Hello, and welcome to Mental Floss. I'm Erin McCarthy. Brace yourself, because in
today's episode, presented by Discover, we're talking about budgets...and
Shakespeare...and squirrels! It'll all make sense. You'll see. Let's do this!
Before we talk about your budget let's talk about a much bigger budget: the
United Kingdom's. Every year the Chancellor of the Exchequer presents the
budget to both the House of Commons and the public. This momentous occasion is
declared Budget Day, and like so many other parts of UK culture it's steeped
in tradition. In this case tradition takes the form of a scarlet suitcase.
Traditionally on budget day morning the Chancellor of the Exchequer appears at
11 Downing Street for a photo-op with a briefcase once used by Queen Victoria's
budget chief, William E. Gladstone. Gladstone actually used the briefcase to
contain budget papers, and he also once delivered a four hour and 45 minute
budget speech, so let's be glad that not all traditions have lived on. Embossed
with Queen Victoria's monogram and lined in black satin, the case was quite the
natty accessory back in the day. But today it's more like a ratty accessory.
Although not every Chancellor of the Exchequer used Gladstone's briefcase, the
vast majority did and the wear and tear was evident. When the 150 year old
battered case was finally put out to pasture in 2010 it was replaced with a
near replica. The main difference? The royal monogram now belongs to Queen
Elizabeth the second. Okay, now let's talk budgets that are a little more personal:
namely, your own. According to a 2017 study, only 41% of Americans use a budget,
maybe because sticking to it can be a challenge. These tips from Ciscover will
help make budgeting a little easier. First of all, have savings goals. One rule
of thumb says you should think of your money in terms of 50/20/30. Spend 50% on
essentials, things like food, housing and utilities. 20 percent should go to
savings, which includes 401(k)s and paying down debt, and the remaining 30 percent
is all yours to spend however you want. But don't get too excited just yet.
Things like your cell phone bill, streaming services, travel and going out
with friends all fall under that 30 percent. Sticking to a budget will help
you hit these goals and you'll probably think twice before buying something you
can't afford if you keep your budget in mind. Having a long-term goal like a fun
vacation can also help you stick to your savings goals. Automate as much as
possible, and that's not just for things like paying your bills. It goes
for your 401(k) and your savings account, too. Set up your direct deposit so at
least some money gets put into your savings directly. You can also download
apps that use the roundup method to automatically transfer small amounts of
money into a savings or investment account. You can receive notifications if
you spend more than a certain monthly amount on your credit card, or if you
spend more than a set amount in a single transaction. Sometimes a little reminder
is all you need to change your spending behaviors, and other behaviors...but that's
another topic entirely. I know that in the moment it feels like you really,
really need that LED light-up showerhead. But write it down, wait 30 days, and then
see if you're still madly in love with it. A lot of the time you'll find out the
urge to purchase passes pretty quickly. But, for the record, I've gotten a ton of
use out of that showerhead... so, yeah... Sticking to a budget doesn't
necessarily mean abstaining from shopping altogether. If you have a credit
card that gives you rewards or cashback, use those rewards to treat yourself
without impacting your budget. With Discover Cashback Match, they will
automatically match all the cashback you earn at the end of your first year.
Finding simple, effective ways to stick to a budget will set you up for a
brighter financial future. Another smart move? Keeping an eye on your credit score.
Discover offers a free credit score card and checking it won't impact your score.
It's totally free, even if you aren't a Discover customer. Check yours in seconds.
As we've been told over and over again, time is money. So learning how to
allocate your time is just as important as making sure your financial
budget is well balanced. Try these tips to make sure you're not throwing your
precious time, and money, down the drain. For a few days try to keep track of
everything you spend your time on. This could be as easy as keeping a notebook
handy and jotting things down as you do them, or there are a number of apps that
will also do the trick. Do whatever is easiest for you. This may seem silly, but
it may help you identify time sucks that you didn't even know were a problem. I
mean, we all know those five-minute breaks to surf the internet really add
up. Give yourself a set amount of time to complete a task and stick to it. Need to
send an email to your boss?Designate 5 minutes and get it done, instead of
spending 30 half writing an email and half responding to others.
And there's a bonus here. This method may also help prevent procrastination. If
you know you have a set time to complete your task
it may help you focus long enough to get it accomplished. There are apps that can help
you with sticking to time limits. Let's face it: most of the time you think
you're multitasking, you're not. You're just dividing your attention among tasks,
which can just make them take longer. Tackle one thing at a time and get your
to-do lists cranked out quickly. Adjust your schedule to your most productive
times of day. Not a morning person? Then stop trying to be one. Identify when you
feel the most on top of your game throughout the day and try to plan your
most challenging tasks during that time period. Of course, whether you're a night
owl or a nine to fiver this won't always work perfectly, but do your best and
you're sure to see a boost in your efficiency. When Shakespeare wrote,
"Tinkers may have leave to live and bare the sow-skin budget" in The Winter's
Tale, he wasn't talking about a careful balance of bills and expenditures. Back
then the word budget referred to a purse or carrying case, with origins in the
French word bougette, a small bag. Over time, though, people began to use the word
to refer to the contents within the bag, which was very often paperwork. The
meaning of budget further evolved to specifically reference papers containing
news, which is what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote this in 1785: "I received by
Mr. Short a budget of London papers. They team with every horror of which human
nature is capable." The news meaning is also why old newspapers sometimes had
budget in the title, such as Oregon's Astoria Evening Budget. It also came to
mean speaking one's mind, like when Anne Bronte wrote, "There's Matilda...and I must
go and open my budget to her." Ultimately the usage of budget in the financial
sense dates from the mid 1700s when British newspapers and political
pamphlets began using it to poke fun at politicians. One 1733 pamphlet exposed Sir
Robert Walpole's tax plans with the headline "The Budget Opened," and we've
been using it with a financial meaning ever since.
We all know that squirrels hoard and store nuts for later use, which is a
fantastic budget tip for us all: gather more than you need and save the excess
for later. But a 2017 study in the Royal Society of Open Science revealed that
there's a method to that squirrely madness. Though it may appear otherwise
to our human eyes, eastern fox squirrels can be very deliberate about where they
keep the three to ten thousand nuts they store every year. Instead of burying them
willy-nilly, the researchers found that the squirrels in one of their
experiments categorize nuts together according to similar characteristics.
They may group acorns and acorns together or walnuts with walnuts. Or
maybe they mix the type of nut but stash smaller ones in one place and
large ones elsewhere. This method of keeping similar things in groups for
easy recall is called spatial chunking, and we use it, too. For instance, when you
go to the grocery store you probably mentally group your list: produce with
produce, meat with meat, dairy with dairy and so on.
Squirrels: they're just as smart as we are! Here's another interesting tidbit to
tuck away. If squirrels think that another animal is watching them while
they're burying nuts, they'll actually pretend to drop their stash, cover the
hole with dirt, and then go elsewhere to really hide them. This is not a method we
recommend for your budget. Thanks for watching Mental Floss video, which is
made with the help of all of these nice people. Subscribe to our channel if you'd
like to see more Scatterbrained videos. Bye!