Looking To Create A Personal Budget?! Check Out These Tips
If you are like myself, and struggling to make ends meet….. you need to read this post. Yes times are tough but there are ways to make thing easier for yourself and your family and it starts with creating a personal budget for you and your household. Below I will discuss ways to set your own budget… whether that be for your family or business… the same rules apply and it is a lot easier than you think. If you are under water with your budget and there is no way that you can actually stick to it, you can take advantage of personal lending options. This is a great way to get a chunk of cash into the bank to help ease your budget woes, pay off unsecured debts and more but it is important to set that budget for yourself so that you can pay back the loan without leaving yourself worse off than you started. The best part is that there are calculators online to help you find the perfect loan amount for you and your needs and all at a great rate with a payment that fits your budget. Let’s take a look at those tips for setting up your own personal budget for yourself, your family or even your business.
1. Establish A Goal
The first step in setting up your personal goals is to establish your goals. This is where you need to sit down and figure out what you are looking to accomplish with that budget. You obviously want to make the most out of that family budget and the reasons one may want to set a budget is different for everyone. Are you looking to be comfortable and have no financial worries? Are you looking to be able to pay those bills on time and maybe even pay down your credit card debt? Maybe you are looking to improve and raise your credit score so that you can make big purchases… buying a new car, a home and on and on I can go. Whatever your goal is… sit down and figure that out as your very first step of the budget planning process and write that goal down on paper. This will be a great reminder and will help you to stick to your budgeting goals.
2. Get Your Numbers In Order
The next step is to get your numbers gathered so you know what you are working with. This is an important step in creating the household, personal, or business budget and you need to know exactly what your monthly earnings are and also what you have to pay out each month. You should be gathering things like your paystubs, bank statements, bills, and receipts. You will not only want to look at your paper records, but make sure to look up all of your account information online too, including automatic bill pay and electronic billing such as online payments, etc. This basically lets you know what is coming in in terms of money and also what is going out. If you are spending more than you are making…this is where you may want to look into personal lending options to help pay down those bills and have one monthly payment which can help you to budget much easier.
In addition to your bills, you should also consider the miscellaneous expenses that you might have in the near future. Usually when people are working on creating a budget and considering what they are spending, they remember to include their bills and direct debits, but neglect to consider things like when they regularly transfer money to India from USA to their family members, or when they go on their monthly outing with their friends. All these expenses will start to add up and impact your ability to budget and save. It is not to say you cannot do these things but to give yourself the best chances, you must include these in your budget. Take some time to think about what expenses you might have coming up.
3. Find A Online Budgeting Tool
Finding a good online budgeting tool will immensely help with the budgeting process. You do not have to be a techie person to do this… the online budgeting tools are pretty straightforward and easy to use. You can download an online budgeting tool to use on your computer and there are also budgeting apps that you can use on your phone to tablets. These tolls are super helpful, easy to use and they help to prevent errors with your budgeting goals. They are often totally free or at a fair price so that anyone can utilize them as well.
4. Organize Your Budget categories
This is the step that helps to figure out where your money is going and why. For me and my husband we looked at places that we can save money by cutting out frugal expenses… like stopping at Starbucks every day or eating out for lunch each day. By eliminating the unnecessary expenses… you can see a chunk that can be used to pay down other expenses or to save. You can do all of the above by separating your expenses into various categories…
*Utilities & Rent: ~ Things like phone bills, utility bills, rent, etc.
*Secured Debt: Mortgage, but loan ad other secured loans.
*Unsecured Debt: Credit Cards, Student Loans, Medical Bills, etc.
*Discretionary Debt: Dining out, Shopping For Gifts, Streaming Services, Entertainment etc..
5. Find Ways To Save Money
I mentioned this a bit above but this is a must do. Take a look at your discretionary expanses and cut things out that are not necessary and you will see lots in savings. My husband started taking his lunch to work versus eating out… no trips to Starbucks..brew your own coffee at home and get yummy creamers to make it extra special. You will save lots this way. Another way to save is to start using coupons and design your menu for dinner around sales at the store. This way you are not paying full price for items and you will be amazed at how much you save and you can use those saving to pay off your unsecured debt…. like credit cards which will help to save you more on the long run.
6. Consolidate & Calculate All of The Info Above
I am a little old school when it comes to budgeting and if you are like me…you may think of putting all of the information that you have figured out in the steps above above into a written ledger and then type that info into your computer using programs like Excel. Even if you are more old school like myself, I highly suggest looking into digital budgeting tools as you will be blown away at how easy and accurate it is versus doing things the old school way. The budgeting tools not only help you keep track of your budgeting but they also make suggestions to help you improve your savings. They are easy to use… you simply enter in all of information into the software and the program does all of the hard work for you. This will help you to be successful in you household budgeting and hep you to achieve your goals much faster.
7. Continuously Review Your Monthly Budget
You may be surprised at how you can misstep when it comes to your household budget which is why you want to review it regularly. You may have a change in income or expenses that are out of your control which is why checking it regularly and adjusting as needed, is a more sound way to ensure you can save and stick to your budget. If your income goes up… you may want to pay more towards those unsecured debts as paying those credit cards down are the first to be tackled as the interest will rob you blind. Simply set a date each month to review your monthly budget and make any adjustments as need be and you will be successful at planning and adjusting your budget as needed which means you will find yourself standing tall and in control of you finances better than ever and your gos will be accomplished.
Deliciously Savvy received product and /or compensation in exchange for an honest and inboards review post and all opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for stopping by ad enter a giveaway never you leave!
