The Budget Process

Please read the following process information and remember, to get the ball rolling, you must first register with Organiseyourmoney.com. The registration page can be accessed via the Services navigation button.

Wohoo! Let’s get started.

There are 2 easy steps to organising your personalised budget kit. As you enter your details they will be saved into the system so that you can come back and make changes later on if needed.

Step 1 - Setting your goals

It can be difficult to stay motivated when you begin budgeting because you feel like you are making lots of sacrifices for only small benefits. Our advice, take it day by day. After a few months of sticking to your fun new plan, you will begin to see exciting results. By being goal oriented you will find it easier to stick to your budget. This is why you need to set up goals. Goals can inspire you when budgeting and this is our secret little plan, to get you motivated! We love that word, MOTIVATED.

There are some important things to remember when setting your goals. It is fantastic to have big goals. These are important because once you are on the straight and narrow with your budget you will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and you will have the means in which to live the life you want. Humans can be extrinsically motivated. That means that most of us need instant rewards. You remember, clean up your room and you will get your pocket money. Not clean up your room and one day we’ll take you to Dreamworld!

Saving up for a deposit on a house may take a year or two. You could become unmotivated to stick your budget plan if the road is too long between rewards. So, you will need to make two lists of goals. Long term goals and short term goals. The short term goals will help you to achieve your long term goals. Remember to make your goals believable for you so that you stay focused. Once you are out of financial strife you can DREAM BIG.

You can type in your Short Term Goals and Long Term goals as part of your registration process. Once registered these will be laminated and added to your budget kit. Have fun!

Step 2 - Your Budget

It’s time to enter important and personal information about your spending and saving habits. Organiseyourmoney.com highly values your privacy. Organiseyourmoney.com complies with the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.

Some of our clients are often shocked at their income versus their expenditure. They regularly find that they need to adjust how they have been managing (or should we say spending) their money so as not to get into further debt. Don’t freak out! Initially this is going to be a shock, but it’s a good thing and positive step in the right direction. Trust us. Let’s get you on track.

So that you can start your new plan immediately you will be able to print out your budget at the end of this process. Once you've entered all the data into the budget cashflow calculator, you can then go back and edit your entries. When you are confident with your entries, click on the "Make My Budget" button at the bottom of the calculator. This will create a condensed report in a new window that you can print out and we will prepare your kit for you which should arrive with the rest of your goodies in 5-10 working days.

So How Does it Work and Why Jars?

The jar system is not a new one. Perhaps your grandma kept her money in jars or in some random place in the house, maybe a sock. Grandmas are so clever! Back in the old days, when dinosaurs used to roam, we only used cash! No credit! Imagine it. We knew how much money was coming, and more importantly we knew how much we could spend.

Now, we don’t know which automatic payment is due, we usually don’t leave money in the bank for these payments; we get behind because we don’t track our money. We just keep going to the ATM as if it’s money growing on trees. Frivolously spending as if we were Donald Trump!

Using jars is obviously not the way to manage your money forever, and certainly now that all of our money is kept in banks it may seem bizarre to use jars, however, whilst you are in the danger period, that never ending cycle of debt, it’s a way you can control yourself. You can see your money. You can touch it. You can control it.

Once you have input all of your outgoing expenses, the Budget Calculator will condense these into three areas. Long Term Bills, Short Term Bills and Every Day Living expenses. You will receive three jars that correspond with these.

Of course if you make automatic payments, or you pay bills using phone banking, there is a fourth area in which you would input this data. This total amount will be left in the bank.

Each pay day you withdraw the total of the three amounts according to what the budget calculator has generated for you. You also leave a sum of money in the bank if you have payments to come out. This money accumulates over time for your Long Term Bills.

Imagine when the big bills come along e.g. the power bill, rates, car registration etc. You will have the money ready to go when these bills arrive.

With everyday living expenses your aim is to get to the end of the pay week before you run out of money! You don’t use money from anywhere else. This is how you will see your debt reduce. This is the exciting part.