How do I write a personal budget?

Question

any tips or tricks to writing a budget for personal finance.?
any samples of budgets out there?
any suggestions?comments?analysis?advice?
It will be my first budget ever...lol

Answer 1

well first you got to get organized. Get your bills, Rent, and paycheck stubs. Ok. You got all that. You take your net income frome each week and you add them together. Not the gross. Thats before taxes. Just the Net Income. Okay so that is the estimate amount you got to work with. Each month can change. You subtract your rent. so whats leftover is for bills and other expenses. you just divide your money til its gone through your bills. and whats leftover if any is for fun entertainment or put into savings or checking. So some expenses is electric,phone,internet,cable,hairdresser,car insurance,car payment, loans, mortgage the list can go on and on. It depends on what you need to pay each month. So you make a list of what you got to pay. You can make a spreadsheet. basically label each expense in a collumn in another column balance it like a checkbook and subtract each expense. Pay important stuff first like rent and bills. Then food and other non important afterwards. Yet Food could be important but you got to figure how much you really can afford. well hope this helps you alittle.

Answer 2

Use an electronic spreadsheet like Excel to list all your income and expenses. In the first column, put your income/expense descriptions. Use the next 12 columns for each months' expected income and expenses, with the month name as the header.

List all monthly income first (net pay, child support, alimony, interest or dividend earnings, etc.) and subtotal those amounts. Skip a row and list all your fixed monthly expenses (rent/mortgage, insurance, loan payments) and then list expenses that vary each month, like food, utilities, gas, auto repairs, clothing and such. You'll need to estimate the amount for these kind of expenses. For anything that you pay other than monthly, list those in the appropriate month they're due. Sub-total your expenses.

Skip a row and subtract the expenses from income to get your "disposable" income. This is what you have left each month for stuff like entertainment, home improvement, savings, etc.

If you end up with a negative disposable income, reduce your estimated expenses that you have control over, like food and clothing.

Your monthly spending should follow your budget as close as possible. There will always be unexpected expenses, so try to allow enough for savings each month.

Answer 3

I use a really good program I found online a few years ago. It's well-known among finance bloggers like me. It's called You Need a Budget. It costs $19.95 but I think it's money well spent. They have a lot of great financial managment features too including retirement, debt reduction, car maintenance etc. Check it out.

http://www.youneedabudget.com/index.php

this is my finance site if you're interested....
http://everincreasingwealth.blogspot.com

Answer 4

The simple answer is make a list of your ongoing regular bills or liabilities. Make a list of your income or assets. Allocate $ to your liabilities and with what you have left then spread it out as you would like. (savings, investments, entertainment, clothes, vacation, retirement are some suggestions) Then stick to it, as can be difficult, and good luck. And many before me have said "pay yourself first" Try a web search under "budgets" and here's one I found for starters. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget

Answer 5

Congrats on your wanting to use a budget!

I created a simple budget in Excel. It has the budget monthly and annually on one page. It's easy to use and update.

If you'd like a copy, just email me!

Answer 6

Nope.... i'm already saving a factor of my earnings and different area is going for my vehicle's money.. so i individually remember on my husband doing all budgeting and different economic themes.

Answer 7

like say i wanna spend -- amount on food for this month and stuff like that