What To Do When You Go Over Budget

Budgeting is basically the fancy term for making a plan for your money. There are many different methods out there but remember budgeting is not a one-size fits all – what works for me will not work for you. Everyone is in a different situation, we all have different goals, different priorities and live in different areas. For example, someone living in London will have to spend more on the essentials than me, a student living in the North West. Therefore, take inspiring from how other people budget and then adapt it to your situation and make it your own.

The first time you budget your money you will probably go over! This is completely normal and expected. Budgeting truly is a trial and error process and it might take months before you hit that sweet spot and it get right. But and this is a big but – do not use going over your budget as an excuse to give up!

But what should I do? Here are five things to do when you go over your budget!

Reflect on your spending

Notice you have gone over your budget? Unsure what to do now? The perfect place to start is by reflecting on your spending. Write down every single transaction – whether this is on a fancy spreadsheet or classic pen and paper! Go through each transaction and ask yourself – Was this an impulse spend? Does it aline with my values? 

You will easily be able to see whether your spending was out of control or it whether your budget was just unrealistic. Enter step two…

Reflect on your budget

Once you have gone through your transactions you will be able to see if your spending is the problem or whether it is actually your budget that needs adapting. Is it unrealistic for your lifestyle? Is it too restrictive? Budgets should not be set in stone; they should be flexible and able to change as time goes on. Take mine for example. 

When I started uni my “allowance” (the amount of money I give myself to spend freely on anything) was £80 per week. When the pandemic began this soon dropped to £50 per month. When everything opened back up again, I changed it to £50 per week. I found this was more than enough and I found myself spending for the sake of it, so I lowered it to £30 per week in January and seem to have found that sweet spot!

Start fresh

Draw a line under it and move on! Revise your budget, make a plan and move forward! Do not give up with budgeting because it didn’t work the first time. Budgeting is the same as most things – practice truly does make perfect!

Have a spending detox

You may have found that your spending was the problem not your budget. If this is the case, why not have a spending detox? The perfect way to detox is to embark on a no spend challenge.

The rules are completely up to you! You can tailor the challenge to fit your lifestyle and needs but the run of the mill no spend challenge is where you only spend on the necessities. Necessities are things such as rent/mortgage, bills, food (groceries not eating out) and transportation. Essentially you don’t spend beyond the things you need to survive. If this sounds impossible, you can adapt the rules to fit you. Want to include your subscriptions and daily latte but nothing else? You do that. Want to be able to eat out once a week? Include that as one of your pre-approved spending items. 

You see what I’m getting at! The basic idea of this type of challenge is to take your spending back to the bare bones and avoid all unnecessary spending. Doing a no spend challenge is the equivalent of turning your spending off and then on again 😅

Don’t give up!

Like I said before, budgets are all about trial and error – you won’t know if it works until you live with it and see. You should always be reflective of your budget to make sure it still works for you and fills all your needs. Do not use going over your budget as an excuse to ditch it or spend whatever you want! You can always adapt your budget as you go and then edit it for the following pay period.

So that’s the five things I would suggest doing if you find you have gone over your budget! The most important being don’t give up and start fresh!