Do you feel like no matter what you do you can never save money? Tired of running out of cash when you really need it? Well, here is a simple way to budget your finances without breaking your back in stress.
Imagine if you will, being able to get everything you need paid off by the end of the month and still having extra money to play and/or save with. This, my friends, can be accomplished with a monthly spending plan. It’s not that hard to make either.
For starters, make a chart.
When I budget my finances I always start by making a chart and gathering up all my bank statements and bills. I usually make my charts on Microsoft Excel (to me, that’s the simplest way to do it).
If you don’t have this program, no worries, just grab a pencil and a piece of paper and draw a chart out accordingly.
Here’s how you make the chart:
- First off, you need to know how much money you’re bringing in each week and every month.
- Then you need to check all of your bank statements for the averages of what you mainly spend your money on.
- Note how much your car usually takes in gas each week/month.
- Your first column should read “Weekly Income.” Even though it’s the same each week, write it down for each seperate one going downwards.
- After you’ve writen each weeks income all the way down, directly below the last week put in “Monthly income,” except this time fill the income part in with the actual amount.
- Your second column should read “Rent/Mortgage.”
- Your 3rd should be “Utilities.” Figure out the average as they do tend to fluctuate.
- Your 4th should be for any other bills you normally have. For instance, car insurance or paying off a loan or some debt. If there are a lot of extra bills, just add them all together and make a note under the chart what all is included. (Make sure you’re just writing in the monthly amounts right now, we’ll get to the weekly in a minute.
- Your 5th should be “Food.” How much do you normally spend on groceries?
- Your 6th should be “Gas.” Average amount please. (Make sure you getting the correct amonts or pretty close to it, if you don’t the budget may not work properly).
- The rest of the columns should be according to your particular lifestyle. If you have kids, what about “Childcare” or “Clothes.” If you enjoy going out to see movies or you rent movies a lot “Entertainment.” Make sure you are getting every thing.
Your last two column should read “Incidentals,” and then “Savings.” Once you’ve filled everything out up to this point, add each monthly cost together and subtract the total from your monthly income, decide how you want to split the money up between incidentals and savings. If you don’t know what incidentals means, think of family emergancies or any emergancies at all. For example, your car breaks down tomorrow, what are you going to do?
- Now we are going to fill in the weekly sections. All you have to do is divide each columns monthly avg. by 4 and you get the amounts for each week. This will show you money that you need to put to the side, and money that you have to spend.
- IF you don’t like the savings outcome, figure out what you can cut back on. Keep working on it untill you are pleased with the results.
If you follow these simple steps, then you will have a good budget that is practical and works for your particular lifestyle.
How to save money and budget
Saving money is a topic that we all want to do. You should take the steps to save money. Money is everything and it’ll pay for your bills and everything else too.
In order to save money you have to make money. So get going and make some money. Make money so that you can start saving it. The more money you make the better. Find a second job if you need to.Use a journal to budget all of your spending and what you need and don’t need. Budgeting will keep you on top of things. Paying attention to what you buy and pay for will really help.
Make a plan to save at least 30% or whatever amount of your earning so that you can some leftover money.Saving is not as powerful as making it. Saving will be faster if you spend less. Spending is always a problem with a lot of people. People spend and spend and they wonder where all the money goes to. Keep track with all of your spending and saving and soon you can pin point out where you need to save. If it’s possible you can find a way to increase your income each month by doing some freelance business on the side or get an extra job because most likely one job is not enough to handle the bills.
How to Manage Your Money While Unemployed
Managing your finances when you are between jobs is tough. You have to consider the overall economy, the reason for your unemployment, your skill set, and estimated length of unemployment.
The economy is a determining factor since you may apply for unemployment benefits via your state. The estimated time frame is 24 weeks with the possibility of extension for an additional 24 weeks but if the economy has a high unemployement the probability for an extension is limited.
The reason for your unemployment is important. For example, if your company was part of a well-known, massive layoff/merger/acquisition you may have received a generous severance package. You would be able to maintain fixed expenses such as rent/mortgage, property taxes, and homeowner’s insurance using your severance while keeping your unemployment separate for postponed/variable expenses such as dining out, entertainment, and travel.
On the other hand, it is rare to obtain a generous package so your unemployment may be your only income for both fixed and variable expenses. Remember, it will run out. While searching for a new job, check with an unemployment expert to see if you can go back to school for a short-term certificate in a promising field such as computers, technology, education, and medicine. Also, check with your state to determine if you can start a homebased business for minimal costs instead of seaching for a traditional job.
Your skill set is critical. For instance, if you are a registered nurse who lost her job because of a merger you will obtain a job offer sooner because of the national shortage of good nurses and you may receive better pay/benefits/work-life options. You may still choose to enjoy an expensive two week vacation. However, a low-skilled clerical worker who has enormous competition needs to forego a vacation and hit the books.
How To Set Up A Budget For Your House
Setting up a budget for your household expense will save you hundreds of dollars in the long run, you should have a finance journal and dedicate it to budgeting for your household items.
If you budget monthly or weekly then you can find ways to save and cut down expenses. When you can review what you spend on, you’ll be able to see where you over spend. The first step to budgeting is having a financial journal and then you can start to budget by writing down your plan on the journal.
You should take out your journal and begin making weekly goals for your household expenses. You would start out with a list of items that you can cut out from your shopping list because some items are not a priority at all. For example, you can cut out fresh roses that you have been buying, cable, lawn services, maid, new furniture and so on. There are things that you don’t really need to buy so you can make a list to cut out those items.
When you do you’ll save at least a couple of hundreds per month and then a couple of thousands per year. If it’s possible you can make a list to cut out these items and will not buy them until you really need it later on. There’re some people that will buy new furniture when their current furniture are in great condition. This kind of shopping will need to be changed if you want to save.
After you made a short list of things to cut out each month, you can move on to making a list of items that you will purchase each month and then stick to that list. If you have a list in a journal you will most likely stay on track and not overspend or spend at the spur of the moment. If you don’t have a list you’ll most likely buy what you see and not be able to assess your spending habit or save at all. You would make a budget list of items that you can spend each month with your available income.
You would start out with your total monthly income. You would then subtract it from all of your basic bills like gas, water and mortgage and the amount that is left will be dedicated to saving and shopping. It’s a good idea to save about five to ten percent of your paycheck each month. You would then use the rest of the money for shopping and the remainder of the money will be save in your account. If you continue with the budgeting each month, you’ll be able to save and to spend more concisely to your need. You’ll not fall off of track and you’ll see an improvement in your spending habit.