Hi Fellow Steemians,
I always enjoy joining contests and challenges here in Steemit. I have to admit that I'm not so good at it. I can't remember winning any challenge or contest. But still, I join them not because I want to desperately win, but because I find it fun and challenging!
The Challenge/The Contest
While browsing through new steemit posts I encountered a post by @smaeunabs about a budget challenge. (See link here: https://steemit.com/thebudgetchallenge/@smaeunabs/the-budget-challenge-20-sbd-pool-rewards) This challenge is actually unique and something I have not yet seen on Steemit. The challenge is to post your own budget plan. Excellent! I never really had a budget plan so to think of it. I actually just go by living everyday and managing my funds day by day and hope I survive. I guess I'm not the only one doing this. hehehe.
I wanna join the contest. So what I did is I studied my budget for the last couple of months and will use it as my plan for the rest of the year. (NOTE: This is based on my actual income/salary and expenses. Actual amount though will not be shown and will only show percentages)
Tools Used
Microsoft Excel
The Income and Actual Expenses Table
(note: Not all daily and living expenses are shown in the table. Some of my daily and living expenses are shouldered by my wife's income thus not included in my budget plan)
Based on the table above, I've come up with a model that I will try to follow moving forward. This model will be based on Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. If you want to learn more about Maslow's concept. You can find it on this link: https://www.consumerismcommentary.com/budget-categories-maslows-hierarchy-needs/
But just to sum it up, below are the different levels of needs.
The Budget Proposal
Based on the table above I categorized the expenses based on Maslow's concept and created a simple pivot table showing the expenses I make for each level of needs. Just as I thought, I spend majority of my budget on levels 1 and 2. Level 5 came out higher because of the Internet expense. This is actually sort of a need for me because I work in a contact center and communication and Internet is essential in my field of work.
To further breakdown my budget please see below:
As stated above, not all normal expenses of a household is shown below. It's because my wife takes care of those expenses. But what I can suggest is a summary of the expenses based on Maslow's levels of needs:
Level 1 and 2 should have the most of your budget. In my model, I allocated around 80% of my total budget in it. It's actually self-explanatory. These are the levels that are essential in our day to day life. I decided to divide the remaining 20% to the rest of the levels. It does not have to be balanced just as my actual budget is. It depends on your way of living. To each his own.
So that's my budget challenge right there. I know it's not perfect, but it has actually helped me throughout my working years. I now have a home, a car and a family that I can support with, so I can pretty much say this worked for me.
Let me know what you think. If you like my budget proposal, please upvote and resteem. I would like to thank @smaeunabs again for making this contest. I had fun writing this.
See you all soon fellow Steemians.
