The problem with one month budgeting tools and how to solve it.

The problem with household budget tools that only look at one month of spending is the boom bust cycle - some months you're way ahead, others you're struggling. In this guide .

One way to create a better budget is to make sure you are looking at your spending habits over the course of a year and not just one month. This will help you plan for any unexpected expenses, like school fees, which will be coming up in the next few months.

Having a better household budget is one of the best ways to improve your life and your finances.

It is a good idea to create a better household budget that considers all the costs of living over the course of the year.

We're going to show you how to think about the quarterly bills, and other non-monthly bills that add up, are hard to account for.

How to account for bills that aren't monthly

A better budget is a personal budget that considers all your monthly expenses, not just the ones you have in the same month. Some examples of bills that aren’t monthly include:

• Car registration,

• Gas bills,

• Council rates,

• Tax bills,

• School fees,

This causes people to overspend in one month and then struggle to make ends meet in other months. A better method is to create a personal budget for living that considers all your monthly expenses, not just the ones you have in the same month.

It can be difficult to know what your yearly expenses are going to be like because they might change from year to year based on your life changes or job changes. But if you don't know how much money you will have in a year's time, how can you plan and make sure that there's enough money left over when it comes time for paying those bills?

Planning for costs ahead

Without a clear picture of upcoming costs it is easy to spend what's in your pocket - after all, if you've just had a lean month, it can feel good to buy yourself something nice, or treat the family to a special dinner.

If you have a lot of money left over at the end of each month after paying your monthly expenses and debt payments, then you should consider setting aside money for your quarterly expenses.

The key to a successful budget is to be realistic. The truth is that not all your bills are monthly, and some of them are hard to account for, but that doesn't mean you should ignore them.

This budget spreadsheet solves the boom / bust cycle of spending and bills

Below, we have linked a personal budgeting spreadsheet, which has been generously shared by one of HelpPay's users.

In their words "this spreadsheet went through plenty of iterations but ultimately it stopped the 'boom bust' cycle of our spending. You know, some months we'd think we were doing alright, and other months we felt like we were really behind, but we always had the same income. It wasn't until we had this spreadsheet we could really see why - kids school fees, the council rates, the gas bill comes in, and whammo, in that month we would be underwater if we didn't have some savings in place from previous months".

The budget spreadsheet (which may look overwhelming at first) certainly does make it easy to enter costs by month - and then automatically splits those bills into weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual costs.

By being able to see how your month is allocated, you can forecast your household spending well into the future - even a year or two ahead.

The spreadsheet is particularly helpful as it clearly shows you your committed costs each month, and makes it easy to see when you'll have more and which months you may need to tighten the belt a little more.

Of course you could choose make the lean months a little easier on yourself by spending less in the months where you have more disposable income - but ultimately the choice is yours, it's your money!

See and download the super budget spreadsheet here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15AuA7i_eSI9JXmSzn_IGv4Jv7pGCteMSzuwHG2yjka0/edit?usp=sharing

About HelpPay

HelpPay is a 100%Australian owned company focused on making helping easier.

HelpPay's app is free for anyone to download and the HelpPay Promise ensures that money received to be paid towards a bill only ever goes to pay that bill.

Best of all the HelpPay app keeps a track of how much has been paid so when the full amount owed has been paid it stops accepting payments, providing peace of mind that bills can't be overpaid.

Download the HelpPay app from the Apple Store or Google Play Store or use the web version of HelpPay, today.