How to budget my money?
I make $1400 a month. Me and my friends go out to eat a lot. I pay insurance phone bill things like that. But it seems like i just spend money unesicarily. For example, will go to church, then friends will say, lets go to mcodnalds. I want to go, but that money goes quick. I get paid tues, and i am scraping the bottem of the barrel for gas money right now. How do i budget my money, and try to keep control of how much money i spend? Because basically, if there is money in the account, and i can afford it, i go out. I almost cant control myself. Any ideas?
How can I budget my money?
Everybody is different. We have different habits, beliefs, thoughts, emotions, etc. You have to get to know yourself to find out what makes you tick. Why do you spend money? When do you spend it? What do you spend it on when you get the urge to spend money? You can answer these questions bu using a free budget planner. You don't need to set up a budget, but you should record all your expenses. When you do that, you find out how you spend your money. Then you can decide how to cut back on your spending habits. It is really no use for me or anybody else to tell you how we save money. The key is that you have the resolve and discipline to record every single one of your expenses even the cheap morning coffee. Check out these free budget planners and chose the one that works best for you. All of these things can be accessed on the internet, which means that you can enter your expenses anytime you have access to the internet. Again, which budget planner you chose is a personal preference. http://www.moneyobedience.com/site/home/... You need to register if you want to track your expenses, too, which is important in your case. Setting up an account is free though. MoneyObedience.com also gives you suggestions how you can spend less in plain English. https://www.budgetpulse.com/ You need to register to use the software.This application creates nice charts and tables which is great if you are a numbers person. http://www.mint.com/ You need to register and have the software log into your bank accounts.
How should I create a budget for myself?
Download a excel sample budget file(sample template) and recognize the categories that make sense to you and eliminate the ones that doesn't.Start entering your purchases in that excel file for atleast a monthAnalyze all the categories and find out where all the money is going.Accordingly increase or decrease the expenditure/ spendingAlways make sure the income is higher than the expenditure and that is what is your savings for that month.Once you have entered your budget for 6months to an year. You will get clear understanding of 1. Mandatory expenses(rent, bills, utilities) 2. Insurances (house,car) 3. Food 4. Clothing. Automotive etc.Now allocate some amount of money to each of those fields each month. Keep some for spending and some amount in emergency fundOnce those are all met. Allocate all the money into savings.Save as much as you could by following a minimum lifestyle and watch your money grow.
Help me budget my $400 biweekly check.?
I don't need to go into details =) just Finishing my last semester in college, have a job in my career field but i work part time for now so my checks are $400-$500 biweekly. I budget biweekly with my paychecks because it seems to make sense that way. Don't include groceries when coming up with a budget/spending/saving plan for me. Just tell me how would you plan your $400 checks as a young 21 year old soon to be college grad living on her own. Set bills monthly: Rent: 340 Utilites: $40 Phone: $90 Internet: $40 medical debt =( $50 store card $30 monthly set bills amount= $590 biweekly check: $400 biweekly bills: $297 I have 2 banking accounts account A checkings: bills & needs such as toiletries and cleaning supplies (so i basically dump $297 here each check) account A savings: i try to put $20 here each check for emergencies Account B: checkings: money to spend on myself, so it's basically whats ever left over after bills so I'll have $103 here every 2 weeks but i'll round off that random dollar and put it in account B savings.. just because lol. Account B savings: $3 I want to see if there's a better way to manage my little checks for entertainment. I got my living expenses down. but how should i go about planning my little $100 every 2 weeks for things i want like clothes, makeup, getting nails done. and how can i save more money for the future besides $6 a month lol. just looking for other opinions. thanks. what would you do??? be realistic. thanks =)
How do you create a working budget?
The foundation of the best way to create a working budget is to have a good system. You have to have something that works for you!Yes, do the obvious- gather your bills, your bank account info, etc. But find the right tool.You need a zero-based budget tool like YNAB (it stands for You Need A Budget).Zero-based means you spend every dollar, on paper (or digital) ahead of time. With YNAB, you spend only the money you have and don’t budget for money you don’t have yet.You also need to be flexible. You make plans, but life happens. You need to be able to adjust your budget (your plan) if you spend more or less money on a thing than planned. This is the part that always derailed me in the past.Check out YNAB here. I promise you will love it!
How do I create a budget that will work for me? All have failed so far.
Let me understand your question better by taking a chance to answer it. A budget is just a tool. It's not like the proverbial carrot or stick administrators who are mostly in the corporate world wield when you fail to meet its targets come deadline periods.It's just a tool that you need to participate most actively so your inputs (as well as those from others if you're with a group) will be considered. And you review the budget depending on your situation. But you have to find time to review it if you're off-budget or not. Figure out where you are off. Analyze it. Clarify it. And revise it if necessary.The point in having a budget is the exercise and gaining the discipline. It’s the process that counts the most. At least you have ballpark figures, hallmarks, indicators on how far have you gone versus the targets included in the budget.If you're not feeling confident about your budgeting skills, then try to breakdown the list of tasks you need to complete for every part of the budgeting process. Your failures in your prior budgets are great indicators on where you can start your listing down of tasks. If the challenge is too much for you, then consider paying the fees of a professional budget expert. You find most of them in the accounting field.All the best.
How can I create a fail-safe budget?
That depends on what you mean by fail safe. But let's assume, you want to have a budget that makes it as hard as possible to spend the money you set aside in savings, and if something happens you want to have a backup plan.In many ways this works the exact same as any other budget. You separate out your wants/needs and otherwise pare down your life so you make more than you spend every month, 10–15% is standard but nothing stops you from doing more.The difference lies is what you do with your savings.If at all possible create a detect deposit that automatically splits your paycheck into at least two groups: Savings and Checking.I recommend putting it in 3 different savings accounts.Emergency fund, held at a different bank which you don't have a debit card for. If you need the money you can transfer it out before spending it.Retirement account, long term savings. IRA are great for this.Savings account at the same bank. If my budget goes a dollar over the limit, I don't want an over draft fee. You can set your bank to pull from the other account if there’s an over draft. Note, if you can keep track of your budget and not splurge, getting a credit card and using that (paying it off every two weeks) works well, and the extra money would pay off whatever your paycheck can’t cover (again, should be very small if any). This money can grow if you have left over money at the end of your month.Other fail-safes I use include:Auto paying minimal payment on every credit card I have. I try very hard and succeed almost always to pay off card completely every month, but the few times I had so much going on it slipped my mind this saved my credit.Cash at my house. No, I don’t have piles of cash, but $10–$20 in small bills in case I need to go somewhere that doesn’t take card, or a friend needs some money to eat food, little things. Having the cash “outside” of my budget gives me room to break my budget without feeling bad.Generally, think about how you might fail, and stop yourself before you can make that mistake.