First Things First
The first thing to do is get a piece of paper or program on the computer such as Microsoft Office. The next thing is to divide your money into all the categories you think you will be spending money in. It wouldn’t be wise to have a miscellaneous category. One category should include rent or a house payment. Electricity, cable, water, etc should all be in the same category which should be labeled utilities. A category should be made for your kids if you have them. The food category should be split into restaurants and groceries to keep them separate. You and your spouse should have your own categories for spending. There should be a category for personal items like toilet paper and soap and even a category for car stuff. Each of the categories will state how much money is in each one to better show you where your money is being spent.
Next Thing
Go through and make sure you know what amount is going to go to bills that can’t be altered in any way. Here is where you want to list things such as phone bills or rent. These should be unchangeable amounts. This teaches you what money goes where in your budget. Next you should put the amount of money you normally spend in each month into each individual category. You will need to record your spending for a month to see where to put your money. The money that people spend on things may shock even themselves.
Last Thing on the List
The Last thing you have to do is make sure the budget balances out with the amount of money you are going to be making. Funds may need to be cut down for this. At the end of each month there should be some extra money to put into savings. The most important part of this is sticking to the budget. You must stop going out to restaurants once the budget says you have no more money for it. In the end it will be worth all the money you saved by not spending money on everything you want.
My experience
When I was in college, I struggled just like everyone else. Everything seemed impossible to be paid. I had to work out how to pay everything including my insurance and payments on car or rent. It seemed impossible to be able to afford paying for all those things as well as food, etc. Each category had as little money as possible to be budgeted out to it so I could afford everything. My I tried a new program. Wonders were worked through this. I figured out a way that I was going to pay for bills with a small paycheck. My budget is still dictated by this program.
