our single income household, we have found it best for most utility bills and other such financial obligations to be spread over several weeks. This helps to lessen the blow felt when the actual due date for payment comes around each month or every six months, etc. A fortnightly payment of say $15.00 is far more manageable for instance, than suddenly trying to meet a billing for $413.00 for regional rates once a year.
It takes time to work out payday by payday how best to spread out any obligations you have on the financial front.
It takes careful consideration to weigh up what you can afford each payday, alongside the longer term financial obligations that you may have.
Keeping on top of payments lessens one's overall worry and stress. Plus, it helps to provide a clearer picture of just how the balance of expenditure versus income is really going.
When you set a financial goal, such as The $1,000 Plan it becomes increasingly apparent that each and every dollar and where they each go, becomes rather important to ascertain and keep track of.
When you have a financial goal, you really want to make sure you are giving yourself the best deal possible and the best chance possible to succeed in your endeavours.
We have valued taking a little extra time lately, to do a bit of a self audit on the financial front. It is looking with each passing day more hopeful & more likely that we can indeed achieve our hoped for goal of saving $1,000 within 4 - 6 weeks. Yay!
Some bills end up being cheaper if you pay yearly or quarterly so we have extra online accounts that act as "envelopes". Once Grant's salary comes in we have automatic payments set up into the envelopes. Some we operate out of (grocery, petrol money) and some sit there until the yearly payment is due (rates, insurance). It makes it easier to budget for if we split up the yearly amount and gather the money bit by bit each paycheque, and we still enjoy the savings of making the annual payment.
ReplyDeleteHi Jen! Thanks for your comment and sharing how your family are approaching payments. It is great when we can share our various approaches as there is often just something that will suddenly prove to be just the perfect solution for someone else.... or it triggers an idea that is the right one. Using various online accounts as "envelopes" is a fabulous option :-)!
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