One of the best ways to stay on top of your budget and yet you were buying it is in order is to use a monthly budget planner. There are several ways you can set up your monthly budget:
- Use Microsoft Excel to set up a spreadsheet
- Use a budgeting software such as Quicken
- Use an online budgeting program such as Mvelopes
- Use old-fashioned paper and pencil, may seem archaic but can be very effective
The first thing you will need to do is determine all of your budget categories. Here is a list to get you started:
- Savings
- Retirement
- Regular
- Auto
- Fuel
- Insurance
- Licenses/taxes
- Maintenance
- Home
- Mortgage
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Utilities
- Phone
- Electric/gas
- Water/sewer
- Food
- Entertainment
- Eating out
- Activities/Trips
- Netflix
- Medical
- Doctor
- Medicine
- Miscellaneous
- Allowances
- Haircuts
- Toiletry/Cosmetics
The second thing is determine how much money you are spending per month in each category. You will notice that some of the categories may not be monthly such as doctor visits, auto maintenance, insurance, etc. however the goal is to eventually determine what you are spending per year and break that down to a monthly amount so you can save for it every month.
For an example; you spent $500 last year on auto repairs. In order to save for auto repairs you would want to put aside $42 per month. This should cover all your auto repairs for this coming year. This is an exercise you want to do for all your expenses that may not be monthly but you still have to have money for. In fact it is these types of spendings that are typical budget busters.
The third step to developing a monthly budget planner is to account for everything you spend every single day and make a note of it. I know this seems like it’s going to be a very difficult thing to do. However, it is the only way to know what you are spending. Use the method you have chosen to keep track of what you have left in each budget category. Here is an example:
| Budget Category | Beginning Balance | Spending | Ending Balance (at end of week) |
| Food | $225 | $35.76 | $167.24 |
| Auto Fuel | $100 | $50 | $50 |
Do you see how this can really help you stop over spending? When you don’t have anything left in the budget category, you stop spending in that category.
Does this take will power? Yes, of course it does. Is it worth it? Absolutely! Many people just don’t realize that a simple monthly budget planner can save them a lot of hassle and help them to save money. It will take one to two months for you to get your monthly budget planner organize and working effectively.
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Tags: budget planning, budgets, monthly budget planner, personal finances
