I am 32 and clueless about budgeting. I feel like I make enough money to pay what I need to, but I always just break even. I do NOT indulge in luxuries. I want to be organized with my spending, but I dont know how to start. Do you know of any websites or other resources that are quick and to the point that might help me? Thank you!!!Any advice or websites to establish a functional household budget?
Check out expenseRegister.com. It is a free website and you can set up your budget, record and track expenses. It has some neat tools to create reports etc. It is free!Any advice or websites to establish a functional household budget?
You need a sheet of paper and a pen. At the top of the paper write down your income for the month. Begin listing how every penny will be spend/saved. Keep a running total down the page. At the bottom of the page, you should have nothing left. If you do, go back and assign that amount to something. Once this is done, treat the paper as a binding contract. You are not allowed to do anything with money unless the paper authorizes you to do so. If you need to make a change during the month, you MUST go back the the paper and make changes on paper before your spend a penny. It will take 3 or 4 months the get a good budget. You will be shocked how much you currently spend without noticing. The CRITICAL factor is forcing yourself to pay attention.
it is good that you realize your financial weakness and even more importantly want to do something about it.
Join the pension program if the place where you work has one. This is particularly good if they have matching funds. If they do try to go for the maximum for matching funds. You can save without getting the money into your hands.
I ran a search for you under the term financial budgeting and received some excellent sites, Read them, bookmark them, and use them.
Good luck.
the first step to making a budget is to find out what you spend your money on -- every day for three months keep track of where ever penny goes -- yes i say penny (example say every morning you grab a cup of coffee at the corner to drink on the way to work cost 87 cents -- would have been cheaper if made at home) same way with utilities don't lump them together -- your might find you are ordering 30 dollars worth of movies on making 50 dollars worth of long distance calls a month -- during this period do not charge anything use cash if you have to pay cash you may pass on that 6 pack of beer and drink tap water instead -- than at the end of 90 days you will be able to tally up and see where your money went and sat down and make a realistic budget!!!
I got a site where I make money from buying from myself and others buying from me as well. If you had your own site you would repocket some of the money you spent on it and get the retail from the people that buy from your site. The more people that buy from your site and join your business the bigger percentage of money you get back on what you spent. My site is http://eanderson10.qhealthbeauty.com/ If you are interested in building your own business feel free to contact me.
Go to these 2 sites:
http://www.daveramsey.com
http://www.crown.org
I divide my money up in categories. Notice that I have built into my budget category lists for several areas where I'm putting money away for an emergency. Problems will happen. I plan for them.
I allocate money in a certain order. First I give a portion of my money away, because life is not just about me. Next I save a chunk of my money in two areas: Long term (or retirement) and short term emergency. Thank God, I have no debt at all. If you have debt though, I recommend that you pay it all off (except house) before you start saving for long term. Debt is a curse and it brings you down. After saving some money, I then allocate what's left over for general budget stuff.
See my list of main categories in [brackets], followed by a brief explanation and then subcategories. Also two web site recommendations.
[Tithe or Charitable giving]
church
mission organiztion
red cross - disaster relief
[Envelope] I carry this cash around with me. No stupid credit cards for me. I'm smart! I live off what I make.
Miscellaneous
Lawn %26amp; Garden
Entertainment
Groceries %26amp; Toiletries
ClothingCosmeticstuffHaircut
[Utilities:] Basic stuff for the home. No cable tv for me, I spend time with family and trying to figure out how to bring home more CA$H
Cell Phone
Electric
Trash Service
Telephone
Water
Internet
House Taxes
[Savings] You have to save for a rainy day because it will rain, and you need to save for when you're old to get you through to death and then leave a legacy for your grand kids.
Savings / Emergency
Long Term/Emergency
[Domestic Help] Finally! We have people help to clean the house and cut the grass.
Other Help
Maid
[Everything Else:] Hard items to fit into a category.
Medical
Gifts non Christmas
My Allowance
Wife's Allowance
Clubs
Term Life Insurance
Kid's school
[Infrequent Payments] I don't pay these every month. Maybe just once or twice a year, but I do budget for them now, and stick the money aside into a money market or savings account. Yes that's right Christmas is not an emergency. I know when it comes: Dec 25 every year. I get ready!
Home Owners Assoc.
Christmas Budget
House Repair
Vacation
Tag %26amp; Emmissions
[Auto] Stuff about the car
Auto Fuel
Auto Insurance
Auto Service
Auto Other
Notice in this budget that there are no items for loans or a house payment. That's because I'm out of debt completely thanks to a Crown.org Bible study that my wife and I did 8 years ago. Praise God! He is my ROCK! I'm FREE and you can be to my friend if you're not already!
A budget is worthless unless you have a practical way to actually implement it in real life. Here's a way to do it - after you do your budget and figure out how much you can spend each month after bills are paid, here's a thought on how to control your variable expense spending (dinners, entertainment, coffees, even groceries and gas) - get a debit card account separate from your checking account, load your budgeted amount for these categories at the beginning of the month, and then use the card. Don't touch your checking account. At the end of the month, do you have money left? If not, why not? Keep this up for a few months and you'll really start to see a difference in how you manage your spending - you'll know where your money is going. I heard about this system from a neighbor of mine and have been doing it myself. I got a prepaid card from Readydebit and it works for me. Hope this helps.
www.make-you-money.biz
Do you have Microsoft Excel? It has plenty of good templates. Download them at http://www.microsoft.com
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