Monthly budget review

Training 205 minutesbudget review

You are 52, a logistics coordinator. You build a budget every month but never look back at how it went. It is the 31st: time for your first proper review.

Training goal: Make the budget sharper every month

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Situation

1. Food: plan $600, actual $720. Over by $120.

Find the cause: guests and dining out
Set the plan to $720 since that is reality
Scold yourself and cut the plan to $500

2. A car repair of $480 outside the budget. The mechanic says new tyres are due in six months.

A one-off, it will not happen again
A "car" line: $100 a month
Buy the tyres on credit when it is time

3. Fun: plan $250, spent $160. $90 left over.

Do nothing, let it sit on the card
Spend it this weekend before the month ends
$90 to the trip to your brother

4. Comparing the last three months: transport grows by $30 each month.

Ignore it, $30 is not much
Dig in: taxis on rainy days
Sell the car right away

What you will learn

Compare plan and actual monthly and find the cause
Recurring "one-offs" need their own line
Check trends once a quarter

Your real-life step

Take last month: for each category write the plan, the actual and the reason for any gap. It takes 20 minutes.

Questions and answers

How do I review my budget?

Compare plan and actual for each category, find reasons for gaps, flag one-off costs and update next month’s plan.

How often should I review my budget?

A quick check weekly, a full review monthly and a trend check quarterly. Plus a reset after any big life change.

What if I keep going over budget?

Check whether the plan matches 3 months of real spending. If it does, find the specific cause of the overspend and fix that.

▶ Play this training Track your budget in Hanimani

More trainings in this module

Numbers are illustrative. A game, not financial advice.