Do you hate it when you struggle for a month to make money and you blow it off the first weekend?
Do you hate it when you are living on scraps and are waiting for the next cheque to come in?
Do you hate it when you don’t have a little bit saved off for some emergency?

For some, financial struggle is not making enough money. For most, financial struggle is not having enough when they are making enough.
No amount of money is enough if we do not spend it wisely.
Everyone wants to spend wisely, but what is spending wisely and how do we go about it ?

Here is a simple guide on how to spend guaranteed  to give you  enough breathing space and more at the end of the month.

1. Listing your expenses:
   • Necessities: Rent, electricity, water and other essentials come under this category.
   • Assets: A percentage of your cheque every month is set aside for savings, investments and    other assets. This is an investment towards your future and protecting yourself in a case of a emergency.
   • Liabilities: These are expenses that you need such as money spent for quality time with family  and friends, expenses for the house such as kitchen utensils or toiletries. Find alternate cheap long-lasting solutions for these. Many items we require can easily be homemade or bought generic.
   • Do Not Need: These are expenses you could cut out on: weekly nights at the club, that fancy bag  from that fancy place, window shopping which suddenly becomes a hole in the pocket. Everything that goes into this category is not spent on anymore.
2. Start Investing Early
   Earlier the better. Invest for the future and invest in yourself. Having a secondary source of income allows you good breathing space in your life and gives you the freedom to take decisions such as quitting to switch to a dream job that might pay lesser. Building a retirement corpus is done in small steps of careful investing.
   Investing in yourself such as taking a course on programming or learning a language would be beneficial in the long run
3. Quality vs Cheap
   Quality lasts longer and Cheap is cheaper.  This trade off applies in every case. You benefit from buying quality products of some items such as electrical appliances as they last longer and prove to be cheaper in the long run. While some might not need such a level of quality and can still perform the required task, which is when it would be good to go cheap. Making the right quality vs cheap decision would leave you with more one way or another.
4. Care-free Budget
   After taking care of your necessities and assets set aside a budget for free and wild spending. Use this money for every instant gratification purchase in the month. Not a rupee more than the budget set aside should go into such purchases.

A wise and healthy spending not only helps lead a life without financial struggle but also a happier and healthier lifestyle without stress and worry about how you are going to get through the last week of the month

Spend Wisely, Live Happily

-Bhuvi and ‘alittleextramoney’