Budgeting at Home
Written by bmlengel on March 7th, 2010
Getting Started
Your first step is to get something to write on or go on your computer and look for a good program to use. You must then divide your money into whatever categories you spend them on. Miscellaneous categories are bad for budgets. These categories will need to include a living payment of some sort. Electricity, cable, water, etc should all be in the same category which should be labeled utilities. A category should be made for children if you have them. You should split up food into groceries and restaurants. You and your spouse should have your own categories for spending. You should have a car category; you should also have a category for personal items. After making the categories, you should be able to clearly see where you are spending your money.
Second Thing
Put aside a amount of money for your bills that you won’t touch. Rent and Phone bills may be listed here. If the rates are unchangeable then it will help your budget a lot. This will show you where to place money in your budget. Next you should put the amount of money you normally spend in each month into each individual category. You should figure out what you spend on things by living for a month and recording what you spend money on. Each area of money will surprise you in how much you spent.
And Then
How much you make income wise is important to be sure about so you don’t go over your budget. You may have to take away from the other funds to do this. At the end of each month there should be some extra money to put into savings. Sticking to the budget is really important. You may need to discipline yourself to stop going out to eat once you’ve used up the money in the budget. Disciplining yourself into buying less will be hard but worth it.
My Short Story
In college many people struggle. Everything seemed like it was going to be impossible to afford. I had to try and work out how to pay for tuition, rent, the electric bill, the phone bill, health insurance, car insurance, and even my books. I thought I wouldn’t have any money left for things like food after paying it all. Some categories were less than I should have had them since I had to pay as little money as possible to everything. I looked and found a new program to try. This changed my lives. I learned how to pay for my expenses with a tight budget. My budget is still being done with this program.
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