How To Create A Budget Routine

Routines are a predetermined sequence of actions that, when performed, have a beneficial result without being overwhelming. Creating a budget routine is a great way to streamline all of your budgeting tasks, and bring them into small, bite-sized chunks to help you save time and mental energy. Below, you’ll learn how to create a budget routine that you can stick to, to help save you from budget overwhelm, and burnout.

I know budget burnout all too well. In 2022, I had to stop budgeting for the family because my mental health, and working through my trauma within therapy while staying on top of the household budget, were getting to be too much. Whether you struggle with mental health or not, how things are going within your life does affect your finances. Creating a budget routine that you can stick to will help you take a seemingly daunting task and break it down into manageable chunks. This helps you stick to your budget, and reach your financial goals.

Why You Need A Budget Routine

A budget routine is essential to effectively manage your finances, improve your financial health, and achieve your financial goals. A budgeting routine provides structure, clarity, and control over your financial life.

FINANCIAL AWARENESS

Learning how to create a budget routine increases your awareness of where your money goes. It is very easy to think about how you spend most of your money, but your budget routine will help you identify and cut any unnecessary spending.

ACHIEVE YOUR FINANCIAL GOALS

We all have goals that we would like to achieve when it comes to our finances. Whether it is saving up for a vacation, a downpayment on a car or a house, or even a sufficient retirement fund, a budget routine ensures that you are consistently checking and contributing to your financial goals.

IMPROVE DECISION MAKING

When you regularly review your budget, you have a clear understanding of your current financial situation. When a budget routine, you can make well-informed decisions based on your current finances.

Benefits Of A Budget Routine

Your Budgeting Becomes Efficient

By creating a budget routine, you streamline all the tasks involved in creating, maintaining, and reviewing your budget. The time you spend budgeting becomes much more efficient, which saves you time and mental energy.

You are Consistent with your budget

Routines help you establish good habits through consistency. Having good financial habits, and being consistent in your budgeting tasks, will help you reach your financial goals and improve your overall financial health.

Having structure and routine with your budget also helps make sure you complete important budgeting tasks regularly.

Reduce Financial Stress

When you have a predictable budget routine that allows you to regularly monitor, update, and review your budget, you are aware of any upcoming expenses and deadlines. This helps reduce the risk of financial surprises that can hurt you, such as adding to credit card debt or taking out a personal loan.

Effective Time Management

Routines help us to allocate our time effectively, allowing us to balance all aspects of our lives. How you create your budget routine will depend on what your current financial goals are, what your season of life is, and what your pay schedule looks like. Make sure that you set up your routine to best suit your needs.

Empowerment

When you have an effective budget routine in place, you build confidence in your ability to handle your money, which in turn, empowers you to take control of your finances rather than letting them control you.

How To Create A Budget Routine

When creating your budgeting routine, you will need to tailor it to you. Below are some examples of what to do annually, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily. However, this budget routine is completely adaptable for you and your unique financial needs.

Annual Budget Routine

Whether you do this at the beginning of the year, or at a time that is meaningful to you (like your birthday, anniversary, or any other day that is important to you), you will want to determine your overall financial priorities and steps you could take within the next year to help you reach those. These are your financial priorities for the year.

Set long-term and short-term goals for the year based on the steps you identified. Also determine what sinking funds you will need for the upcoming year, and create a plan that will help you to fully fund them.

Quarterly Budgeting Routine

Occasionally throughout the year, you will want to check your progress on the goals you set, reassess whether they are still a priority for you, and make adjustments (if necessary) so that you fulfill the goal. These adjustments could include increasing what you need to save to meet the goal on time or adjusting the deadline to meet your current financial priorities.

Check that your list of sinking funds is still valid, and either add in or remove any as necessary.

Monthly Budget Routine

Most monthly budget routines involve setting up your budget for the month; however, I don’t like that idea since it involves counting on money that hasn’t been received yet. The only time I think you should create a monthly budget is if you are paid once a month.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t steps you can take each month to review the budget from the previous month and set new goals for the upcoming month. See if any non-monthly expenses are due within the next month or two, and make a plan for how to cover the expenses without straining your budget.

If you share financial responsibilities with a spouse, partner, family, or friends, monthly is also a good time to schedule a budget meeting to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding shared finances.

Weekly Budgeting Routine

If you are paid weekly, create a zero-based budget, and if you are paid bi-weekly or monthly, update your budget. Transfer any savings and sinking fund amounts, and categorize any spending you do throughout the week to make sure that you are within your budget limits for your various spending categories.

Now is also the time to create a weekly meal plan, or determine what meals from your monthly meal plan you’ll be making. Remember to prioritize what is in your pantry, fridge, and freezer when making meal plans.

Daily Budget Tasks

Tracking your expenses daily, whether you use your planner, a notebook, or an Excel sheet, will help you keep track of what and where you are spending your money. I prefer to keep my expenses in my planner because writing things down by hand is known to connect better with our brains than using digital.

Another daily budgeting task you can do is to make note of items that are needed each day throughout the week. That way when you go grocery shopping for the week, you will know what the needs of your household are, rather than just guessing, and picking up a lot of wants.

Eating meals at home, and preparing frequently bought items ahead of time (such as snacks, lunches, and water), will help reduce your daily spending.

Shown throughout this post is an example of my budget routine when I was paid monthly. In my Resource Library, you can find it and a blank copy for you to create your budget routine. Click the link above to join my email list and get access!