How Budgeting Can Help You Improve Your Credit Score

A budget is a tool you can use to track your income and expenses. It helps you figure out how your money should be used each month to cover all your expenses, and helps keep spending on track so you can meet important financial goals. Careful budgeting can also help you avoid missing bill payments, which can help improve your credit and boost your overall financial health.

How Budgeting Can Impact Your Credit

Creating a budget and sticking to it can have an indirect positive impact on your credit in several ways. Budgeting can help you:

Stay current on your bill payments. Following a budget can help make sure you don't run out of money by the time bill payments are due. Late and missed payments can result in penalties and fees that will only add to your financial strain. Not only that, your creditors can also report delinquent accounts to the credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) once they are 30 days past due or later. Payment history is the most important factor in your credit scores. A late payment, and the resulting negative mark on your credit report, can do significant damage to your credit scores.
Reduce your reliance on credit. If you find yourself resorting to credit cards to hold you over until you get paid again, you might end up carrying a high balance on your cards. Overcharging can increase your credit utilization, which is the second most important factor in your credit scores. The closer your card balances get to their max, the more your score is impacted. Keeping your balance under 30% of your credit limit on each card helps prevent credit harm, but the lower, the better. Maintaining a budget can help you make sure there's enough money set aside to cover your bills, and prevent you from swiping a credit card in the first place.
Pay down your debt. If you've already built up large debts from credit cards and other debt, budgeting can help you bring them down to size. Owing a lot of debt can not only impact your credit utilization, but can make it harder to make at least the minimum payment toward what you owe. Do you want to get out of debt? Include debt payments in your budget so you can easily track your progress and stay the course until you meet your goal. To pay down your debts quickly, explore the snowball method or avalanche method for repaying debts.

Wondering how much of an impact budgeting will have on your credit? It depends on your credit history and financial situation. If you're already managing your debts responsibly, creating a budget might not make much difference in the short term. However, budgeting can help make sure you continue to properly manage your finances, and make it more likely you can maintain a good credit score or improve it.

Additional Benefits of Having a Budget

Beyond helping boost your credit score, there are other perks to having a budget. Here are a few additional benefits:

It can help you reach financial goals faster. A budget is so much more than a plan to ensure you pay bills on time and avoid overspending. It's also a tool you can use to help reach financial goals faster, like saving for retirement or for a down payment on a home or car.
It can help you create an emergency fund. Many Americans don't have enough set aside to cover an unplanned expense of $400 or more. Emergency expenses can easily lead to more debt, and less financial stability. Budgeting makes it easier to build an emergency fund that can help protect you when the unexpected happens. You can budget the amount you want to save each month until your stash is fully funded with at least three to six months' worth of living expenses.
It can help you plan for retirement. You may find building your nest egg to be quite the challenge without a budget, particularly if you're only making contributions if you have enough to do so after your other expenses. However, you can use a budget to determine how much you can realistically save for retirement each month and stick to the plan to hold yourself accountable.
It can help you stop living paycheck to paycheck. If you always seem to run out of money before the next payday, a budget can help you get a handle on your expenses to avoid overspending.

How to Create a Budget

Are you new to budgeting or have you tried creating a plan that didn't quite work? There are many ways to pull a budget together, including by using Experian's Personal Finances tool. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: List Your Income

Start with income that you regularly receive each month. Compute the amount you receive by adding up the net pay found on your check stubs.

Next, jot down any income you receive that's irregular or changes each month. If your earnings fluctuate because you're an hourly employee or self-employed, average your earnings from the past three to six months. You can also use the minimum amount you expect to earn from this income source for your budget.

Step 2: Compute Your Expenses

Do you know how much you're spending each month? Review your credit card and bank statements for the past three to six months. As you look through the transaction activity, note the expense type and amount, and create a category for it in your notebook or spreadsheet.

For example, you may have categories for housing, food, utilities, insurance, debt payments, groceries, child care and pet supplies, just to name a few. Feel free to make these categories more detailed to give yourself a better idea of where your money goes each month. You may divide food spending into groceries and dining out, for example.

Include due dates for expenses related to recurring bills to help you budget more effectively. For expenses that may vary from month to month, like groceries, gasoline and even utility bills, err on the side of caution by using the highest possible cost when projecting expenses. To illustrate, if your grocery bill is between $300 and $400 each month, use $400 as the projected amount you will spend. If you don't end up spending that much, you can put that leftover money toward other things.

Step 3: Set Realistic Goals

In order for your budget to help you avoid overspending and going into debt, it's vital that you set realistic goals for yourself. This helps you stay motivated and will make it more likely you'll resist the temptation to overspend or get off track. Financial goals serve as a reminder of why you're following a budget in the first place and what's possible if you stay the course. Unrealistic spending goals are much easier to go unmet, which can be demoralizing and financially destabilizing. Plan out the goals you set so you're more likely to be able to reach them. If you blow through the budget you've set, review what happened and adjust for the next month.

When you write down your goals, attach figures and decide how much it will cost to make them a reality. To illustrate, if you want to save up $2,400 in the next six months to put toward a new car, you need to add a line item for $400 in your budget.

Being realistic also means letting yourself have some fun. A carefully budgeted life doesn't have to be one without the occasional splurge—in fact, planning for some impromptu spending can reduce the anxiety that might accompany it.

Step 4: Monitor Your Spending

After your first month with a budget, take a look at how your spending ultimately lined up with the financial goals you set for yourself. If it doesn't, you may need to make adjustments to your budget goals, your spending, or both. You can manually monitor your spending by reviewing your bank and credit card statements. But if you pay bills and make purchases from several accounts, this can be challenging.

You can make your life a lot easier by using budgeting software to automate the monitoring process and categorize your expenses. Ultimately, you want to keep close tabs on your spending to ensure your budget is realistic and won't be too challenging to follow going forward.

Step 5: Stick to the Plan

Deciding on a plan is essential, but actually sticking to it is what matters most. Not all budgeting plans are the same, though. It depends on your money habits, financial goals and personal preferences. Refer to this detailed guide to explore budgeting plans that may work for you.

When you struggle to stay motivated, refer back to the financial goals you set as they are the reason why you are budgeting in the first place. Remember that things like improving your credit score and building a retirement fund tend to take time, so don't lose hope if you don't see results immediately. Stay focused; you'll thank yourself later.

The Bottom Line

By creating a budget and sticking to it, you can achieve your financial goals and possibly see improvements to your credit. Budgeting can also help you build an emergency fund, plan for retirement and stop living from check to check. Consider signing up for free credit monitoring through Experian, so you can better stay on top of your credit score and overall credit health as you begin to budget and improve your financial well-being.

How Good Is Your Credit Score?

300 credit score 301 credit score 302 credit score 303 credit score 304 credit score 305 credit score 306 credit score 307 credit score 308 credit score 309 credit score 310 credit score 311 credit score 312 credit score 313 credit score 314 credit score 315 credit score 316 credit score 317 credit score 318 credit score 319 credit score 320 credit score 321 credit score 322 credit score 323 credit score 324 credit score 325 credit score 326 credit score 327 credit score 328 credit score 329 credit score 330 credit score 331 credit score 332 credit score 333 credit score 334 credit score 335 credit score 336 credit score 337 credit score 338 credit score 339 credit score 340 credit score 341 credit score 342 credit score 343 credit score 344 credit score 345 credit score 346 credit score 347 credit score 348 credit score 349 credit score 350 credit score 351 credit score 352 credit score 353 credit score 354 credit score 355 credit score 356 credit score 357 credit score 358 credit score 359 credit score 360 credit score 361 credit score 362 credit score 363 credit score 364 credit score 365 credit score 366 credit score 367 credit score 368 credit score 369 credit score 370 credit score 371 credit score 372 credit score 373 credit score 374 credit score 375 credit score 376 credit score 377 credit score 378 credit score 379 credit score 380 credit score 381 credit score 382 credit score 383 credit score 384 credit score 385 credit score 386 credit score 387 credit score 388 credit score 389 credit score 390 credit score 391 credit score 392 credit score 393 credit score 394 credit score 395 credit score 396 credit score 397 credit score 398 credit score 399 credit score 400 credit score 401 credit score 402 credit score 403 credit score 404 credit score 405 credit score 406 credit score 407 credit score 408 credit score 409 credit score 410 credit score 411 credit score 412 credit score 413 credit score 414 credit score 415 credit score 416 credit score 417 credit score 418 credit score 419 credit score 420 credit score 421 credit score 422 credit score 423 credit score 424 credit score 425 credit score 426 credit score 427 credit score 428 credit score 429 credit score 430 credit score 431 credit score 432 credit score 433 credit score 434 credit score 435 credit score 436 credit score 437 credit score 438 credit score 439 credit score 440 credit score 441 credit score 442 credit score 443 credit score 444 credit score 445 credit score 446 credit score 447 credit score 448 credit score 449 credit score 450 credit score 451 credit score 452 credit score 453 credit score 454 credit score 455 credit score 456 credit score 457 credit score 458 credit score 459 credit score 460 credit score 461 credit score 462 credit score 463 credit score 464 credit score 465 credit score 466 credit score 467 credit score 468 credit score 469 credit score 470 credit score 471 credit score 472 credit score 473 credit score 474 credit score 475 credit score 476 credit score 477 credit score 478 credit score 479 credit score 480 credit score 481 credit score 482 credit score 483 credit score 484 credit score 485 credit score 486 credit score 487 credit score 488 credit score 489 credit score 490 credit score 491 credit score 492 credit score 493 credit score 494 credit score 495 credit score 496 credit score 497 credit score 498 credit score 499 credit score 500 credit score 501 credit score 502 credit score 503 credit score 504 credit score 505 credit score 506 credit score 507 credit score 508 credit score 509 credit score 510 credit score 511 credit score 512 credit score 513 credit score 514 credit score 515 credit score 516 credit score 517 credit score 518 credit score 519 credit score 520 credit score 521 credit score 522 credit score 523 credit score 524 credit score 525 credit score 526 credit score 527 credit score 528 credit score 529 credit score 530 credit score 531 credit score 532 credit score 533 credit score 534 credit score 535 credit score 536 credit score 537 credit score 538 credit score 539 credit score 540 credit score 541 credit score 542 credit score 543 credit score 544 credit score 545 credit score 546 credit score 547 credit score 548 credit score 549 credit score 550 credit score 551 credit score 552 credit score 553 credit score 554 credit score 555 credit score 556 credit score 557 credit score 558 credit score 559 credit score 560 credit score 561 credit score 562 credit score 563 credit score 564 credit score 565 credit score 566 credit score 567 credit score 568 credit score 569 credit score 570 credit score 571 credit score 572 credit score 573 credit score 574 credit score 575 credit score 576 credit score 577 credit score 578 credit score 579 credit score

580 credit score 581 credit score 582 credit score 583 credit score 584 credit score 585 credit score 586 credit score 587 credit score 588 credit score 589 credit score 590 credit score 591 credit score 592 credit score 593 credit score 594 credit score 595 credit score 596 credit score 597 credit score 598 credit score 599 credit score 600 credit score 601 credit score 602 credit score 603 credit score 604 credit score 605 credit score 606 credit score 607 credit score 608 credit score 609 credit score 610 credit score 611 credit score 612 credit score 613 credit score 614 credit score 615 credit score 616 credit score 617 credit score 618 credit score 619 credit score 620 credit score 621 credit score 622 credit score 623 credit score 624 credit score 625 credit score 626 credit score 627 credit score 628 credit score 629 credit score 630 credit score 631 credit score 632 credit score 633 credit score 634 credit score 635 credit score 636 credit score 637 credit score 638 credit score 639 credit score 640 credit score 641 credit score 642 credit score 643 credit score 644 credit score 645 credit score 646 credit score 647 credit score 648 credit score 649 credit score 650 credit score 651 credit score 652 credit score 653 credit score 654 credit score 655 credit score 656 credit score 657 credit score 658 credit score 659 credit score 660 credit score 661 credit score 662 credit score 663 credit score 664 credit score 665 credit score 666 credit score 667 credit score 668 credit score 669 credit score

670 credit score 671 credit score 672 credit score 673 credit score 674 credit score 675 credit score 676 credit score 677 credit score 678 credit score 679 credit score 680 credit score 681 credit score 682 credit score 683 credit score 684 credit score 685 credit score 686 credit score 687 credit score 688 credit score 689 credit score 690 credit score 691 credit score 692 credit score 693 credit score 694 credit score 695 credit score 696 credit score 697 credit score 698 credit score 699 credit score 700 credit score 701 credit score 702 credit score 703 credit score 704 credit score 705 credit score 706 credit score 707 credit score 708 credit score 709 credit score 710 credit score 711 credit score 712 credit score 713 credit score 714 credit score 715 credit score 716 credit score 717 credit score 718 credit score 719 credit score 720 credit score 721 credit score 722 credit score 723 credit score 724 credit score 725 credit score 726 credit score 727 credit score 728 credit score 729 credit score 730 credit score 731 credit score 732 credit score 733 credit score 734 credit score 735 credit score 736 credit score 737 credit score 738 credit score 739 credit score

740 credit score 741 credit score 742 credit score 743 credit score 744 credit score 745 credit score 746 credit score 747 credit score 748 credit score 749 credit score 750 credit score 751 credit score 752 credit score 753 credit score 754 credit score 755 credit score 756 credit score 757 credit score 758 credit score 759 credit score 760 credit score 761 credit score 762 credit score 763 credit score 764 credit score 765 credit score 766 credit score 767 credit score 768 credit score 769 credit score 770 credit score 771 credit score 772 credit score 773 credit score 774 credit score 775 credit score 776 credit score 777 credit score 778 credit score 779 credit score 780 credit score 781 credit score 782 credit score 783 credit score 784 credit score 785 credit score 786 credit score 787 credit score 788 credit score 789 credit score 790 credit score 791 credit score 792 credit score 793 credit score 794 credit score 795 credit score 796 credit score 797 credit score 798 credit score 799 credit score

Resources

Credit Score

Credit Report

Fraud & Identity Theft

Improve Credit

Personal Finance

Calculators

How Budgeting Can Help You Improve Your Credit Score

In this article:

How Budgeting Can Impact Your Credit

Additional Benefits of Having a Budget

How to Create a Budget

Step 1: List Your Income

Step 2: Compute Your Expenses

Step 3: Set Realistic Goals

Step 4: Monitor Your Spending

Step 5: Stick to the Plan

The Bottom Line

Instantly raise your FICO^® Score for free

How Good Is Your Credit Score?

Resources

Latest Research

Latest Reviews

Instantly raise your FICO^® Score^☉ for free^ø

Credit support

Credit advice

Most popular

Credit reports

Credit scores

Improving credit

Establishing credit

Identity Theft support

Identity Theft Advice

Most popular

Identity theft and fraud

Cybersecurity

Privacy

Money advice

Most popular

Digital checking account

Save money on bills

Credit Card advice

Most popular

Balance transfer

Cash back

For bad credit

For fair credit

For students

APR

Rewards

New to credit

Loan advice

Most popular

Debt consolidation

Personal

Auto Insurance advice

Most popular

In this article:

How Budgeting Can Impact Your Credit

Additional Benefits of Having a Budget

How to Create a Budget

Step 1: List Your Income

Step 2: Compute Your Expenses

Step 3: Set Realistic Goals

Step 4: Monitor Your Spending

Step 5: Stick to the Plan

The Bottom Line

Instantly raise your FICO® Score for free

How Good Is Your Credit Score?

Resources

Latest Research

Latest Reviews

Instantly raise your FICO^® Score for free