Budgeting Tips Archives - Weekly | A Better Budget App

Rainy Day Fund: How to Tell if You Are Prepared for a Rainy Day

Weekly LLC — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 22:43:53 +0000

Do you keep track of your finances so you know how much money you can reasonably spend each week? You’re on your way to a healthy budget! You understand the importance of realistic spending. But are you saving for a rainy day? If something unexpected occurs, such as issues with your car or a leak in your home, could you afford the repairs? What if you are injured and can’t work for a few weeks? To prepared for these types of events, you can create a rainy day fund.

If you don’t have extra money set aside, you aren’t preparing financially for a “rainy day.” Preparing for a rainy day doesn’t have to be complicated, and anyone can do it!

Here is everything you need to know about a Rainy Day Fund, including what it is, why it’s necessary, and how you can create one.

What is a Rainy Day or Emergency Fund?

Rainy day funds and emergency funds are financial safety nets. If you ever have an unplanned financial need, you can use the money you’ve set aside.

However, just to clarify, a new pair of shoes or video game doesn’t count as an “unplanned financial need.” We’re talking about things you need to spend money on, like a car to go to work or a refrigerator to keep your food cold.

To help with your financial planning, we’ve included descriptions of both a Rainy Day Fund and an Emergency Fund. You can use these guides to decide how you want to save.

Rainy Day Fund: A Rainy Day Fund is about $1000-$1500. It’s enough money to help cover an unplanned financial need, such as a car repair, new appliance, medical expense, or minor home repair.

Emergency Fund: An Emergency Fund is a much larger financial safety net, anywhere from three to six months of your living expenses. This fund can help cover job loss or being out of work temporarily due to a major accident or injury.

Why is a Rainy Day Fund an Important Part of your Budget?

Here are some other reasons to have a rainy day or emergency fund.

Reduces Stress of an Unexpected Cost

It feels stressful when an appliance breaks or you have an injury. You need to find a replacement appliance or schedule necessary medical care. These steps already take time and money. It will add to your stress if the money you need isn’t available.

With a rainy day fund, you won’t have to worry about whether you have the money or where to get it if you don’t. This financial security helps you feel less overwhelmed.

Prevents Using Higher Interest Loan Sources for Funds

Without a rainy day fund, you might have to use a credit card or take out a loan to pay for unexpected financial needs. These sources charge high-interest rates that can be more of a financial burden.

If you already have the money set aside for a rainy day, you won’t have to use any loan sources.

Finding the Funds Won’t Interfere with Other Financial Goals

Part of your current budget might include saving for a vacation, home renovation, or luxury item. You might also have a 401k. If you have an emergency financial need but no rainy day fund, you might need to use the money you’ve saved for retirement or a European cruise for an unexpected expense.

A rainy day fund helps ensure you’ll have the money you need without taking away savings from other future goals.

Tips for Creating a Rainy Day Fund

Are you ready to create a rainy day fund? It won’t happen overnight, but it isn’t difficult, either. Here are some tips to start saving money for a financial emergency.

Live Frugally for a Month or Two

You can live frugally for a few months to quickly save enough money for your rainy day fund. This strategy means looking at your typical spending to see which expenses are enjoyable but unnecessary. Limit these expenses for a few months.

Examples of costs you can potentially cut include eating out or getting fast food, drinking alcohol (especially at restaurants), and subscription services. You can also try to limit impulse shopping habits

Don’t worry. You won’t have to avoid all the fun stuff forever! Just limit what you can and put your extra money aside for your rainy day fund. Your savings will grow faster the more you can save each month. Then, you can return to the spending habits you enjoy.

Use Weekly to Create a Fund

Weekly is a budgeting app that helps you understand your weekly spending so you can stop overspending and save for the future. You can use Weekly to help you create a rainy day fund so you know you’ll have money for unexpected financial needs.

With Weekly, the process is easy. Create a “Fund” using the app. Tell Weekly how much you want to contribute to the fund and how often. For example, if you want to contribute $400 a month to an emergency fund, Weekly will automatically convert this to a weekly amount.

When Weekly calculates your weekly Safe to Spend, it will make sure to budget for your rainy day fund goal. You can review the amount in your fund and spend from it as needed.

Soon, you’ll have the money you need in your rainy day fund.

Don’t Wait to Save for a Rainy Day

You never know when you might have an unexpected financial need. Start saving for your rainy day fund today. You’ll be more prepared for a car or home repair, new appliance, accident, or injury.

Visit Weekly to learn how the app can help make it easy to save for unplanned expenses. Weekly makes budgeting and saving easy for everyone.

The post Rainy Day Fund: How to Tell if You Are Prepared for a Rainy Day appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

Variable vs Fixed Expenses: What’s The Difference?

Drew Adams — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 19:19:07 +0000

What Are the Differences Between Variable Expenses & Fixed Expenses?

Have you ever decided that it was time to be smarter about your spending? Most people, whether through necessity or curiosity, create goals to be more money conscious. One of the first steps was probably to take a detailed look at your spending. This typically involves making a list of all your categories of spending and calculating how much you spend in each category. But the secret to creating a successful maybe dividing them into just two buckets: variable and fixed expenses.

Bills, mortgage, entertainment, food, clothes, video streaming subscriptions, and travel are popular expense categories. But how do you decide where to cut back to reduce your spending?

A much easier way to think about spending is with just two categories: variable expenses and fixed expenses. This simpler approach to spending can help you create a healthier budget.

Weekly is an app that uses these two categories of spending and helps you manage your money. Instead of focusing on what the money was used for, we focus on whether the type of spending it is: variable or fixed. Weekly uses slightly different language when referring to these expenses.

Instead of fixed expenses we call them committed expenses since you have already committed to spending that money and instead of variable expenses we call them day-to-day expenses because they can change based on the things you do or choose to buy week to week. Whether you call them day-to-day or variable, committed or fixed, they are the same thing.

To help you understand the differences between these two categories of spending and how they affect your budget, here is a guide to variable expenses and committed expenses.

Three Major Differences Between Variable Expenses & Fixed Expenses

There are three major differences between variable expenses and committed expenses. These differences are predictability, amounts, and autopay. Understanding these differences is the first step toward an achievable, healthy budget.

1. Predictability

Can you predict the future? The answer is probably “no.” It’s hard to predict what is going to happen in the next few minutes, let alone next week or next month.

variable expenses are equally unpredictable. You don’t always know when you’ll need to spend money on your variable expenses. Take clothes shopping, for example. If you have an event to attend this weekend, you might decide you want to buy a new outfit. But you don’t buy a new outfit on a predictable schedule.

Fixed expenses, in contrast, are predictable and occur on a regular schedule. This schedule is usually monthly. There are some expenses, such as your gym membership, that you are fixed to paying every month.

2. Amounts

Some of your expenses cost the same amount of money each time you pay them. Others are more variable.

variable expenses have inconsistent costs. What you spend on something one time may not be the same the next time. Travel is a good example. How much you spend depends on how far you’re traveling, how you’ll get there, and where you’re staying. A few nights in a friend’s cabin will cost much less than a vacation to a tropical resort.

The costs of your fixed expenses are much more consistent. Even if they aren’t exact, you can usually create very close estimations for budgeting. Your electric bill might vary a little bit depending on how many appliances you use each month, but the amount is relatively consistent.

3. Auto-Pay

Automation is a great feature of modern society. One day, we might even all have cars that drive themselves. But for now, we can appreciate auto-pay, a feature where scheduled payments are automatically deducted from your account.

variable expenses don’t have this feature. They are point-of-sale transactions that take place at registers in stores or through online ordering systems.

Fixed expenses, however, frequently allow for auto-pay and automatically deduct the payment amount from your enrolled checking account or credit card.

Typical Variable Expenses & Fixed Expenses

It’s even easier to make sense of variable expenses and fixed expenses when you have an idea of the types of expenses that fall into each category. Once you understand these expenses, you’re on your way to understanding and improving your budget.

Examples of Variable Expenses

Remember, variable expenses take place at unpredictable times, have variable costs, and don’t allow for the feature of auto-pay.

Examples of variable expenses include:

Clothing
Groceries
Gas
Eating Out
Entertainment
Travel
Personal Care
Medical Bills
Home Repairs
Car Repairs

Examples of Fixed Expenses

Fixed expenses occur at predictably scheduled times (usually monthly), have fixed costs, and usually allow for automatic payments.

Examples of fixed expenses include:

Mortgage
Bills
Car payments
Tuition fees
Childcare fees
Other loan payments including student loans
Subscriptions and memberships

Budgeting Basics

Now that you understand the differences between variable expenses and fixed expenses, let’s look at how this can help you with your budgeting. We promise, with these two budget categories, saving money is easy and achievable.

Recurring Income and Expenses

The first step to creating a spending budget is to figure out how much money you make every month. Calculate your guaranteed income by adding up all reliable sources of income. Write this total down.

Next, subtract all of your fixed expenses. Remember, these are your predictable and consistent payments like your mortgage, bills, utilities, and subscriptions. If you want to save a set amount of money each month, you should also consider this a fixed expense.

When you have subtracted your monthly fixed expenses from your monthly guaranteed income, the amount remaining is considered your safe-to-spend amount. This is the amount of money you can safely spend without losing money.

Safe-to-Spend Weekly Amount

Weekly takes your safe-to-spend amount and calculates it as a weekly safe-to-spend. This way, you know exactly how much money you can spend each week and stay within your budget.

You are free to use your weekly safe-to-spend however you’d like to. This money will go toward your variable expenses (what we call day-to-day expenses) but you don’t have to budget by category. If you buy a new video game you might have less money leftover to spend eating out at restaurants, but the choice is completely yours.

Weekly Makes Budgeting Easy

Making smart spending choices is achievable for anyone. With an understanding of variable expenses and fixed expenses, you are on your way to simple budgeting. Weekly makes it even easier!

The post Variable vs Fixed Expenses: What’s The Difference? appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

8 Tips to Stop Impulse Buying & Control Your Spending Habits

Weekly LLC — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 01:43:13 +0000

Do you find yourself purchasing a chocolate bar when you pass it at the grocery store checkout? Do you click on links to purchase items when you’re browsing social media? Does shopping make you feel good after a long day? You might be wondering, how do I stop impulse buying?

While purchasing items on impulse isn’t necessarily bad, few of us have the financial resources to buy anything we want to at any time.

Fortunately, there are a lot of easy ways to face and change your spending habits.

If you’re wondering how to stop impulse buying, we have 8 tricks below. Try a few of these to form a better relationship with your finances:

1. Understand Your Spending Habits

One of the first steps to stop impulse buying is to develop an understanding of your spending habits. Use a simple budgeting app, such as Weekly, to keep track of all of your purchases.

When you can see how you’re spending your money, it’s easier to recognize impulse buying and identify the habits you need to change. Weekly tells you how much money it’s Safe-to-Spend every week, and you may realize that your impulse buying is consistently putting you over this limit.

Another benefit of a budgeting app is that as you start to make changes in your spending, you’ll be able to see the benefits. This will encourage you keep up your new spending style.

2. Make a List Before Heading to the Store

A lot of impulse purchases occur as you’re shopping and browsing at a store. One way to stop impulse buying is to make a list.

Lists help you distinguish between items you need and items you just buy on a whim.

To reduce your impulse buying, you can try sticking to only items on your list when you’re at the store. Another strategy to try is allowing yourself a set, small amount of extra money to spend, after you’ve gotten the items you know you need.

3. Take a Minute to Weigh the Cost of Impulse Purchases

Purchasing one, small item on impulse doesn’t seem like it will make much of an impact in your weekly budget. But these items add up.

When you’re shopping and you add an item to your cart, take the time to think about its true cost. Compare the value of an impulse item to a long-term savings goal or your weekly Safe-To-Spend amount.

You’ll have a more realistic perspective if you realize that the shoes in your shopping cart are 20% of your Safe-To-Spend, or will mean it will take you longer to save for your trip to the Bahamas. This is a great strategy to stop impulse buying.

4. Leave Items in Online Shopping Carts for a Few Days

Shopping has never been easier or more convenient. With a few clicks, an impulse purchase can arrive at your house in three days or less. Fortunately, it’s easy to add a safety net that helps you reduce this type of impulse buying.

It’s safe to impulsively put items into an online shopping cart, as long as you don’t buy them. Revisit the items in your cart after a few days and see if you still want them.

Chances are, you probably don’t, and you’ve just saved yourself some money.

5. Unsubscribe from Mailing Lists and Shopping Apps

In our society, we are constantly bombarded with ads, emails, magazines, notifications, and pop-ups that try to get us to buy something. You can limit these temptations.

Unsubscribe from email lists and magazines. Turn off shopping app notifications on your smart phone, or remove shopping apps completely. Delete saved credit card information so it’s more difficult to just click “Buy Now.”

Once you’ve removed the temptations, you’ll find it easier to stop impulse buying.

6. Reward Yourself with Free Activities Instead of Items

One of the causes of impulse buying, or buying items we don’t really need, is that we buy things as rewards. We often use these systems of rewards to help us meet goals related to diet, fitness, and personal milestones.

However, rewards can be free.

Here are some ways you can reward yourself with free activities instead of by purchasing new items. You can try taking a relaxing bath at home instead of splurging on a mani-pedi, hosting a game night at home with friends or family instead of going out to dinner, or pack a picnic lunch to enjoy outside instead of going to a fancy dinner.

7. Practice Mindfulness to Better Control Emotional Spending

One cause of your impulse buying habits might be related to your emotions.

See if you can identify emotional reasons for spending, including thoughts similar to: “I’m having a bad day and a new golf club will make me feel better” or “My neighbor just bought a new washing machine, so I need one, too.”

Practice other ways to counter stress, fatigue, or Keeping-Up-with-the-Jones’ mindsets. You can try exercise, mindfulness, or self-care instead to help you stop impulse buying.

8. Allow Yourself Some Flexibility and Grace

When you start using these strategies to change your impulse buying habits, make sure to avoid an all-or-nothing mindset. These can actually sabotage your efforts to make lasting changes. Once you make a “mistake” with one impulse purchase, the wrong mindset can lead you to think, “I’ve already made one mistake, I might as well keep going.”

It’s important to give yourself some flexibility and grace. If you make an impulse purchase, just move on and try to do better.

In fact, it might be better to not think of an impulse purchase as a mistake at all. After all, it’s perfectly fine to buy something you want on occasion.

You have the power to change your habits and stop impulse buying. Look into an app like Weekly to track your expenses, and then head out with your new awareness to make more enlightened purchases.

The post 8 Tips to Stop Impulse Buying & Control Your Spending Habits appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

How To Keep More of Your Paycheck: 11 Easy Tips

Weekly LLC — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 18:16:02 +0000

You work hard and your money should work just as hard for you. But if you’re finding that the money disappears before you can even bring it home, don’t despair. It’s not too late to turn things around and keep more money in your paycheck.

Keeping more of your paycheck for yourself doesn’t have to be complicated or require a whole lot of sacrifice. There are some simple steps that you can take which can help you hold on to your money and save more. Having more money to save will help you reach your financial goals and allow you to live your best life.

Taking home more of your paycheck can be as simple as taking advantage of available resources and paying attention. Being mindful of habits and making small changes are other ways to keep more of your money. Read on for some simple steps you can take to maximize your take home income and build your financial freedom.

1. Make The Most Of Your 401(k) Contributions

Jumpstart your retirement savings fund by taking advantage of company perks. Many organizations offer top ups to your 401(k) contributions as a common employee incentive. If your employer matches your 401(k) contributions, that’s free savings money you could be putting towards your retirement.

2. Reassess Your Healthcare Plan

It’s common for employers to allow some customization to healthcare plan options or at least to offer a choice of packages. Check if you can choose a less expensive plan that will still suit your needs or cut out what you are not using to lower deductions and keep more money in your paycheck. If you’re paying for a personal plan, find out if you can get the same coverage through your employer at a better price. Go over the plan your spouse has, or anyone else that you might be covered under, and remove redundancies.

3. Claim Your Expenses

If you regularly incur business expenses while conducting activities required by your job, you should be able to claim them and get some money back. Ask for your employer’s policy on work related expenses such as travel or client meals to see if you are eligible for reimbursement. If you work from home you may be able to claim expenses for office supplies, equipment, or even your internet bill.

4. Take Advantage Of Company Perks

Some employers offer incentives such as subsidized daycare, onsite gym, assistance with tuition, and discounts at local businesses. If you are paying for some of these services already, you might be able to get a discount through your employer and keep more of your money. Just be sure that it was money you were going to spend on these purchases anyway. Getting a good deal is no deal at all if it’s money spent on something you don’t need.

5. Automate Your Savings

Make your financial goals a priority by putting your savings first. Have a portion of your paycheck automatically diverted to a high interest savings account. Tuck your money away before it hits your checking account so that you can’t spend it.

6. Join A Carpool

Carpooling is good for the environment and great for your finances. Driving your car comes with costs. Not only does your vehicle burn gasoline, driving it puts wear and tear on your car and its components. Save on vehicle costs and gas by carpooling and keep more of your money.

7. Don’t Buy Coffee On Your Way To Work

A cup of coffee isn’t expensive but if you make it a habit to buy one on the way to work every day, those little bits of money can really add up. It’s much cheaper to make your cup of coffee at home and bring it with you. If your employer provides coffee it’s completely free and probably already waiting for you at work.

8. Pack Your Lunch

It’s easy to rationalize eating out for lunch when you’re hungry but you can keep more of your money with a little planning. Buying lunch is much more costly than bringing food from home. Prepare a lunch the night before and make it easy for yourself to grab and go on busy mornings.

9. Save Your Raise

Most people respond to getting a raise by spending more. When you get a raise, don’t increase your spending. Increase your savings instead. It’s money you didn’t have before so you won’t miss it and you’ll be able to achieve your savings goals much faster.

10. Adjust Your W-4 Exemptions

When you started working for your employer you provided information which was used to calculate how much of your paycheck should be withheld for tax purposes. If you’re consistently getting a sizable refund, you are having too much money withheld. You need to speak with your employer about adjusting your deductions to help you keep more of your money now instead of waiting for your return.

11. Add Up Your Deductions

Review your pay stubs regularly and do the math to make sure nothing was missed. Verify that you are being paid for all your hours at the correct rate along with any reimbursement for expenses. Check that the correct amounts are being withheld and that you’re not subject to any deductions which you didn’t sign up for such as automatic donations to a charity.

Keep more of your money by paying attention, utilizing what resources you have available, and by making a few better lifestyle choices. With some simple but effective changes you can take home more money and then watch your savings grow. Setting that money aside for your financial goals is the best way to transform your life.

Not sure if you have a good handle on your finances? Need a better way to keep track of your money? Can you use some help with goal setting and staying on track? Weekly can help. A simple user interface and weekly budgeting goals can get you on track and keep you heading in the right direction.

The post How To Keep More of Your Paycheck: 11 Easy Tips appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

4 Critical Mistakes Couples Make When Budgeting and How to Fix Them

Drew Adams — Mon, 02 May 2022 15:53:20 +0000

Relationships can be tricky at the best of times. Financial issues that can surface when you’re budgeting with your partner can put a serious strain on domestic bliss. Money issues account for about 22% of divorces making a strong case for couples budgeting together in an effective way.

There is a lot at stake. Couples who work as a team to navigate their finances together can improve their relationship and their financial health at the same time. Keep reading for the top critical mistakes couples make when budgeting together.

1. You Start off Talking About Your Budget

Budgeting is challenging because it requires you to face the task of defining what is more important to you. There is often an undertone of sacrificing and giving up things you enjoy in order to meet your financial goals. For most people, analyzing their budget isn’t something they look forward to.

Budgeting with your partner increases the challenge since you have two people’s values competing for limited resources. It’s easy for a well intentioned conversation to rapidly turn sour when we feel like our lifestyle choices are under scrutiny. Discussions about the budget are often a source of friction for couples and some even go so far as to avoid talking about money altogether..

How to fix it

Start with a values meeting. Instead of talking about money first, talk about what you value the most. Having an in depth discussion about your short and long term hopes and desires will lay the blueprint for how you allocate your money. Focus on the things you stand to gain and not on what you will have to give up to get there.

2. You Have Monthly “Doomsday” Meetings

It has been drilled into us that budgeting meetings should be monthly and looking backwards. If you wait until the end of the month to look back at how you spent your money LAST month it’s already too late. That money is gone and at that point the best you can do is damage control.

There are two problems with this budgeting method. First, this approach doesn’t help you know what your safe-to-spend is, meaning there is no safeguard to prevent overspending. Secondly, it invites recriminations about past behavior which could perhaps do damage to your relationship.

How to fix it

It is more helpful to have an approach focusing on frequency and proactivity. Try tackling the task weekly instead of waiting until the end of the month. While it’s important to look back and see how well you’ve been doing, the focus should be on the future. Set weekly goals and spending limits to stay on track.

3. You Use The Wrong Tools

It often starts well enough with focus and a budget. You take time to categorize everything in order to stay on track, but then it starts to get difficult to manage. A simple slip up is often enough to derail the whole plan. All this could be avoided if couples budgeting together employ the right tools to help them.

The right tool for any job makes the work easier but the wrong tool will only make things more tedious. Tools that are retrospective might not be very helpful and produce limited results while tools that are too cumbersome may not get used at all. It’s not surprising that people throw their hands up in exasperation and end up doing nothing.

How to fix it

Find tools that fit your life and can keep you in touch with your money. Choose a tool that will not burden you with too many tedious tasks. Whatever you choose, it needs to be simple and user friendly so that you can navigate it easily.

4. You Forget Money Is A Tool

Money is a tool to bring about the world you want as a couple. It is the tool you use to craft the lifestyle that you want to have. That’s why it’s so important to have a plan and follow it through, but that doesn’t mean you should be afraid to spend money.

There are no wrong purchases if they align with your internal values. Spending money to bring you closer to the life you envision should be part of your financial strategy. However, you should be cautious as you may have internalized lessons about money causing you to purchase things that are not bringing you joy.

The opposing forces of saving for large goals while using money to bring about enjoyment now are difficult enough for any individual. Couples budgeting together have the added strain of two points of view which may not see enjoyment the same way. This can cause a lot of disagreements and easily lead to arguments over minor issues.

How to fix it

The key is to give each partner the space to have a little financial independence. Budget for a little money to let them bring about their personal joy and see you fulfilled in yours. It’s your money and you shouldn’t feel guilty for enjoying a little of it now.

Budgeting with your partner can be tricky but there are tools to help. With apps such as Weekly you can make tracking your finances easy. Take it one week at a time and work with your partner towards a better financial future.

The post 4 Critical Mistakes Couples Make When Budgeting and How to Fix Them appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

7 Money Saving Tips You May Never Have Thought of Before

Drew Adams — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 20:45:21 +0000

Saving money can come in many forms. It can mean a whole lifestyle change but it can also mean finding small ways to save a little in different areas of your budget. Small changes that stick can add up in your life.

These money saving tips can help you along the way to get the most out of a dollar. Little changes for big outcomes and more money for the things that you love.

1. Get The Most Out Of Your Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans are designed to do more than just provide a breeze in warm weather. They redistribute the air in the room to make it more comfortable. But that’s not all. Most ceiling fans come with a switch which reverses the direction of the blades.

In the summer your ceiling fan should be running counterclockwise. This pushes the air down to the floor and out towards the walls. Displaced air is then pushed up along the walls and back up towards the ceiling.

Since cooler air sinks to the ground the movement of air produced by the spinning of the fan blades brings cool air to where you can feel it. This is known as the wind chill effect. Using the cool air more efficiently can lead to substantial savings on your air conditioning bills.

During winter months your ceiling fans need to run clockwise. This creates an updraft pulling cooler air up to the ceiling where it displaces pockets of warm air that are trapped at the top of the room. This is one of the simplest money saving tips but it can save you as much as 15% on your heating bills.

2. Drink more water

Water is healthy and we should all probably be drinking more of it, but it’s great for saving money too. Bottled water is far less expensive than juice or soda and it’s naturally sugar free. This money saving tip is good for your health and your budget.

Save even more money by giving up store bought water and switching to tap water instead. Or go for a compromise and filter tap water yourself at home. A simple jug style filter will do the job or install one right on the faucet and have filtered drinking water on tap for whenever you’re thirsty.

3. Fill Up Your Freezer

A freezer that is full of frozen food retains the cold better than one that is empty. It is more efficient to keep food frozen than it is to cool empty space. All that frozen stuff keeps the cold in there and your freezer doesn’t have to work as hard or use as much power.

Don’t want to overstock on food you don’t need? No worries. Make the most of this money saving tip without spending a dime. Fill plastic bottles with water and freeze those instead.

Keep your freezer full but don’t pack it too tightly. For optimal efficiency the air needs to circulate around all that frozen stuff. So keep the freezer full but not overstuffed and watch the savings on your energy bills.

4. Use A Budgeting App

Tracking your income, expenses, and savings can be a tedious job. Simplify the process with a simple but effective budgeting app to help you live within your means and save for goals. You will be far more likely to make and stick to your budget if it isn’t overly difficult to track your money.

5. Get Cash Back When You Shop

When you do spend money it might as well be working for you. Get cash back on purchases with rebate websites and cash back credit cards. Do your research and learn which options offer the highest returns on various types of purchases to maximize how much you get back. Here’s an article from NerdWallet that outlines some of the most popular cash back apps.

Don’t use cash back as an excuse to spend. If you want to reap the rewards of this money saving tip, make only the purchases you were planning to. The cash back rewards should be rolled back into your budget and used accordingly.

6. Order Groceries Online

Many grocery stores will now allow you to order online with curbside pickup. The great thing about ordering online is that you know how much you’re spending before you check out. If the amount surprises you it’s easy to go back and remove items from your cart.

Online ordering lets you compare prices between brands, sizes, and even stores. By not going up and down aisles of products you won’t be tempted to buy things you didn’t plan to. Stick to your list and know how much you’re spending with this money saving tip.

7. Use Wool Balls in the Dryer

Fabric softener and dryer sheets offer soft, fluffy, and static free laundry but they contain chemicals and a hefty price tag. Wool dryer balls can accomplish the same job but in a natural way and at a fraction of the cost. These reusable wool balls bounce around in the dryer fluffing laundry and removing static.

Wool dryer balls retain heat while separating laundry allowing air to circulate more freely in the dryer. Not only do they help make irresistible towels, wool dryer balls can also help you reduce your electricity bill by cutting drying time by 25 percent. You can put this money saving tip into overdrive and save even more by making the dryer balls yourself.

Sometimes small things can add up to a big difference and saving money is no exception. These money saving tips make it easy to save a bit of cash without denying yourself and there’s no need for major lifestyle changes. Start implementing some of these ideas and have more money for the things that bring you joy.

The post 7 Money Saving Tips You May Never Have Thought of Before appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

Budgeting with Your Spouse

Drew Adams — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 19:18:38 +0000

Put an end to “Doomsday” meetings.

Budgeting with a spouse or partner? Is there anything more fraught? No one likes to face the limits of their money and doing so with someone else is as treacherous as crossing “No Man’s Land” in 1918.

But Weekly can help. In fact, budgeting with a spouse is a core part of Weekly’s origin story. As the story goes, Dan was budgeting with his wife Anna. Like a lot of couples, they tried different apps and spreadsheets or the classic “ignoring-it-all-together” but nothing seemed to make it better. At the end of each month, Dan and Anna would sit down and review their spending and it was painful. They started calling it “Doomsday”.

At the end of another dismal doomsday, Anna said to Dan, “What do you expect me to do with all this information? I still don’t know what I can spend right now.” That’s when he realized he was approaching budgeting all wrong.

That is how the concept behind Weekly was born: focus on a week’s time frame, stop over-categorizing, track a simple Safe-To-Spend, and sync with financial institutions in real-time.

But what are the actual mechanics behind making Weekly work for you and your spouse? This article describes how to set up Weekly to share with a spouse or partner and avoid your own personal Doomsday meetings.

Create Your Account Using a Login You Can Share

With one subscription, you can install and login on multiple devices, but you will need to share a login. An account setup with an email address is probably best to use, but here are the ins-and-out of which login type to use.

Email

This process is most simple when using an email address. The email address is used as a user id so you can set any password for it and share that password with your spouse. The password you set does not have to be the same as your actual email password.

Google

Google works well as a shared login across devices, but of course this requires you logging into Google using your Google password which means sharing your actual Google and Gmail password with your spouse.

Facebook

The story for Facebook is the same as Google. It works well as a shared login across devices, but of course this requires you logging into Facebook using your Facebook password which means sharing your actual Facebook with your spouse or partner.

Apple

Using your Apple ID to create your account will not work if you want to budget with a spouse. That is because your Apple ID is tied to the iCloud login on your device which is most likely different from the iCloud account on your spouse’s device.

Note: If you have already set up your account using Google, Facebook or Apple and you want to switch it to email, we can help you with that. Just open the left side bar and tap “Contact Support” and request to move to an email login and we will get you set up.

Seeing Your Safe-to-Spend Together

Now when you login to your account from either your or your partner’s device you can see how much is left in your Safe-to-Spend as well as all the other details like how much is in each of the funds you have set up. As your partner reconciles transactions into your account, you will see the Safe-To-Spend or fund balances updated automatically.

Congratulations! You now are in sync with your partner.

This is a huge win for people, you are now on the same page on exactly where you are at with your day-to-day expenses. You can wait for transactions to be imported into the app from your financial institution or if you want more immediacy you can add them in manually; either way your spouse’s view into how much money is left will be updated.

Setting Up Funds to Keep Track of Individual Expenses (Optional)

So now that you have access to the numbers, if you want to, you can set up funds for yourself and your partner for individual spending.

So let’s say for example, there is a couple named Kim and John using Weekly to budget. And let’s say Kim and John allow themselves $250 a month of “fun money” to spend on their own. You can manage this with Weekly by setting up a fund called “Kim’s Fun Money” and a separate one for John called “John’s Fun Money” and set the contribution to be $250 per month into each fund which Weekly will convert to the weekly amount of $58.14.

Then as transactions come in that are spent by Kim and John on their individual fun, instead of being withdrawn from the regular “Safe-to-Spend” both John and Kim can map these expenses to their own fun money fund. This way they can keep track of their individual spending separate from their collective spending.

Conclusion

Weekly was started as a tool to help two people keep in sync with where they were at with their spending and it’s one of its key benefits. And with the Funds, spouses can also track individual spending and keep it separate from the spending they are doing together.

By giving both partners access to the Safe-to-Spend number, Weekly can eliminate the “Doomsday” meetings and keep couples happier with their money.

The post Budgeting with Your Spouse appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

5 Essential Budgeting Tips for 2022

Drew Adams — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 20:26:42 +0000

Budgeting is about focusing our spending on things that truly bring value to our lives. With all the demands of daily life, it can sometimes get confusing to make sure our spending is in line with our values. These 5 budgeting tips will set you up for success and keep you in control.

1. Cancel Unnecessary Subscriptions

Subscriptions are a part of the way we run our lives. We’ve all been there with good intentions of cancelling a service when we no longer need it only to end up forgetting all about it. Those subscriptions add up and it’s easy to forget how many you have.

Get the most out of this budgeting tip by taking a second to look as your expenses come into Weekly. If there is a subscription you are no longer using take a second and login to the service and downgrade or cancel your account. Another tip for Apple users, you can see all the apps you are subscribed to and manage your subscriptions by “Settings”, tapping your name and then tapping “Subscriptions”.

2. Automate Your Savings

We usually think of savings as anything that’s left over but this mindset leads to more spending. Setting aside some money for emergencies and large purchases should be a priority. Budget for your savings first and end up saving more. Take a second and think hard about what your long and short term goals are and then set up funds for them.

Inside of Weekly, you can set up a savings fund for whatever you want to save for and this amount is removed from your Safe-to-Spend so you won’t accidentally spend it. You can also mimic what is happening inside of Weekly by setting up automatic deposits into your savings account directly from your paycheck. Use this budgeting tip and grow your savings with minimal effort and feel the satisfaction as your savings number grows.

3. Do A No Spend Week

Treat your spending like a game for one week. Challenge yourself not to spend on anything outside of your fixed necessary expenses. See how much money you can save if you lean in for a little while.

You’ll need to identify what your regular expenses are. Housing, utilities, insurance, medical expenses, and transportation costs are some expenses that you probably shouldn’t try to go without. Make a list of these expenses and don’t spend on anything else. (If you signup for Weekly, defining all these expenses is the first step in getting the app setup.)

If you are a Weekly user this can be the thought of keeping your Safe-to-Spend as high as possible. At the end of the week, look to see how close your Rollover is to your original Safe-to-Spend.

4. Maintain What You Own

There is a difference between being good with money and being cheap. A cheap person’s only focus is to not spend at all, even if such behavior ends up costing more in the end. Sometimes spending a little can save you a lot in the long run.

Take care of the things you own with proper maintenance and extend the life of your items.

Regular tune-ups and oil changes on your vehicle will help keep it running longer while cutting down on costly repairs.
Keeping on top of the maintenance schedule on your HVAC system can keep it operational and efficient, while reducing your energy consumption.
Have gutters and downspouts cleaned at least once per year to prevent water damage to your home.
Keep any trees on your property maintained and reduce the likelihood of fallen branches causing damage or possible injury.

5. Budget on a weekly basis

Budget on a weekly basis! Of course this is our favorite recommendation given what we do! But truthfully,since we base our lives around weeks, it can be difficult to keep track of what has been spent and can be spent all month. Breaking up what you can safely spend on day-to-day items from a monthly number to a weekly one helps smooth everything out and can help you be aware of habits that are effecting your money. Budgeting weekly also has a the effect of bringing a level of peace to your whole outlook and keeps a check on emotional spending.

The post 5 Essential Budgeting Tips for 2022 appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

How To Create A Weekly Budget in 6 Steps

weeklyllc — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 18:14:09 +0000

No matter how often you’re paid – once a month, twice a month, or every other week – weekly budgeting works. Budgeting on a weekly basis makes it easier to keep track of personal spending and stay on a budget. The reason for this is because as humans we naturally organize our lives a week at a time. We go to work for a week, we have weekends with our families, we usually buy gas and groceries every week. It makes sense to budget on a week.

The key to weekly budgeting is to find out how much you can safely spend each week after accounting for all your committed expenses. Once you figure out what you can safely spend in a week, and have a reliable way of keeping track of your day-to-day expenses, you can move through your weeks with more confidence and less anxiety.

Within Weekly, our weekly budgeting app we walk you through the process of setting up a weekly budget. We’d love you to give it a try! But for those that are curious or want to do this for themselves in a weekly budgeting template spreadsheet, we will show you below exactly how we go about calculating your Safe-To-Spend so you can create a weekly budget on your own.

How do you figure out what you can safely spend in a week? The process is to break down your regular income and committed expenses into the equivalent weekly amount and then you then subtract your weekly equivalent expenses from your weekly equivalent income to get your weekly Safe-To-Spend. Then you give this Safe-To-Spend amount to yourself each week — you can think of it as an adult allowance — to spend it on the day-to-day expenses you buy.

Here are the steps to creating a weekly budget. TIP: It helps to have your main bank and credit card statements ready.

Write down how much do you get in your paycheck and how often you get paid.
Figure out your equivalent average weekly income.
Make a list of all of your committed expenses.
Calculate the weekly average of your committed expenses.
Subtract the average weekly expenses from average weekly income. This is your “Safe-To-Spend”.
Keep track of daily expenses

Read on for all the details!

Grab your paycheck(s) and write down your regular income.

First, find your paycheck and write down the net amount, that is, the amount after taxes. Then write down how often you’re paid – monthly, twice a month, every two weeks, weekly, every 3 month, every 6 months or even yearly. If you have multiple jobs or sources of income in your household, write them all down.

Next, calculate your average weekly income from your paycheck(s)

To find your average weekly income you need to know your net paycheck amount and how often you’re paid. Using your net income simplifies the calculations because taxes and other deductions have already been taken out.

Find your pay frequency in this chart and multiply your net income by the multiplication factor.

Pay frequency	Multiplication factor
Weekly	1.000
Every two weeks	0.500
Twice a month	0.4603
Monthly	0.2301
Every 3 months	0.0767
Every 6 months	0.0384
Yearly	0.0192

If you have more than one paycheck, do the same for each paycheck. For example, if you made $1,250 twice a month, you would multiply that by 0.4603 to get your weekly equivalent which in this case is $575.38.

Then, find all your committed expenses

Now that you know your average weekly income, the next step is to discover how much money you need each week to cover all your committed expenses like bills, loan payments, and subscriptions. Committed expenses occur at regular intervals (often monthly) and are for a known amount. Some committed expenses happen quarterly or yearly like an HOA payment or a annual membership fee. It can be helpful to pull up your bank and credit card statements to find all your committed expenses.

It’s important to identify all your committed expenses when making a weekly budget so set your weekly Safe-to-Spend too high. Here’s a list of committed expenses to prompt you.

Category	Item
Housing	Mortgage/Rent
	HOA
	Yard Care Subscription

Bills & Utilities	Cell Phone
	Internet
	Cable
	Natural Gas
	Power Bill
	Water Bill
	Trash

Transportation	Car Payment
	Bus Pass
	Auto Insurance
	Yearly Registration

Loan Payments	Student Loans
	Personal Loans

Medical	Health Insurance Premiums
	Health Savings Account


Subscriptions	Dental Insurance Premiums
	Disney +
	Netflix
	Hulu
	Spotify
	Apple Music
	Pandora
	Amazon Prime
	Cloud Storage
	Xbox

Health/Beauty/Fitness	Gym Membership
	Ipsy
	Supplements Subscription

Education	Tuition

Kids	Kid’s School
	Daycare
	School Lunch
	Child Support

Donations	Tithes
	Charity

Savings & Goals	Emergency Fund
	Car Maintenance Savings
	Medical Savings
	Holiday Savings
	Vacation Savings

Other	Other 1
	Other 2
	Other 3

Now calculate the weekly average for your committed expenses

To find the weekly amount needed to cover all your committed expenses, multiply each committed expense by the multiplication factor in the chart above. So if you spend $8.99 a month on a subscription, you would multiple that by .2301 to find how much that is per week (which is $2.07). If you spend $500 a year on a pool membership, that would work out to $9.60 a week ($500 * 0.0192 from the chart above).

HINT: You can download our weekly budget app or our spreadsheet to help with these calculations.

Do this for all your committed expenses.

Now for the result … your “Safe-To-Spend”!

Take your weekly income and subtract your weekly committed expenses to find your Safe-To-Spend. This is the amount you can safely spend each week while still keeping enough money set aside for all your committed expenses. As long as you spend less than that amount each week you’ll be set.

Let’s say you get done with your week and you have money left to spend. Awesome! You can roll it over and spend it the next week – or, better yet, invest it.

What about groceries and gas?

Yes, these expenses happen on a regular basis, but they are also influenced by behavior. For example, if you wanted to save up to go to the movies this weekend, you could decide to shop at a discount grocery instead of a high-end store, for example, and save that extra money. Similarly, you could bike to work maybe once a week to save money on gas. Because these expenses fluctuate and are impacted by behavior, we recommend including them in your Safe-To-Spend money.

That being said, if you have a regular job that you commute to every day for example and a car that you have bought that is not likely to change for a while, you can absolutely add in the amount you regularly spend on gas getting back and forth to work as a committed expense and lower your Safe-To-spend.

Remember, your Safe-To-Spend is different than cash flow.

Just be aware, because you have abstracted your finances one level up, the amount in your Safe-To-Spend won’t match the amount in your bank account. This is because we have abstracted the monthly, quarterly, and yearly expenses and spread them out over a year even if they are paid once. Make sure you have enough cash in your checking account to cover your upcoming bills and your safe-to-spend. When you get into a pattern of spending less than you earn on average, this won’t be a problem for you.

Keep track of your daily expenses.

So now you know your weekly Safe-To-Spend. But next is to figure out how you “give” this to yourself each week and keep track of how much of your Safe-To-Spend you have already spent. Here are some options.

Cash

Take your weekly Safe-To-Spend out of the bank in cash. This is akin to the envelope system. But in a digital world, this may not be entirely feasible.

Debit card

Every week, automatically transfer your weekly Safe-To-Spend to your debit card account. Use this debit card to purchase everything. Then if there is anything left over then you can save it for the next week or invest it. You can then monitor the amount on this card on a regular basis to make sure you are not going over or keep track of your expenses on a spreadsheet so you can make sure you don’t overspend.

Use Weekly!

If you don’t want to open a new account and transferring money every week and the hassle of keep track of expenses, you can download Weekly. This is an app that connects to your current bank accounts, downloads your transactions, and keeps track of your Safe-To-Spend.

Conclusion

The reason weekly budgeting works is that it takes into account human psychology first. To put it another way, you operate on a weekly basis in your life so your budget should too. Budgeting weekly also gives you peace of mind while allowing you the flexibility to enjoy life — which will end up making sticking to a budget easier.

The post How To Create A Weekly Budget in 6 Steps appeared first on Weekly | A Better Budget App.

Bank Transaction Review

Drew Adams — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Weekly is designed to keep you focused on one number: your Safe-To-Spend. To make sure your Safe-To-Spend number is up-to-date and accurate, Weekly pulls in your purchases from your bank and credit cards. As transactions come in, you categorize them as Safe-to-Spend, Recurring, or you can choose to Ignore them all together.

‎Weekly: A Better Budget App
‎Weekly is a subscription based budget app unlike any other app on the market. Keeping track of expenses on a weekly…apps.apple.com

With our latest release, we give you a way to see all the transactions you have reviewed in the past week. This is helpful if you ever need to re-classify a transaction or perhaps remember if a purchase has already come through. Here’s how it works.

After you’ve reviewed at least one transaction for the week you’ll see a “Bank Transactions” button on the Dashboard page under your Safe-to-Spend. Tap this button to see all the transactions you reviewed during the week. In the screenshot below, you would tap the button that says “7 bank transactions this week” to see all the transactions that were previously reviewed.

In this screenshot, a user could tap the “7 bank transactions this week” to see all the transactions that have been reviewed.

This will send you to list of your transactions, ordered by date with an icon to represent how each marked the transaction: Safe-To-Spend, Recurring or Ignore.

Safe-To-Spend

Recurring

Ignore

You can also choose to “re-review” transactions if you incorrectly confirmed them the first time around by tapping the transaction and hitting a button that says “Review again”. This changes the transaction status; it will be treated just like a new one and sent it through the normal process of reviewing new transactions.

Having the ability to review all the bank transactions can help you get a full accounting of your weekly spending. If need be, you can change how you handled past purchases to make sure your Safe-To-Spend is up-to-date and accurate. This will give you more peace of mind as you move through you days and weeks knowing that your spending is just where it needs to be.

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