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The author, Jen Glantz.
Gaby Deimeke
I used to meticulously track my monthly spending across a variety of categories.
The reality, though, is that my income and spending fluctuate in ways that made my budget stressful.
Now I think about how much I’m spending overall each week instead of worrying about the specifics.
At the start of the pandemic, I decided I needed to spend quality time focusing on my finances. I had to pivot parts of my business as an entrepreneur in the wedding business, since a lot of clients were postponing their celebrations or not in need of my services. I also had to get strategic about how to alter my spending and savings due to a major drop in income.
That’s when, for the first time in my life, I decided to get serious about creating a realistic monthly budget and sticking to it. I would meticulously map out how much I allowed myself to spend on the different categories of my life, every month, from groceries to activities to clothing to essentials for my dog.
While I spent two years strictly following a budget, I decided that it was too restrictive to keep up with. That’s why, at the start of 2023, I decided to do something differently. Instead of giving myself a spending goal for different categories of my life, I’m focusing on meeting weekly savings goals. Here’s how I’m making that happen so far.
Setting a weekly goal of how much I save
As an entrepreneur, my monthly income fluctuates quite drastically and depends on how many new clients I book and products that I sell. In order to create a realistic savings goal, I took the monthly average income that I made last year and used that as a benchmark for this year. I then took that monthly income number and decided that I wanted to save at least a third of it every month.
To make that happen, I decided to set a savings goal every single week. For example, if my monthly income was $5,000, I made a goal of saving $1,666 every month and a weekly goal of $416.
Since my income is deposited in my bank account, I would start the week off by taking $416 and moving it to a savings account labeled “weekly savings” so that it was already put aside and would be separate from the rest of my income that would be spent on bills, rent, and other expenses throughout the month.
I give myself an allowance
I also set a spending limit for each week so that I know in general how much I am allowed to spend on all the categories of my life. I view this as an allowance, and if I go over one week, I give myself less to spend the next week. That way, I can maintain my savings goal for the month while also setting a spending limit that keeps me in control of my finances but doesn’t limit how much i’m able to spend in each category of my life.
I decided to do this because, when I followed a budget, some months I’d spend $0 from my clothing budget and be close to overspending in my grocery budget. Rather than expanding my grocery budget and pulling that money from the clothing budget, I found myself struggling to afford enough food by the end of the month so that I could strictly stick to my budget.
But viewing spending and savings this way allows me to know how much I have each week and then deduct expenses from that allowance amount one by one. I’m able to let myself spend money as needed, not according to a set amount of cash per category. This gives me more freedom and fewer restrictions with spending every month, while also staying true to an overall savings goal.
Doing end of week check-ins
At the end of every single week, I track my spending to account for how much cash is needed to cover the current expenses of the month. That’s how I determine my spending limits for the week ahead. If I notice that I have a week where I spent more money than usual, I make a mental note to reduce spending whenever I can the next week. That way, I’m still able to hit my savings goal for the week.
When I had a budget, I did this per category, and it showed me what areas I needed to cut back on (for example, some weeks I realized I was spending too much in my food delivery category), but looking at my spending on a more holistic level allows me to not just cut back in one category and instead be strategic about overall spending patterns while being realistic about the needs of the week ahead.
After doing this for one month, I have been able to stick to my savings goal while also being able to control and moderate my spending to meet my lifestyle and needs on a weekly basis.