Budgeting is done with the best of intentions. You make the budget and remake the budget to get by on the minimal so that you can meet the goals that you have set for yourself. While you redo the budget numerous times in order to make sure that you have everything covered in it you often forget to budget money for yourself. This lack of “you” in the budget makes sticking to the budget you set difficult. There are some things that you can do to make budgeting easier on you and your bank account.
1.) What do you need to know to make a budget?
You will need to know how much you make and how much your expenses are for the month. The amounts that you normally spend on entertainment, and how much pocket money you keep on you will be things that you have to know as well. When you have these figures you can see what the difference is in how much you make and how much you spend. Hopefully you make more than you spend.
2.) Goals
Make Goals for yourself. Everyone wants something whether it’s a weekend away or a new car and setting goals will help you to get these things. When you make goals the reason that you are making the budget will be clearer to you. While you can tell yourself all day long that you want this or that if you don’t right it down and put it some where you can see it everyday there will be times that you forget what you’re working for. Make a list of everything that you want and give yourself a time frame for meeting each one.
3.) Make a Plan
When you set goals you need to make a plan to meet them. They’re will be long term and short term goals that you have set for yourself when you decide to make a budget that you’ll stick to. The time frame that you give yourself will affect how you go about meeting your goals. The bigger your goals the more you have to plan to save in order to meet them.
4.) Make sure the budget is realistic.
You have to have a realistic budget in order to stick to it. If you make $7.25 an hour that’s only $290 a week before taxes, which means that you can’t realistically set aside $100 a week and still survive unless you’re still at home with your parents and don’t have any expenses. After taxes you have approximately $232 each week which comes to $928 a month for you to live off of.
When you get everything together you have to keep in mind that you must be realistic about the amounts that you have in your budget. When you make the budget be sure and include yourself to make sure that you’re more likely to stick to the budget.