Spending less than you earn can also help you ratchet up your emergency fund-a pool of money, equal to three to six months’ worth of essential expenses, that sits in a savings account in case some unforeseen cost arises. After all, money is fungible: What difference does it make if you spend, say, $500 on groceries and $500 on dining out, as long as you arrive at the end of the month having shelled out less than you earned? Still, some may find categorizing expenses a helpful guardrail to stay on track and increase their savings. It is a little strange, though, when you take a step back. You divide your spending into different buckets and draw down on those buckets for the month until you get to zero. This is the hallmark of both Mvelopes and YNAB. Keeping tabs on what you actually spend will help you not only stay within the current month’s budget but also adjust your assumptions for next month’s. This was the service Mint so uniquely supplied when it launched back in 2006. As Olen points out, this can be tricky for some, but less so if you earn an income via a regular W-2. You need to have a guess as to how much you’ll earn to know how much you can spend.
