In these trying times, money is a concern in the daily lives of many individuals. Whether you have cash or not can affect your family’s ability to do the activities they want to do. That’s why keeping track of your expenses is so important. Knowing how much money you have and where it is going is extremely helpful for cutting out unnecessary expenditures and controlling your financial future. Creating a monthly budget is an easy and useful way to track what you have, what you owe and what you can save. Here are some helpful hints and tips to get your personal budget going.
The first step to creating your plan is figuring out a format. Most people do either a weekly or a monthly budget; it typically depends on when you get paid. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could even make a yearly plan to anticipate other costs that you need to remember. Just choose what format you are most comfortable with and which one you are most likely to keep up with. The most important thing to do is keep track of everything, which is easy to do.
Use a notebook, piece of paper or, for the more tech savvy, a digital spreadsheet program and start making a daily spending log. Your daily log should include two things: items that you have purchased and the money that you paid for it. You can divide it up further into categories if you would like. Just make sure you save all of your receipts from each day, check your bank account if you have any bills taken out automatically and track any other cash you hand out and write it all down. Add it all up and track it, totaling it up at the end of every week. If your spending is too high, you can look through your logs and find any unnecessary expenses. Going out to eat too much? You will know. Your grocery bill is too high? You will know.
There is one important thing to keep in mind when working out your budget: plan ahead. This will be simpler after you have figured out what you are spending money on. If you know how much you will make every month, start with that number and subtract all the bills that you know you will be paying. Then, you can manage your other expenditures from there and divvy up the rest between savings, food, leisure or anything else you want. Once you get the ball rolling, it will be easier to keep track of everything.
Keeping a budget is a great way to keep your finances in order and alleviate some of those money worries that you may be having. It may seem complicated at first but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to control your spending and have more revenue for fun and exciting activities. If you have any ideas for budgeting or question for other users, leave them in the comments below.
