As financial coach, Amanda Clayman says, budgets are not supposed to be “a form of punishment for past mistakes.”
But how do we shift budgets from being tools of punishment and restriction, to something that helps us feel empowered?
Weekly was designed to help people just like you break the negative cycle of budgeting and the shame associated with your spending habits. Keep reading to understand how exactly Weekly will help you achieve your financial goals.
An accurate, up-to-date “Safe-to-Spend” amount
The first step to get started with Weekly is making sure all of your regular, recurring expenses are accounted for. Once you’ve plugged these in, you’re given a weekly (not monthly) “allowance” or Safe-to-Spend amount.
Each week, Weekly works to make sure all of your one-time expenses are accounted for. Your “safe-to-spend” amount is always updated — so you know how much you have left to spend in a week.
Each week is a fresh start
One of the primary issues with traditional budgeting systems is that they’re based on months, but can you remember how much you’ve spent (and what you bought) even 12 days into a month? With monthly budgeting, when you get to the end of the month, you just open your bank account and cross your fingers hoping for the best. You can’t catch yourself overspending until it’s too late.
Weekly allows you to start each week fresh — without the weight of a month of failure looming over your head. A slightly negative balance from the week before has a much lighter impact than the compounding failures that generally come with a monthly budgeting system.
Imagine this: it’s Friday, and you’ve had a very productive week of work. You want to treat yourself and give yourself a little boost to close the work week out strong. You look at your safe-to-spend amount and you have $60 left for this week. You know you have dinner plans Saturday night, but $50 should be plenty to cover it, so you go ahead and splurge on the coffee — and you feel comfortable doing so knowing that all your expenses are accounted for.
Weekly is flexible
With Weekly, you aren’t burdened with a plan based on categories. Instead, you have a weekly safe-to-spend amount, and whether your money goes toward salad fixings at the grocery store and new clothes for work or a week of takeout does not matter. With all of your recurring expenses accounted for, you can spend your weekly allowance on whatever you need that week without any guilt.
We’re Weekly
Businesses operate on monthly budgets, but humans operate on more of a weekly basis. Everything from grocery shopping and meal prep to weekend plans is based on weekly planning. We do things weekly to help you because psychologically it’s easier to keep track of and easier to start racking up the wins.
As the weeks progress and you stay below your Safe-to-Spend number you can roll that number over from week to week. Soon you can confidently treat yourself to that weekend getaway with friends, and feel great about it.
Conclusion
What you spend money on is a reflection of your values. When you focus on your wants and needs (while staying within your spending limit), you’ll find you’ll be happier than ever with your spending. In conclusion in her article, “$19,000 Haircut,” Amanda Clayman writes, “But in the first weeks and months of following my spending plan, instead of feeling restricted I was shocked to discover that I felt liberated.“
Weekly wants to provide you with that liberated feeling.
Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash
