A savvy saver shared how her go-to budgeting method helped her stop overspending and take control of her finances
A money-savvy social media user has shared how she stopped overspending after trialling a new budgeting method. Beth Fuller, who posts about her finances as @bethmfuller, shared the recommendation on her popular TikTok account.
Beth captioned her video: “The budgeting method that stopped my overspending.” She then explained how she uses “zero-based budgeting” to “save more money and prevent overspending.”
She told viewers: “I share my budgeting every month, but I never go into the actual method of budgeting that I use, and it is honestly one of the best things that I’ve done for my money. I do zero-based budgeting, and that is where you account a purpose to every bit of your money, basically.”
Beth continued: “So, I go over my bills like my fixed expenses first. Then, I focus in on my disposable income and I make sure that that disposable income is all accounted for. From food, petrol, subscriptions, and of course any overpayments I want to make, saving and investing too.
“So, when I get to the end of my budget, I’m essentially left with zero, like I have ‘spent’ all the money. For me, it stopped me from thinking that I have tons of disposable income every single month to just spend.”
She added: “It’s also so good for understanding your variable spending too, so like food and petrol. Typically, food used to trip me up quite a lot, but now I can look back and see an average and then I budget for that average and it just captures things really well for me.”
PayPal defines zero-based budgeting as “a budgeting style where every expense must be justified for each new period, starting from a zero base. That means that each month, income minus expenses should equal zero.
“That doesn’t mean there will be a zero balance in the bank account at the end of the month. Part of that budget can go to savings, or paying off debt. Simply put, zero-based budgeting is about assigning every pound a job.”
PayPal adds: “The main difference between zero-based budgeting and traditional methods is that with zero-based budgeting, the budget starts from zero each month versus carrying over previous budget categories. This can be useful for costs that someone might take for granted in their budget, such as a subscription app or a gym membership, especially if that expense is no longer worth it.”
