Dear Anak,
As you may have noticed by now, I try to relate my MMM’s with whatever might be going on. So I’m writing this the morning of your night out with your friends. It was great to see you all having some face to face time rather than on XBox. And that you guys actually planned the outing without parental influence. Ha ha!! Anyway, I thought it would be a good time to talk about a spending plan. As this is mom’s money matters after all.
A spending plan is knowing what you are going to spend ahead of time. That way you avoid overspending or spending on anything that you will regret later. It could be as little or as much as you’d like. The key is staying within your plan. Let’s take last night as an example:
sky zone fee: 20
Movie: 10
Snack: 10
Incidental: 10
$50
So, basically you plan to spend $50 and under. Making room for incidentals. And whatever is not in your plan, you say to yourself, it’s not in the plan. It takes away the back and forth and mind clutter of decision making. And regret or buyer’s remorse.
So it did turn out that you guys didn’t end up at the movies but went out to eat instead. If you had the above budget - you make adjustment within the plan. You have movie +snack $20 to spend at the restaurant.
As you may have noticed too, I always say, “I have budget for it,“ when spending on something. I already decided or planned my spending when my paycheck comes. I save- and in this order: for investment, savings, bills, other obligations and then fun money. Fun money is vacation fund, shopping, eating out. That way there’s little room for surprises that can stress me out.
Hope that helps!
Love,
Mom