10 tips for managing your pocket money

Fixed costs include:

How to learn to better manage your budget and expenses

Discover some tips to organize your budget and regain control of your finances.

November 23, 2022

Reading time: 7 min

To manage its budget, certain relatively simple rules can be implemented to allow you to organize yourself better and may even save more easily for your projects, young or old. Discover in this article our advice to help you regain control of your finances.

1. Determine why you would better manage your budget

At first, try to define what pushes you to put order in your finances. Indeed, by defining specific objectives, you will increase your motivation and you can set up different methods to reach them. This will allow you to stay focused on your projects and avoid distractions.

Here are some questions that you have to ask yourself how to manage your budget:

• What is important to you ? Do you want to travel or organize a vacation in friends ?
• For what objectives or projects would you be ready to save ?
• What are your next obligations ? Do you have to replace one of your electronic devices soon ? Do you have to pay an invoice as an annual subscription or your housing tax for example, in the weeks or months that arrive ?

N26 sub-accounts

With N26, save at your own pace for your projects thanks to the sub-accounts.

Make the difference between your short and long -term projects

Once you have defined your goals, you can surely divide them into two categories: short and long -term projects.

Here are some examples of short -term projects:

• Buy furniture for your apartment or home
• Plan a vacation with your friends or family
• Prepare the budget for a new computer

Or longer -term projects:

• An entrepreneurial project
• A world tour

As you manage to achieve your short -term goals, you will realize that you can save at your own pace and slowly take control of your finances.

By putting small sums regularly aside, you can gradually get closer to your long -term goals which will then seem increasingly achievable.

Manage your budget realistically

Before starting to save, it is important to determine if your short and long -term goals are realistic and achieved. It may be demotivating to set overly ambitious and unattainable objectives and to see day after day that they are impossible to achieve.

For example, you can follow the Smart method developed by the American psychologist Edwin Locke. It consists in setting objectives in a Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and defined Temporally. If your goals meet these 5 criteria, this is normally the sign that you can start defining the budget you will allocate to your projects.

2. Understand and follow your expenses to define your budget

In a second step, it is essential to know precisely your income and your monthly expenses to start managing your budget effectively. If you have an N26 account, you just need to consult the Statistical Tool, accessible directly from your application to understand what your main income and expense posts are. You can also extract your account statements on a spreadsheet to create your own personalized follow -up.

Separate your fixed expenses from your variable expenses

After identifying your income and expenses, you can separate your fixed costs from your variable costs to understand exactly the expenses you can avoid or control.

Fixed costs include:

• The rent when you rent an apartment or a house
• Reimbursement deadlines for a mortgage or a loan (student, car, work. ))
• Insurance (home, car, etc.)
• Energy expenses (water, electricity, gas. ))
• The subscription of your mobile phone line and your internet subscription
• Taxes

Variable costs include:

• Food expenses
• Shopping expenses
• The costs linked to outings (restaurants, cinema, theater, bowling, bars, etc.)
• Subscriptions related to your leisure activities (gym, musical or video streaming service. ))

And if you reduce your expenses ?

By having defined your variable expenses well, you should now be able to determine the expenses that offer you greater flexibility and on which you will be able to save. It is important not to delete all these costs and continue to enjoy your leisure activities, but sometimes you have to use some tips.

Here are some tracks to reduce your variable expenses:

• Bring your lunch at work rather than going to eat at the restaurant at noon.
• Think well before giving in to the temptation to buy the latest smartphone model if yours still works very well.
• Choose one day in the week when you do not make any variable expenditure.
• Control your expenses of the week, and allocate a specific budget every day that you try not to exceed.

3. Precisely manage your budget

After having determined your goals and now that you know your fixed and variable expenses, you should be able to define the amount you want to save every month. Discover our advice to manage your budget whatever your income and your professional and personal situation.

Place the 50/30/20 rule

The rule of 50/20 is simple and yet very effective, you should allocate:

• 50 % of your budget for your “needs”, that is to say fixed costs such as invoices and rent;
• 30 % for your “desires”, that is to say variable costs such as restaurants, hairdresser or shopping;
• 20 % for your savings or reimbursement of your possible loans.

If you decide to adopt this method, it may be useful to automate the distribution of your income thanks in particular to permanent transfers, or monthly automatic rules to move money to your N26 sub-contracts.

You can distribute your income automatically according to the 50/30/20 rule at the beginning of each month. Thus, you only leave on your main account 30 % of your monthly income for your “desires” and the rest of your money is put aside on the one hand to cover your fixed costs when the time comes and the rest goes to your savings.

Adopt the “zero base budget” method

The “zero base budget” method is slightly different from the 50/30/20 approach. It aims to attribute to each expense a precise function. At the end of the month, income from expenses must be equivalent to zero: nothing remains in your bank account.

This means that your budget is precisely adjusted to determine how much you spend every month for fixed costs, variable costs and your savings, almost or almost or. This approach implies a very precise overall vision of your monthly transactions, day by day and we grant you, it is not necessarily easy.

Constitute an emergency fund

Life is full of surprises and it may be important to create an emergency fund, in the event of unforeseen events. To build it at your own pace, you can for example:

• Assign a small part of your income, for example 5 % every month.
• Put some of your unusual income aside: instead of using a bonus or money from your birthday, put part of the sum affected aside.

If all this seems complicated, don’t worry. The constitution of an emergency fund often takes a little time. But the sooner you will start to save, the better you will be prepared to deal with the unexpected.

Bank account n26

Don’t wait any longer to regain control of your money in real time

Your money at N26

At N26, we make it a point of honor to help you manage your budget more easily and take control of your finances. With a N26 bank account, you can manage your money in real time and you receive instant notifications each time something happens on your account to allow you to follow your expenses easily.

In addition, your expenses are automatically categorized so that you can understand exactly where your money is going. You can even customize this follow -up by adding hashtags to your transactions. And to save even more easily, the space functionality allows you to create sub-accounts for your projects. You can create a goal to be achieved for each of your sub-accounts, and thus keep an eye on the progress of your projects.

N26 wishes to restore control of your finances and keys so that you can reach your goals, even in the more complicated periods.

10 tips for managing your pocket money

Pocket money is a way to have a little independence: it is no longer worth asking your parents automatically to buy certain things you want or need. But you still have to know how to manage it … here are our tips !

Provide your expenses of the month

A cinema scheduled for 14, the birthday of his best friend on the 23rd … It is possible to provide certain expenses from the beginning of the month ! Calculate them allows you to know the amount that remains available, to be able to have fun with the rest, without any stress !

Find a secure place where to store your savings

A dedicated box or a wallet that stays at home are perfect places to store your pocket money. We can even ask her parents to keep him if we don’t trust too much ! It’s better than putting it, for example, in its catch-all drawer in which you find nothing…

Do not take all your money on yourself

Even if it’s always nice to see your wallet filled, it is better to leave your savings at home and take only what you need ! This avoids not losing them and not being robbed.

Use a tire shoot

The tire drawn will never go out of fashion & nbsp! In the form of a pig, a cow or a cartoon character … whatever. The goal is only to be able to put your pocket money (or only part of your pocket money) in a place that you cannot open all the time. Like that, we oblige ourselves to saving money and we can offer ourselves a beautiful gift later & nbsp!

Give yourself goals

It is easy to let yourself go to be money according to your desires, at the time & nbsp: candies at the bakery on Monday, a new application on the smartphone on Wednesday … and finally at the jump of the account there is nothing left for S ‘ Buy what is really nice & nbsp! So by set a goal (the new PS4 & NBSP game?), we are motivated to pay attention to our expenses, and we save & nbsp!

Note your expenses

Note your expenses makes it possible to realize how you use your money. Yes, at the end of the month, it is sometimes the surprise & nbsp: we do not understand why we have nothing left. Even small expenses, accumulating, can become a large sum ..

Set up a expenditure limit per week

Setting one limit per week allows you not to find yourself in the middle of the month having spent all your pocket money !

Open a bank account

By having a bank account, you can easily follow your expenses from a computer or a phone ! As soon as we need, we take a look to know where we are.

And in addition, opening an account is super simple.

Put a sum of the start of the month

This technique may seem simple, and yet it is rarely implemented, when it can really bear fruit & nbsp! The principle & nbsp? Set a sum not to spend every month & nbsp: we shelter it, and some time later we have a big sum of which we are proud and with which we can have fun & nbsp! The most difficult is not to be false apologies at the start of each month so as not to do it ..

To please yourself

And finally with well-deserved and spared money, treat yourself !

• Our bank cards
• Savings and investments
• Our consumer credits
• Our life insurance
• Personalize your bank card