How To Create A Budget & Stick To It

Everyone needs a good budget, and it can’t be too aspirational if you want to be able to stick to it. Create it for yourself and make sure it matches your life and your means.

Budgeting is not just for businesses. Each person, young or old, should be mindful of their money and their spending. The best way to do that is to log one’s expenses, determine one’s needs and create a budget. I have been doing this for many years, since I am thirty years old, so I know my habits and needs well. I know where I can skimp and where I need to spend or put away a little extra.

The amounts that need to be present for each category in the budget will differ depending on where you live. However, the categories remain much the same.

• Clothes

• Food

• Health (medicine, doctor’s visits, supplements)

• Home (including cleaning, laundry, as well as home decor and maintenance)

• Housing (rent or mortgage as well as water, heating etc.)

• Insurance

• Savings

• Transportation

• Insurance

1. Log and list your incomes and their frequency. Not just your main profession, but any money you get on the side, as well as child support and things like that.

2. Log all of your expenses and sort them into categories. It will make it very easy for you to see where your money is going and what they are going towards. That way, you will be able to see what you need to add to your budget if anything, and what you need to remove from your budget, the non-essential costs.

3. When you know how much money is coming in, how much you need for your essentials, and how much you intend to save every month, then you can see what is left. That is the amount that can be used toward non-essential expenses.

There are many sites with free budget planners and apps with free budget planners. I offer a very affordable one in my shop.

Google’s version of Excel as well as Microsoft’s original Excel program can both be used to log your expenses and manage your budget. If you are not familiar with either, you can purchase spreadsheets for both at Etsy and the like.

Good luck!