The Importance of Budgeting in Your Twenties

Fresh out of your teens and into your twenties people are always encouraging you to do everything you can- you’re only young once, go and enjoy your life before you are tied down to a big family, mortgage and monthly bills. While this is the case for a lot of us, being in your twenties can also come with a lot of financial pressure and difficulties.

Image Credits: The Sun

If you went to university, like me, you most likely have a heavy burden of student loans to pay off. You’re probably also wondering how you can keep up with those monthly Help To Buy ISA payments while paying monthly bills and trying to balance your social life - please tell me I’m not the only one.

One thing I underestimated before I got a job was the amount of money that gets deducted from your salary before you receive it. - it can’t just be me who gets disappointed with this? Student loan repayments, tax, national insurance, pension schemes… before you know it your monthly income is already about £600 less than you hoped for. So, with the salary we get in our pocket after the deductions we are actually still expected to save for our future expenses while dealing with present ones... surely not.

Budgeting is something a lot of people don’t talk about, most of us are never taught how to do it at school and therefore don't ever spend time on it. Here are some of my top tips to budgeting that won't take you long to do:

1. Figure Out Your Monthly Expenses

Before I started creating my budgeting plan I thought this part would be the easiest - it can’t be hard figuring out what you spend money on, right? Wrong! Things like bills, rent and car insurance are standard payments you make each month. The one thing I forgot to count in my monthly expenses were what I like to call “small” costs. Each time you go to the corner shop those £1.50 bottles of juice or 70p chocolate bars; or our monthly subscriptions for Netflix, Spotify or Prime are all expenses that add up. Remember to include them.

2. Get rid of unnecessary expenses

Now that you have figured out where your money disappears to each month, try and split necessities from your problem spending. I don’t know about you but I have an obsession with online shopping and buying candles. Whatever you obsession is, make a list and put it somewhere. Next time you go to purchase something from the list be strict with yourself and think about if you really need it or if you just want it. I know that I don’t ever need anything that I buy online, but 99% of the time I’ll still buy it anyway. When you are budgeting you have to stop purchasing these things unless they are part of your plan.

3. Figure out your goals

Decide what your goals are. What is the purpose of you budgeting? This was the easiest part for me. I want to save for a mortgage so that I can buy my first home. But while doing this I don’t want to miss out on things that make me happy in life such as social time with friends and holidays, so I made sure I budgeted for all of these things.

4. Prepare of unexpected expenses

Unexpected expenses are something we all forget about. There’s been multiple times where I have been in situations where I have had to dip into my savings to pay for something because I haven’t kept any money aside for unpredictable scenarios (some people call this an emergency fund). Recently my car tyre burst which is just one example of something that you would never predict happening but is an expensive burden to you. I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep money for these things.

5. Stick to your plan

Once you’ve created your budgeting plan the hardest part is sticking to it. You have to stay motivated and remember what goals you are on your way to achieving. You have to hold yourself accountable, if you struggle with this then talk to a family member about your budget plans and ask them to hold you accountable. If you really want to make your budget work, you will.

I am by no means a professional in this kind of stuff, this is literally just what works for me. If you have any other tips or advice then please comment below. My FREE budget worksheet to help you set up an easy to follow budget in minutes is available here: