How to Make a Budget
A Personal Spending Plan

Learning how to make a budget gives you one of the easiest ways to save money. Knowing where your money is going allows you to spend in more beneficial ways. You are now at the nuts and bolts section, putting on paper your realistic personal spending plan.

Getting Started

The easiest, and most effective method to get started is to sit down with pencil and paper, writing down all of your income and expenses. Try to leave nothing out.

Using receipts, the checkbook register, and your memory, determine your income and expenses using a free household budget worksheet detailing the numbers.

Do not fret about not getting it right the first or second time ... or sometimes even the third. It will come if you persevere!

As you learn how to make a budget, you will realize that getting a handle on finances is a process that takes time and effort. It is centered on your attitude and commitment to a way of life resulting in effective stewardship of your resources.

Initially, you can create a computerized budget spreadsheet to handle the basic math calculations, reworking the numbers until you have spent on paper less than your take home pay. This is the key to being successful! Before receiving your paycheck, have it already mentally spent. See the benefit?

What Are Some Reasons Why?

Why should you go through the time and effort? While working through the process of how to make a budget, you will quickly see the "black holes" your money has been disappearing into. I spend THAT much eating out? How could I have spent $423 on Starbucks last year? This is called "found money", small tax-free pay raises if you will.

It adds up to the realization that if you start cutting back a little here and a little there, you could quickly begin reducing credit card debt to the point of extinction!

Wow.

That soon turns into REAL financial freedom!

So, get going. Click the links above, fill out the worksheets, get out of debt, and free yourself. Remember, this is one of the easiest ways to save money as you can immediately see where you are spending and can cut back.

The next article in this making a budget series gives you some average family budget percentages for comparison.

Return from How to Make a Budget to
Household Budget Made Easy.