Published on Capitec, 27 July 2022
More month left at the end of your money? It’s time to whip your budget into shape and track your spending.
Budgeting is important no matter where you are in your life. You need to know how much money is coming in and what your monthly expenses are. Remember the days when drawing up a budget required some Excel know-how, valuable time wasted recording all receipts and invoices and crunching numbers? Luckily that’s a thing of the past with the many apps and tools available today.
Budget 101
When you draw up a budget, it’s recommended that you follow the 50/30/20 budget principle. How this works is simple: 50% of your household income should go towards essential expenses, 30% towards financial priorities, and 20% towards lifestyle choices.
You should spend no more than 50% of your income on essential expenses such as:
- Home: 25% (rent, home loan, insurance, maintenance and garden)
- Transport: 10% (fuel, insurance, car finance and maintenance)
- Food: 10% (groceries and cleaning supplies)
- Utilities: 5% (water and electricity)
At least 30% of your income should be used to take care of financial priorities:
- Saving: 10% (holiday, nest egg and investments)
- Retirement investments: 10% (retirement annuity and pension fund)
- Financial services: 5% (personal loan, credit accounts and bank charges)
- Medical expenses: 5% (medical aid, medicine, doctors and other treatment)
No more than 20% of your income should be used for lifestyle choices. That is, things that are nice to have but not essential:
- Entertainment
- Personal care
- Clothing
- Hobbies
- Dining out
Why you need to track your spending
Even with a budget, extra expenses can creep in. When you don’t pay attention to them, you might not realise how much you’re actually spending in a month. Have you remembered to add that takeaway coffee you buy every morning on the way to the office? How about the flowers you bought for your mom? Or the data top-up you needed? All these extra expenses add up, quickly.
To avoid having your money run out before the end of the month, you need to track your spending. It will allow you to adjust your budget where necessary.
How to track your spending
On the new Capitec banking app, you can get a quick overview of where your money goes with the help of different categories like food, transport or communication. Plus, this can help you plan and manage your budget, giving you more control over your money. All from the comfort of your couch and all in one place.
The app is easy to use. Simply tap on your savings account to see what money has come into your account and what has gone out. Want to view your spending categories? Tap on the ‘track’ tab to see what you have spent money on. All money you’ve spent is automatically categorised to give you a clear picture of your spending habits. If the app allocates something to the wrong category, you can change it. The app will then ‘learn’ and won’t make the same mistake again.
Once you start to track your spending habits from one month to the next, you’ll soon be able to identify unnecessary expenses that you could cut back on.
Banking. Now even simpler
Get the new Capitec banking app and automatically categorise your transactions so you can easily track your income and spending habits.