by team et wealthyou earn well but are unable to save you have no idea where your salary goes you sometimes borrow to pay your billsif any of these statements applies to you its time to write down a household budget many people are put off by the word budget because they associate it with restrictions on spending and frugal lifestyles thats a misconception budgeting does not make you spend less but allows you to spend smart a good budget lets you focus your money on the things that are most important to you says personal finance expert carl richards by preventing you from overspending on less important items a budget channelises resources to areas that should be given priorityin the postdemonetisation economy tracking expenses is not cumbersome but the use of plastic and other cashless modes means overspending can be a problem this is where budgeting apps play a critical role they help track your expenses and alert you if you exceed limits beep if you overshoot the limit on dining out beep beep if you swipe your card too many times at the garment showroom overspending on eating out and clothing is the most common reason why young people lose out on the golden years of compounding if you save 10000 a month in an option that earns 10 annually your corpus at the end of 30 years would be a massive 216 crore but if you start five years late at 35 your corpus will be smaller by almost 96 lakhderailing of financial goals is not the only problem shopaholism can ruin careers and cause disharmony in married life an online survey conducted by et wealth found spending too much was the most common reason for money arguments among couplesas we all know the profusion of choices offered by eretailers and the convenience of online payments have led to an overshopping epidemic in india most buyers especially the younger set dont realise that every unnecessary purchase pushes back their longterm goals shopping is not a vice but it can become a problem if expenses prevent the individual from saving for critical goals says dp singh of sbi mutual fund budgeting can prevent such situations it prioritises your expenses and allocates resources in a way that all your financial commitments are addressed research shows that households that follow a budget save more money than families that havent laid down rulesthis is simply because if a family has allocated some money for investment that amount will automatically get invested every month on the other hand the family with no budget will tend to overspend on discretionary items and push longterm goals on the backburner if you still think you dont need to formulate a household budget take the short test below it will give you a fair idea of where your finances are headed and what you should do to get a gripwrite it downthe first step in budgeting is to write down the various sources of income this