howdo i budget my money?

Question

im a student in debt and need to cut living cost any ideas
thanks

Answer 1

Make a list of all your NEEDED expenses. Do not confuse needs with wants. Things such as rent, electric, water, car payments, home and vehicle insurance and food are needs.
Some expenses you will incur weekly, some monthly, some annually. The ones that are not monthly, you have to divide by 12 to figure out how much you must set aside each month to have the necessary amount when the annual bill comes due.
Then you write down what your income is. If your bills are exceeding your income, you are going into debt and have to find ways to either increase income or decrease expenses.
Since you are already in debt, you have to start paying off those debts. Figure out which debts are carrying the highest interest rate and begin paying those down the soonest. You still have to make minimum payments on ALL debts but begin paying more than the minimum on those with the highest interest rate. Once one of those debts is payed off, take what you were spending to pay that off and begin applying that to the next highest interest debt in addition to the minimum and get that one paid off. Continue doing this until all debts are paid.
Depending on where you live, you have to get creative in cutting living expenses. Do you live in a dorm? That may be a pretty much set expense. If in an apt., can you add a room mate to share expenses? If you have an electric bill to pay, become very aware of all electricity you use and try to cut back on that. You have to eat, but eating out costs more than cooking at home usually. Learn to shop for bargains at the grocery store. Look at storebrands and generics rather than name brands.
The biggest thing is truly learning to differentiate your needs from your wants and only spending on your needs. And whittling those needs down to the barest minimum.

Answer 2

There are a lot of budget charts online that you can use. The first step is to figure out where your money is going now. Once you know that, it is easier to see where you can cut costs.

Other alternatives are to try getting a roommate or a second job. Also, try to eat out as little as possible. Ramen noodles may not be the tastiest, but they are certainly cheaper than anything you buy in a restaurant or fast food chain.

Answer 3

Start by writing down everywhere you spend money. Then look to see what you can cut-out. First on the list is usually entertainment like movies, dinners out, concerts, DVDs.

The more difficult cuts are asking yourself, if there someone cheaper I can live? Can I take on a roommate to help with expenses where I currently live? Can I switch to a cheaper mode of transportation, i.e. a used car versus a new car, or public transportation

Answer 4

Prepare an expenses sheet with columns showing the major head of expenses that you incur day to day, such as groceries, food (eating out), entertainment, books, stationery, gas, car expenses, transport/travel, clothing, etc. as may be applicable to you. Also note down once in a month expenses such as rent, electricity, heating/air-conditioning, etc. separately.
Note your daily expenses in the respective columns every day and at the end of a fixed period, say week/fortnight/month, as is your pattern, total the amounts under each head and then note these summarised expenses in another sheet on which you can also write the other expenses such as rent etc.
A review of this summarised statement would show where you spend more. Analyze the individual entries under the major (in percentage terms to the total) expense heads to see if some of these expenses could be cut down.
One useful thing to do is to make a Paratos analysis of the major heads. To put it simply, if a particular expense item in percentage terms is high, say 30% (this is an example), and the other heads account for less than 30% each, then a targeted reduction of even 5% in this head would result in a saving of 30 x 5% = 1.5% of your total expenses. On the other hand, if one head of expense accounts for say 8% of the total, then in order to effect a total saving of 1.5 % from this head, you need to cut down about 20% of expenses under this head (8 x 20% = 1.6%).
This analysis should help you to plan for effecting savings, and form a realistic budget for the future.
Good luck.

Answer 5

1) List your income
2) List your expenses

The easiest way to track your expenses is to carry a little notebook and write down where you spend your income for a month. Once you have an idea of where the money is going, you can start looking for places to reduce your expenditures.

Answer 6

just set a limit to what you normally spend and put somemoney in the bank so you can be financially safe and secure.and dont invest it in the stock market because it will just waste money. but like i said set a limit to what you normally spend just be careful what you buy and spend and credit card debt can raise debt 2 so if i was you i would lay off any credit cards if you have any.