Want to save money each month? Want to reduce spending?
Learning how to start a budget isn’t as hard as many believe. Keeping a budget can save you money that would otherwise be wasted. Let us start with organizing all of your monthly bills and personal expenses.
What You Should Budget
You need to make a list of all of your bills and add them up. Include all expenses such as eating out, car repairs, entertainment, shopping etc. Add bills and expenses together. This is your total of monthly bills. Now add up all your monthly income that you live off of.
Next subtract what you pay out on monthly bills from your income total. Now it would sure be nice if there is some money left. If not you really need to be on a budget. You need to take a good look at what you are spending to much on. Is it eating out too often or shopping for too many extras?
Sometimes we just spend way too much and live beyond our means. If your budget can’t support this, then you must change your spending habits.
Household Budget Sheet
If you wish to start your own budget, click the image bellow and print out our household budget sheet:
With this household budget sheet, you will be able to keep track of your monthly bills and personal expenses.
Its too often that people overlook the usefulness of a family budget worksheet, not only can they help you keep track of your spending but they can also keep track of billing dates.
You can also find another family budget worksheet at dollartimes.com. There are other sites that help you set up online budgets. At these sites they can even set up a budget for you. They keep track of your accounts all in one place.
At this site Mint.com it is free and easy, you don’t have to enter in any of your personal information and it was named the best online personal finance tool by Money Magazine.
More and more people are seeking help from Dave Ramsey. He is a financial leader and teacher of debt free classes and states that 70% of Americans are living pay check to pay check. Dave Ramsey also has online and at-site classes that you can sign up for.
So you can go online and get help with budgeting or just start off with a worksheet and start tracking what comes in and what goes out.
Final Word: How to Start a Budget
Struggling with how to start a budget shouldn’t be hard and by making a few simple changes to your lifestyle you can make any simple budget work. In the end most reasonable budgets should work, its just mustering the willpower to stick to the budget that people struggle with.
Really, once you master how to start a budget the real hard part is just sticking to the budget.
But if you think about how easy it can be, maintaining a budget can be as simple as opting not to buy that morning cup of coffee. That can save you over a $ 1,000 a year. Pack your own lunch for work and watch your savings go up.
Such changes as using a family budget worksheet or cutting wasteful spending are, at the very least, worth trying out. The potential to save is worth the try!
