With over 5,000 dollars in credit card debt, keeping up with my monthly bills and having enough money for Christmas shopping this year, I will require that I not only have some consist source of income but most importantly have a budget that I can stick to. In todays fast paced society, everyday we budget for our time, our meals, our family’s time and our money. Unfortunately for the majority of the population, most of this process is done mentally and never written down on paper.
I have been wanting to do a post on the importance of creating and maintaining a budget for some time and because it is the holiday season I think this is the perfect timing . I made this into a two part series and broke it down into these two articles:
- How to create a budget
- Maintaining your budget
How to create a budget.
The best way to start creating your budget is to figure out how you spend your money. Budgeting requires you to look ahead and formalize future goals. You should take note on all the things you buy and keep track for about two months or so. When creating a budget you need to consider both your income and your expenses. This means keep all your receipts from the smallest to your largest purchases and keep track of all your income.
Write down how much you spend in each category and also how much you save. Don’t forget to include money that you save each month to help you meet your future goals. Be realistic about your budget, so 
that it’s easy for you to follow. This can be pretty difficult when you don’t have anything to start from so I suggest using a program called Pear Budget, it’s really great. I use this program to help me keep track of my daily spendings and see how much under or over my budget I am for that month. You can visit the site or download it from here. This program is really straightforward and easy to use. I strongly recommend you get the software!
This program makes budgeting easy as 1, 2, 3!(Literally) It breakes down to this:
- Enter in what you think you’ll spend
- Hold on to your receipts. Record your expenses
- Read the analysis part, which tells you how you did.
Thats it! Once you have taken the initiative of creating your budget, you’ll realize that the hardest part lies not in creating the budget itself but making yourself stick to your budget. So stick around for my second part in Maintaining your Budget.
