Getting Your Budget Started

First Things First

The first thing to do is get a piece of paper or program on the computer such as Microsoft Office. Your money needs to be split into different categories that will show where the money is being spent. The miscellaneous category shouldn’t even exist. One category should include rent or a house payment. There should be one category for all of your utilities; this should include water, cable, electricity, etc. There should always be a category for your children. Restaurants and groceries should be in two different categories under food. Your spouse will need their own category separate from yours. Make sure you have a category for soap and toilet paper as well as a category for car stuff. These categories will show you exactly where your money is being spent.

Next Thing

Go through and make sure you know what amount is going to go to bills that can't be altered in any way. These would include things such as rent or phone bills. The budget will do better if you make these rates all unchangeable. This will show you how much money goes into each category of your budget. You should then put in amount into each category that you spend there on average. Recording what you spend money on for a month is a suggestion for learning what you need to budget. People tend to be shocked when they see how much money they have spent in certain areas.

Last Thing on the List

The Last thing you have to do is make sure the budget balances out with the amount of money you are going to be making. Other funds may suffer if you have to subtract from them. Saving money is easily accomplished when there is extra money at the end of each month to be put away. It is important that you stick to the budget. Sometimes you may even need to stop going out to eat once the money is gone out of the budget. Disciplining yourself into not buying everything you want will be worth it.

My experience

When I was in college, I struggled just like everyone else. I had no hope to be able to pay everything. My tuition, books, rent, electric, and other bills had to be worked out and paid. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to afford all of that as well as food and personal expenses. The categories were a little neglected since I had to pay as little money as possible to each category. I then started this new budget program. It worked wonders for us. I was able to pay all of my expenses on a small paycheck. To this day, this is still the program I use.