Budgeting
Made Easy
© Terri Seymour
I am
a strong believer in budgeting because even with the smallest of
incomes, it can help you make your money go farther. Budgeting is
not hard and you do not need a degree in mathematics to be able
to do it. You also do not need expensive software or online programs
to write an effective budget.
First
thing you need to do is make a list of all your bills and expenses
- monthly, weekly, quarterly, etc. I do my budget by the week because
we get a weekly paycheck. Some people would do a monthly or bi-weekly
budget. For the example, I will do a weekly budget.
So
here is an example of a list of expenses:
Mortgage
$250
Groceries $300
Heat $50
Phone $75
Electric $80
Internet $20
Cable $50
Insurance $60
Car Payment $200
Credit Cards $25, $75 and $100
Gas for car $100
Now to start your budget, you would put each bill a week or two
before it is due. For example, if your mortgage is due on the 10th
of the month, you
would either have it paid the last week of the month before or the
first week of the month.
Example
budget using example bills listed above with a income of $450 a
week.
March
5
Internet $20
Groceries $75
Gas $25
Credit Cards $125
Insurance $60
-----------------------
Total $305
March 12
Car Payment $200
Cable $50
Groceries $75
Gas $25
---------------------
Total $350
March 19
Mortgage $250
Groceries $75
Gas $25
--------------------
Total $350
March 26
Groceries $75
Gas $25
Credit Card $75
Heat $50
Phone $75
Electric $80
----------------------
Total $380
Now this is your very basic and simple budget. You would want to
add in things like Christmas, birthdays, taxes, etc. when appropriate.
With
a tight budget, you would try to add those in when you have an extra
payday. These come every third month, I do believe.
What
you have left is for whatever you choose to so with it. I would
recommend that you add a weekly amount for savings/investments to
help
with the future.
Also,
if you want to do a budget for your business, I would suggest doing
that separately.
I simply
write my budget in a notebook and go over it every week when I write
out the bills. I also then write out my grocery list for the weekly
shopping.
I keep
my budget, bills, monthly statements and such in a folder type binder.
Each month when I pay a bill, I throw out the old statement and
keep the new. This helps me keep track of things also.
Yes,
sometimes it is hard to stick to a budget, but if you don't things
could get much harder and the bills could start stacking up.
Budgeting
might sound complicated, but when you use a simple method, it gets
easy very quickly. You do not need to be an accountant or to have
a expensive
software program to help you do your budgeting. A simple notebook
of paper and an ink pen or pencil is all you need. Oh, and a calculator
to speed things up
a bit. ;-) Happy Budgeting!!!
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Terri Seymour and her husband
Terry own Seymour Products.
For thousands of gifts, a solid home
business opportunity, resources and
more, visit www.seymourproducts.com
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