Everyone experiences the month-end squeeze occasionally. When you first receive your salary at the beginning of the month, you feel rich as you are able to buy nice things to eat and pay all your bills. 

If you are not careful, you may find yourself in a financial bind at the end of the month, which can make it challenging to buy groceries or put petrol in your car. 

To avoid this problem, here are some strategies you could employ.

Create a Budget

The most important and effective way of ensuring you don’t run out of money at the end of the month is to create a budget and stick to it. Budgets are the basis of financial planning and can help ensure you spend your money in a controlled manner. 

To create a good budget, you need to list all of your income and how much you expect to spend on monthly expenses, such as rent, water and lights, groceries, and  transportation. Be sure to include discretionary spending on items like entertainment as well. 

A trick for ensuring your budget keeps you going for the entire month is to divide your monthly budget into weekly stipends so you only spend a certain amount each week, especially when it comes to discretionary, grocery, and fuel expenditures.

Avoid Impulse Purchases

Impulse purchases are the quickest way to land you in financial trouble. If there is something you really want above and beyond your usual expenses, it is important you plan for it and save up small amounts over a few months in order to ensure you can pay for it without putting the rest of your budget in jeopardy. 

Before making a purchase, especially for non-essential items, it’s crucial to consider whether it’s something you really need and whether it will add value. If the item in question aligns with your financial goals, then you can try to work it into your budget, but make sure not to sacrifice other priorities like paying your debts or essential bills.

Track Your Expenses and Save

No matter how small your expenditures may be, it’s important to keep a record of everything. This can help you track where your money is going so you can identify the areas in which you overspend. There are various apps you can use to do this on the fly, which makes it easier and less administratively intensive. 

While tracking your expenses, you should also endeavour to prioritise saving so you can always have something on hand for emergencies or if you need to make a big purchase. 

To do this, you should treat your savings like any other bill that must be paid, have transfers made to the savings account on a regular basis, and be disciplined enough to not dig into it unnecessarily. 

Some people opt for fixed-term savings accounts to reduce the temptation to draw from their savings for unnecessary purchases. 

Start your journey to becoming debt-free and grow your “rainy day” fund today. Contact Zero Debt for more advice on how to manage your finances and achieve financial freedom.