Piggy bank with golden coins. Financial investment, savings and family budget concept background. 3d illustration

Forecast Budgeting

By Sheyanne Kent

Cheerful pretty woman and her handsome husband managing family budget while sitting at wooden table, interior of living room on background

Do you find yourself constantly last-minute shopping for holidays or birthdays?  Does shopping for special occasions put an overwhelming damper on your pockets?  This forecast budgeting guide can solve all your gift-shopping problems!

What exactly is forecast budgeting you may ask?  Forecast budgeting is the perfect way to organize and plan ahead for future holiday shopping.  Most people find themselves stressed or scrambling for a gift when a birthday rolls around.  Forecast budgeting alleviates this stress as it allows for you to get your shopping done ahead of time and save some money while you’re at it.  Who doesn’t want that? 

couple planning family budget with piggy bank and dollars in living room
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budgeting couple for family gifts and holiday spending

Now how do I do it?  It’s fairly simple!  Forecast budgeting consists of a 12-month program where you are setting aside money for different events as well as planning for the year as a whole, ahead of time.  This includes budgeting for birthdays, holidays and vacations as well as more mundane things such as bills, savings and credit card payments.  To do this, the first step is either creating or finding a spreadsheet online, or doing it the old fashioned way and getting a planner journal. 

Now that you have that, it’s time to get to the nitty gritty.  What do you need to budget for this year? Plot everything that comes to mind in your planner of choice as well as how much money you will be putting away for that particular area of your budget.  The last step is putting your discipline to work and saving! While forecast budgeting might be something that takes time to perfect, (because we all know how easy it is to dip into our savings) it is definitely something that can be very beneficial for your finances in the long run.

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