Your first real budget (the three buckets)
Three cheerful buckets: Housing, Wheels, Everyday. That’s enough to see the week.
A first budget doesn’t need a spreadsheet with forty rows. It needs a picture of your week that you recognise.
Three buckets are enough to start: Housing, Wheels, and Everyday spends. Everything else can sit in “other” or “fun” until you care to split it.
Why three, not forty
Too many categories and you’ll quit by Thursday. Three buckets show whether the week even works. If rent plus the car plus eating already eat the pay, you know without colour-coding “oat milk.”
- Housing: rent, share of bills, if that’s you. No rent? Leave $0.
- Wheels: a bit each week for rego and insurance. No car? Leave $0.
- Everyday spends: groceries, fuel, parking, train, coffee, bits and pieces in one pot.
Your split won’t look like your mate’s. Share house vs at home vs a studio. That’s the point. Fit the individual. At home: How do I even budget while living at home?. With mates: How do I even budget when I rent with mates?.
Watch first, then tweak
Give it two weeks of honest numbers before you “fix” anything. You’re collecting a picture, not sitting an exam.
When you do change something, change what doesn’t fit your life. Not a rule from a stranger’s 50/30/20 graphic.
Leftover after the buckets is yours. A gig this weekend or a bit more in savings. Both count.
More in Budget
- What even is a budget?
- How do I even split my first pay?
- What even is net worth?
- What even is an emergency fund?
- Set up the DoshHero Budget
- Sinking funds without the spreadsheet stress
- Living now while setting up later
- What even is a sinking fund?
- How do I even set up my first bank accounts?
- What even is car insurance?
- How do I even budget while living at home?
- How do I even budget when I rent with mates?
- What even is a high-interest savings account?
- How do I even automate savings from each pay?
- How do I even save for a car or holiday?
- How do I even set money goals that stick?
- What even is contents insurance?
- How do I even pick an everyday bank account?
- What even is inflation?
- How do I even build an emergency fund?
- How do I even save for Christmas (and birthdays) without the January hangover?
- How much of my pay should I actually save?
- How much board should I pay my parents?
- Am I behind? Savings and net worth at 20 and 25
- How do I even buy my first car without a loan wrecking me?
Dosh Drop