A WOMAN has revealed how she turned a budgeting technique into a £630,000 a year business.
Jasmine Taylor found herself £54,000 in debt due to university fees and medical bills.
To get herself out of debt, the 31-year-old decide to start extreme budgeting, by using the cash stuffing method.
Cash stuffing is where you have different folders, labelled with things like "bills", "rent", "groceries" and fill these with the amount of cash you have budgeted for yourself for that particular cost each month.
By being able to physically see how much money you have allocated for each expense, it becomes easier to not go over budget.
Jasmine began to document her cash-stuffing journey on TikTok, to keep herself accountable and decided to start her own business when her videos went viral.
Read more real life stories
Speaking to , she said: "Finances come off as really boring to me, but for some reason people were really engaging."
Jasmine from Texas, decided to start selling folders to help people with their budgeting.
She called her business Baddies and Budgets and her binders come in a variety of different coloured designs, with each pocket labelled with a different expense.
To personalise your folder you can have your name engraved onto it, and can pick what you would like your pockets to be labelled with.
Most read in Fabulous
She also creates folders with different spending challenges in them, to encourage people to save a set amount of money.
Her last spending challenge sold out in just six minutes.
"We are out of stock a lot", Jasmine said.
"People are literally waiting on the site at midnight on Satuday night for the restock."
Jasmine said she never had any high expectations for the business, and is so shocked with how it has taken off.
The entrepreneur now has three members of staff working with her and her business brings in £630,000 a year.
How to set a budget
Learning to budget is easier if you break it down into as much detail as possible
- First, track your expenses. You may initially know how much your rent or mortgage and bills cost, but how about your other regular costs? These can have a big impact on how much you have left to spend.
- Look through recent bank and credit card statements to identify regular expenses. For example, is your morning caffeine fix adding up? You might think you don’t need to budget for your daily £2.50 latte, but over the month this can cost up to £75.
- Add up all your outgoings and split spending into categories like “rent”, “food”, “bills” and “going out”. You can do this in a spreadsheet.
- It’s important to be realistic as it will form the basis of your budget – so if you don’t think you can go without your daily coffee, or your weekly night out, then make sure you budget for it.
- Once you’ve worked out your outgoings, tot up the total and subtract it from your total monthly earnings. Whatever is left is called your disposable income, and it’s there to use for little treats. You could also use this money to save, or to pay extra money towards debts you may have.
- Stay in control by reviewing your budget every few months. You never know, you could make even more savings.
Despite now earn a large amount of cash, Jasmine still budgets carefully, and puts her money towards savings and investment.
"The same stuff that I teach my audience, I still use in my daily life", she said.
Sharing advice to anyone thinking of setting up their own business, Jasmine said: "You've got to be willing to bet on yourself.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
"If you don't, how can you expect anyone else to?"
Fabulous will pay for your exclusive stories. Just email: [email protected] and pop EXCLUSIVE in the subject line.