Creating a budget is a lot easier than most of us would tend to think. Though it does take an honest approach in preparation and diligence in following, it is a simple process. The information needed is already available to you. You’ll need to have your weekly income and your monthly expenses, and then just follow the steps as outlined in Basics of Budgeting to create your monthly budget. For your assistance you can use the Budget Worksheet provided or create your own.
Once you have put together your monthly expenses you’ll want to keep track of the actual amounts that you spend in each category. This will help you in preparing your budget for the following months. Once your budget is prepared, you’ll want to make sure that you stay on track with it. See Maintaining Your Budget for assistance with this. There are several tips listed here to cover the most common problem areas, but after a few months of budgeting you’ll be able to see where you have the most trouble and you’ll be able to plan accordingly.
