What is the best way you found to budget your money ?

Answer 1

I opened a savings account at a bank yet did not get an ATM card for the account. I have money direct deposited from my paycheck into the account each month. The money just sits there since it would be a pain to drive across town and stand in line to take any money out. Basically, I just forget about the account unless an emergency comes along.

Answer 2

Make a budget and STICK TO IT.

You know your bills and what they are.

I'm making these up as an example.

Rent
Utilities
Entertainment
Clothes
Credit Cards
Student Loans
Gas
Car Payment
Car Insurance
Phone/cell phone bills
Cable tv
food
club memberships such as the YMCA
walking around money
Internet bill
Always have some emergency money set aside.

Give yourself a bill every month. Make an amount you can live with. When you write your bills pay that one FIRST. ALL THE TIME. Put it in a savings account. It may not be that much money. The bill I pay is $200. It goes to our saving account. We don't touch it. It's grown quite a bit in the past five years. While we had to touch it a time or two for true emergencies (a death in the family) we generally don't and have reaped the rewards for it.

You then take how much you make in a month and start subtracting the above items from how much you earn. Anything that is left over put in a special fund such as a night out on the town or a vacation fund.

The thing about a budget is you have to STICK TO IT. If you see something you like in the store you better have a way to pay for it or something will be cut back in your budget and then you will be behind in your bills.

Budgeting is a way of life.

Answer 3

A budget is a PLAN on how to spend your money in order to reach your goals.

It has nothing to do with your current monthly expenses.

You can religiously follow a very bad budget and get predictably bad results.

The main problem with creating a budget is that people confuse wants with needs. The second problem I have noticed is that some people have jobs that don't pay enough to fulfill their needs - but they don't or can't get better jobs.

So the best way to budget your money is to earn as much as you can, spend as little as you can AND look ahead to long term expenses that require long term savings.

Answer 4

Get a desk sized monthly calendar pad. Write down all of your fixed monthly bills (as well the rest of your monthly bills as they come in the mail), directly on the their due dates, with the amounts due. Then write in all of your "pay" days and take a look at the bills that fall due in each pay period. When you see all of your pay days and all of your bills on one page, it makes it a lot easier to know how much money you have to spend. There are many computerized programs that can help you prepare a budget, but sometimes simple is better. Good luck.

Answer 5

1) Your monthly rent or mortgage payment should absolutely not exceed 35% of your take home pay.

2) The cost of owning and operating your vehicle (or paying for your transportation) should not exceed 20% of your take home pay. Include debt/lease payments, insurance, maintenance and gas when doing your computation.

Stick to the above 2 rules, and you will have a strong foundation for being in a good position financially.

3) Identify the one or two items or categories on which you are prone to spend too much money (could be mall shopping, restaurants, Friday night partying, clothes), and vigilantly make sure you don't cross the line on these items.

Answer 6

Write it down. If you try to do it without taking this step, you'll end up forgetting something important. What works best for me is to write down my anticipated expenses for next month. Then write down my expected income. If the two balance, I'm happy.
But before I got to that stage, there was a long period of writing down everything after I spent it -- like most people, I had no idea of how much money was trickling out in little bits, that I never included in my budget. After writing everything down and seeing what it REALLY cost to live for a month, then I was ready to tackle my income and learn to divide it up -- so much for essentials, like food, rent, clothing, insurance, etc. Then so much for non-essentials and then so much for savings. And then a little bit for splurging, because it's no fun being 'good' ALL the time. Even if it was just a couple of dollars to spend on a funny card to send to a friend, I needed to have that little bit of leeway in my budget. It took a little while to get used to this pattern, but until I was able to balance out everything on paper, I didn't have the guidelines I needed.
Anyway, that's what worked for me.
Hope you find a system that makes it easy for you.

Answer 7

The best way for me is to rarely use an atm machine. You can use your debit card almost anywhere and you end up saving that way. It will seem like pennies at first but as we all know pennies add up. You can alos cut down on your cable plan, and maybe even your cell phone plan. Do not eat out and brown bag your lunch. Good Luck I agree with clipping coupons, I am the coupon Queen!!!

Answer 8

Always put 10% aside for retirement, donate 3%, pay your bills and pocket the rest for groceries and other stuff.

Buy stuff in bulk, take a bus into town to go shopping or get them delievered(stuff is cheaper, if your not getting caught up with impulse buying), collect cans and trade in for money(5 cents a can or bottle), plan ahead and thats all I can think of for now. Good luck!

Answer 9

Save first, then spend what is left over.

Not....Spend first and then save what is left over.