By Umm Husam
1. Figure out how much of your income should go towards your bills. As mentioned before, there are plenty of free sites like mint.com which are a great place to go for tracking. It gives you a pie chart to show you where each part of your income goes. If you are spending 33% of your income on your home, you have 67% left for everything else. Break that down and see what went towards food, gas, shopping, entertainment, saving, etc... Once you have figured out how much you can spend a month on each of these buckets, you can move on.
To finish, I would like to remind you that excessive spending is looked down on in Islam. “Allah hates three things for you: gossip, wasting money and asking too much.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (1477) and Muslim (593).
What are some ways in which you will be budgeting your assets, inshaAllah? Please share with me!
Now that you have gone through the beginning stages of budgeting, you are ready to take your budgeting to the next level. Here is a breakdown of areas to focus on.
1. Figure out how much of your income should go towards your bills. As mentioned before, there are plenty of free sites like mint.com which are a great place to go for tracking. It gives you a pie chart to show you where each part of your income goes. If you are spending 33% of your income on your home, you have 67% left for everything else. Break that down and see what went towards food, gas, shopping, entertainment, saving, etc... Once you have figured out how much you can spend a month on each of these buckets, you can move on.
2. Track yourself each month to make sure you aren’t going over in any area. It is easy to say I am only going to spending $200 a month on shopping. Unless you sit down every month and track your spending, you won’t know if you are keeping with your plan.
3. Coupons are your best friend. You don’t really have to go out of your way to find them. Just make sure that when you receive a coupon that you can use, you save it. If there are restaurants you frequently visit, sign up for the mailing list. PF Changs, Ruby Tuesdays, and IHOP are just a few places who have mailing lists and who do send out coupons. Especially when you are shopping for clothing, household goods, and groceries, coupons are a must.
4. Rewards programs help earn cash-back and/or free stuff. Almost every place I go has some kind of rewards program. (Macys, Sears, Sephora, Godiva, Michaels, and of course Grocery stores) They are free to sign up for. Most use your phone number so you don’t even have to carry the card with you.
5. Whenever you go shopping for anything from food to clothing, make a shopping list. If you have specific items you need, it will help keep you from straying to things that you just want. Even when shopping at the mall, if you know you need a good pair of sneakers, it would be easier to stay away from the 4 pairs of heels that are just too cute.
To finish, I would like to remind you that excessive spending is looked down on in Islam. “Allah hates three things for you: gossip, wasting money and asking too much.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (1477) and Muslim (593).
What are some ways in which you will be budgeting your assets, inshaAllah? Please share with me!
2 comments:
assalamu alaikum, i also recommend using budget template in google docs, that way you can share it with whomever you want and their is no miscommunication. check out their link here for more information: www.google.com/google-d-s/templates_finance.html
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