{"id":2166,"date":"2025-08-11T16:32:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2166"},"modified":"2025-08-11T16:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:32:22","slug":"differentiating-between-wants-and-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/differentiating-between-wants-and-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Differentiating Between Wants and Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to budgeting, it\u2019s important to be able to differentiate between what you want and what you need\u2026<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wants<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any expenses that aren\u2019t essential to your basic day-to-day living are your \u2018wants\u2019. These are the things you desire to have, not what you need to have. Wants are completely different for everyone, but they might include things like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eating out or takeaways<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hobbies<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sports memberships<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Streaming services<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trips away<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Activities like nights out or cinema trips<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New clothing<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New devices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Needs<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your financial needs are your costs that are essential to your day-to-day life, that you wouldn\u2019t be able to skip without jeopardising your wellbeing. This includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Transportation to work<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Food<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Utilities<\/li>\n<li>Essential toiletries, such as toilet roll and body wash<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rent or mortgage payments<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Insurance<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Credit card or loan payments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re struggling to determine whether a cost is a want or a need, you should think about what consequences you would face by failing to pay it.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Budgeting for Wants and Needs<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part of making a budget is being able to differentiate between wants and needs, and to set money aside for these. Your needs should take priority, and it\u2019s important to ensure that you put aside enough money to cover your essential costs before anything else as being below budget for these could have serious consequences. Any money left over after your essential costs can then go towards savings and paying for things you actually want.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some people like to try the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unfcu.org\/financial-wellness\/50-30-20-rule\/#:~:text=Those%20will%20become%20part%20of,closer%20look%20at%20each%20category.\">50-30-20 budgeting rule<\/a>, which organises your spending into wants, needs, and goals. With this budgeting style, you put 50% of your money towards needs, 30% towards wants, and 20% towards your savings. Budgeting is not a one-size-fits-all approach, so you might find that this doesn\u2019t work for you, but it\u2019s one idea of how you can organise your budget.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Red Star Education, we\u2019re big on budgeting, and have designed <a href=\"https:\/\/red-star-financial-education.thinkific.com\/courses\/red-star-education-personal-budgeting\">our very own budgeting mini-course<\/a> to help you with your budgeting journey.  This includes video content on how to make a budget, our own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/budget-planner\/\">budget calculator<\/a>, invisible spending, and how to understand your payslip.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also have a number of blogs on the topic of budgeting if you\u2019re interested in finding out more:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-effectively-budget\/\">How to Effectively Budget<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/the-benefits-of-budgeting\/\">The Benefits of Budgeting<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/what-is-the-loud-budgeting-social-media-trend\/\">What is the &#8216;Loud Budgeting&#8217; Social Media Trend?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redstareducation.co.uk\/blog\/does-spending-with-cash-help-us-budget\/\">Does Spending with Cash Help us Budget?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to budgeting, it\u2019s important to be able to differentiate between what you want and what you need\u2026 Wants Any expenses that aren\u2019t essential to your basic day-to-day living are your \u2018wants\u2019. These are the things you desire to have, not what you need to have. Wants are completely different for everyone, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1117,1098],"tags":[728,71,20,284,1598,103,101,633,1597,1599,109,1596],"class_list":["post-2166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-education","category-financial-goals","tag-50-30-20","tag-budget","tag-budgeting","tag-costs","tag-essential","tag-financial-goals","tag-goals","tag-money-management","tag-needs","tag-non-essential","tag-savings","tag-wants"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Differentiating Between Wants and Needs - 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