Top Tips for Sticking with Your Budget

So you have a family budget. There's only one problem - you haven't stuck with it! Maybe your budget is nicely outlined and detailed, but sits unused on your computer or in your desk drawer.

Formulating a budget is a challenge, but once you have it done, it doesn't do any good unless you stick with it. Of course, sometimes you do need to compromise, and your budget does need to be somewhat flexible. But you can periodically tweak and adjust your budget and still stick to it. Here are some creative and even fun tips for sticking with your budget.

Have a Look-See

Maybe your budget didn't work out because it didn't fit your needs. Take a fresh look at your budget and ask some of the following questions:

•  Is it too detailed? You might find it exhausting trying to keep a budget that has dozens of categories.


•  Is it too simple? If your budget is too general, you may have let it slide because there just weren't enough details to get a true grasp on your finances.


•  Does your budget include alternatives? If your family is not the creative type, you may have had trouble coming up with alternatives to the budget cutbacks. For instance, if your budget revealed that you needed to cut back on eating out, and you didn't have an alternative plan for what you were going to do instead of eating out, you might have slipped up and deviated from your budget. For some people, this is natural; others need to write in alternatives.


•  Are you realistic about your income? A budget may fail if your income section is more about goals and ideals than actuals.


•  Are there rewards? A budget should have some rewards worked into it - a vacation, a movie out, or a new pair of shoes.

Include Fun Alternatives

As noted above, having alternatives to fill the void created by cutbacks is helpful to keeping your budget. Having creative and fun alternatives may be even more helpful. Here are some ideas.

•  Instead of eating lunch out, pack a fun lunch Bento-style.


•  Lunch-in can be a fun picnic, indoor or outdoor.


•  Staying home for dinner can be fun if it involves a cookout or, if you're really in the mood to be creative, experimenting with a homemade solar oven.


•  Cutting back by getting rid of cable need not be too painful - high-speed internet access is generally a whole lot cheaper than cable, and the family can have fun gathering around the computer for movie night online.


•  Instead of going to the movies, make your own. Have a family make-a-movie night and put on plays, puppet shows, or what-have-you. Capture the fun using your digital camera or webcam.


•  Look up how to make your own skin cleansers, household cleaners, and even shampoo online. Learn how you can make these things for pennies, saving by shunning store-bought versions and having fun in the process.

Sometimes, just getting creative and customizing your budget to fit your family can go a long way toward encouraging everyone to stick with it.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/ 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

What Abundance Means To You

What does abundance really means to you? 

You hear this word a lot but have you ever really thought about what ‘true’ abundance and wealth really is? And most importantly how you may experience more from it in life? 

Do you believe that abundance and wealth is possible for the different aspect of your life?

The answers to these questions will be revealed by simply identifying and observing what is currently going on with the different facets of your own life – financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

What Is It

Although lots of people claim of having an exceptionally good life, this determination is often made from the traditionally taught and established perceptions and beliefs taught to you and are held by you, based on limited understanding about what ‘Good Life’ really means and about the limitless resources that are available for anyone who are willing to thrive deeply enough in order to discover the real meaning of it.

In reality, the achievement of abundance and real wealth is infinite in nature but is equally available for anyone willing to identify and enhance their skills and ability to start choosing whatever it is that they prefer to experience. And yes, you are not an exception.

As you will discover you source, whatever you perceive it to be, it consists of limitless supply for whatever you prefer to experience in life provided that you choose to believe and conceive that you can and it will. Sadly, lots of people make choices unconsciously; they never understand why they’re unable to have that abundance, harmony, and fulfillment in life.

Why not ask yourself with these questions?

• Are you having true happiness and abundance in life?


• Do you love your work and find it financially rewarding and fulfilling?


• Are you having enough time for you to do the things you love the most?


• Do you really have sufficient money for you to do all the things you want?


• Are you enjoying wholesome, deeply satisfying, and fulfilling relationships?


• Are you having a vigorous and vivacious physical health?


• Are your heartfelt dreams as well as you wants fulfilled in the different aspect of life?

If your answer to these questions is NO, then you’re not enjoying and experiencing a quality of life that everyone is capable of having. Abundance and wealth means different things from different people. For some, abundance may be identified as having lots of money. And based on others’ perspective and beliefs, it may actually mean something absolutely different.

Although enough financial resources means a lot to people since it is a very essential facet of abundance and wealth in today’s generation, but money only makes up a tiny portion from the entire equation when it comes to ‘Real Abundance’.

Unless all the other essential aspects of your life are aligned harmoniously, the experience of real abundance and the fulfillment that is available will elude you continually and it will appear to be impossible and unattainable. Lasting and true abundance and wealth will result from a perfect balance in the fundamental areas of your life.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/ 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

How Being Organised Saves You Time and Money

We all want to be able to organize our schedules and have the commitment to maintain them on a day-to-day basis, but how? 

Creating a workable schedule is typically time-consuming and often results in a frustrating battle with your calendar.

Organization is beneficial for everyone and can be easily adapted to suit individual needs. And believe it or not, being organized in your everyday life actually saves you time and money. Here are a few of the reasons why.

Efficient and Stress-Free

If you keep your belongings organized, you don’t need to spend time looking for them when needed. This is especially handy in the case of important yet rarely used items, such as insurance or tax information.

The key to keeping things organized is to come up with a place to keep something and stick to it. If you want to keep important mail in a desk drawer, make sure you keep all of your important mail in that drawer. Don’t be afraid of sorting your things too much. The more categories of things you come up with, the easier it will be to find exactly what you need when you need it.

Saves You from Buying New

Organization keeps you from buying items you already have, but you’ve forgotten about or lost in your household or workplace. You’re more likely to forget about a pack of rubber-bands you bought several months ago and never opened, than your car keys or your wallet. Combined, these types of purchases can end up costing you a significant amount of money for items that you already have.

Fortunately, this is a very fixable problem. By cleaning and organizing the designated “junk” drawers in your home or office and making a list of all the items, you will easily find the item you’re looking for the next time you go searching. This avoids unnecessary purchases and impulsive buys at the store in the future. It's a very flexible habit that can be applied to many aspects of your daily routine.

Helps You Remember Important Details

It can be hard to keep track of every detail when you have a lot going on in your life. Sometimes, bills can get lost in the shuffle and go unpaid, or household maintenance gets overlooked. By keeping all of your activities organised, you can get them done in a more efficient manner and you make sure that every detail is taken care of.

Saves Money on Shopping

If you plan out a menu for each month, you can buy many of your groceries in bulk, saving you time and frequent trips to the store. If you prepare a list ahead of time, you can also look for coupons that offer savings on the things you plan to buy.
The same applies to non-food items, which can be bought in bulk and stored for later use. Staying organized and keeping essentials stocked up saves you the stress of running out to make a special trip for more. You can also plan out birthday or holiday gifts well ahead of time, so that you can keep an eye out for a good deal.

While it may take a bit of effort, organizing your life allows you to use your time more efficiently and to take full advantage of your finances. Not only that, but the more thought-out your budget or schedule is, the less you will worry about them. There are many tools designed to help keep you organized, including all kinds of helpful apps for mobile devices.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/ 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).

Empowering and Disempowering Rituals

It is never too late to find new rituals or to improve on those you are currently practicing. We all have rituals, but the question that you need to ask yourself is: “Are my rituals empowering me or are they disempowering me?”

Make a list of your daily rituals that you have been doing over the past ten years. Analyze the outcome of each of these rituals. From your analyst of the habits that you have developed over the time, how did they assist you in progressing to your desired goals? How has your daily routine affected your relationship with your family and your friends?

If the answers to the above questions are ones, which clearly state that your habits have generated only a negative or mostly negative impact in your life, then it is evident that you have disempowering rituals. It is time to change those disempowering rituals to empowering rituals.

The Power Of Your Thoughts

You have the power to change your thoughts, which will eventually influence your actions. Every one of your actions came about because of a thought that you had initiated. Whether that idea came about consciously or it was a subconscious thought. To create empowering rituals you will have to learn how to reprogram your mind. To accomplish the reprogramming of your thoughts you first have to find an empowering ritual that you will be using to replace the disempowering one.

Start your day with the right attitude, full of energy and refreshed with ideas. When your day gets off to a good start, you will be able to use your time more productively. We all have the same twenty-four hours in our day but how we structure our activities for the day can make a lot of difference.

Let us take a look at some disempowering rituals that you might be practicing, and were not aware that they are not empowering you.

Nine Common Disempowering Rituals:

1. Getting out of bed long after the sun has comfortable settle itself in the sky and have provided great warmth for the Earth.

2. Lack of physical and mental exercise.

3. Unhealthy eating habits, which are leading to degenerative and other fatal health issues.

4. Your time is used for reading and watching the wrong kind of materials, which cannot assist you to achieve your ultimate goals.

5. The individuals that we interact with on a daily basis influence our thought process a lot more than we often realize. You will not find any successful people hanging out on the side of the street speaking to a group of individuals that only hangs out on the street every day unless they are doing some kind of community outreach program.

Gossiping on the telephone for hours would be considered unnecessary spending and valuable production time lost for a successful individual. If you keep spending most of your time with unproductive people, then, eventually you will become sterile. Make sure that you are not wearing the label of an unsuccessful person. Evaluate your acquaintances. If you associate yourself with people who are thriving for success or who are already successful, then, you will be motivated to change your lifestyle to be more in line with the successful people whom you are now associating yourself.

Now, I am not saying that you should stop speaking to your friends if they are not productive. I am merely suggesting that you associate with them less and find more individuals that share similar success vision as you do. Successful people associate with other successful individuals.

6. Never making any plans for your day, you just go with the flow of any events. If you are not making plans to achieve, then you have quickly set yourself up for failure. So do not be surprised when you reap failure’s results.

7. Poor time management. You might have made plans for your day, but you spent too much time conducting rituals that unproductive.

8. No form of academic improvement. While it is true that most of the world’s wealthiest individuals might not have a master’s degree, they continually educate themselves through daily reading of books or by watching various videos that will assist them in improving their skill sets.

9. The poor allocation of your finances is a disempowering ritual. Investing your money in things that cannot return a profit on your dollar will not let you become rich. It is nice to have a fancy car, beautiful clothes, and dine at the best restaurants, but these must only be a reward for the assets you have a mass through your hard work. Living like the rich and famous when your bank account along with your wallet is still living in poor man’s land, is a perfect example of you allocating your funds poorly. All the finer things of life that you want to enjoy now will still be available when you have mastered your success rituals, and you are financially capable of living life as a wealthy and famous individual.

Six Empowering Rituals

1. Exercise - your greatest wealth will always be your health. You should never sacrifice your health to achieve wealth. Your wealth will never truly restore your health, and you might not even live long enough to enjoy your success.

2. You must eat healthily and ensure you have adequate rest.

3. Get up early in the mornings. A great ritual that you must develop is to get out of bed early in the mornings. Creating a great head start to your day and life begins with you getting up early.

4. Make plans in your journal for the following day before you go to your beds at nights and evaluate activities of your day.

5. Find time to unwind and meditate. Spend some quality time with those you love.

6. Invest in yourself by increasing your knowledge about the field that you are in, and also learn how to spend your money wisely. Consistently, assess how your current asset can be allocated to allow you to earn more in different areas.

Written by Yola Bastos Co-Founder of Women Flix and Founder of Beautifly Digital https://msha.ke/yolabastos/ 

Women Flix Limited, is a company limited by guarantee, was incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ).