How to Make a Budget
The First Step
The first thing to do is get a piece of paper or program on the computer such as Microsoft Office. There will be categories that you must then make to divide your money into. Your budget should not include any miscellaneous category. The sections should include a category for living payments. Electricity, water, cable, and other similar things should all be in the utilities category. If you have children you should have a category for them. Going out to eat should be separate from groceries in your food category. The personal categories should be for you and your spouse separately. Have a category for personal items such as toilet paper and soap, and have a category for car stuff as well. This will show you exactly how much money you are really spending each month in each category.
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. Here you would want your phone bills and rent to be listed. The amounts paid need to be stable and unchangeable. This is how you learn where your money should be designated. After having done all that, go through and put in the amounts that you normally would spend in a month on those areas. You should record your expenses for a month to figure out where your money is going. It may shock you how much money is being spent in different 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 will need to be taken from to accomplish this. Saving money is a great thing to do with the extra money at the end of every month. The hardest part is actually sticking to the budget but is something that must be done. You can't just spend money at an expensive restaurant when the budget shows there is no more money for it. In the end the saving rather than spending will be worth it.
My Story
Struggling in college is tough and many have to go through that. Everything seemed impossible to be able to afford to pay. I had to pay all of my bills and somehow managed to work it all out. I never thought I would be able to pay for everything and still have money left for food. In order to be able to afford everything I had to budget out as little money as possible to each category. I then tried this program. This changed my lives. I was able to pay all of my expenses on a small paycheck. I still use this program.
