How can I create My Budget Fast?

Posted by: askjayauthor on: February 9, 2009

• In: Credit Management | Money Management
• 2 Comments

I got this question from Noori of Seattle, US asking ‘how can I create my budget fast?’.

First of all, thanks a lot to Noori asking this very timely question especially in this current economic recession time. Secondly Noori you are not alone facing this problem. By saying this, I don’t want to say that it’s ok not to do your budget just because it seems so tedious. My job is to make it easy for you and for the blog readers.

When I was creating my first budget just after college, I had real tough time. I kept on putting this task away for too long. One day I was checking my account and then I realized that my savings are zero. I started thinking how can I get control on my finances. That’s when I started thinking of putting up a budget. So here are the tips which I learned the hard way but you can learn the easy way by reading and acting on this.

1. Collect all your bills for a month and then put these bills in different categories like utilities, grocery, rent, etc. You should make sure that you creat your own categories which work for you. Here is a watch-out for you, don’t be too overconfident of yourself in the beginning that you can manage this system. So keep the system as simple as you can. Make it intuitive for you.

2. Once you complete putting all the expenses in their categories, add up the bills and see how much money you need to allocate for that category. While doing this exercise, you should challenge yourself for cutting the unnecessary expenses. Be realistic and start with a budget which you can live with.

3. Once you are ready to put your system to test, implement it for a month. At the end of the month, review your sum of the expenses and see if you are within your budget or out of budget. Target only that category first where you are busting your budget. Review it carefully and see how can you reduce your expenses. Be creative and see opportunities for reducing your expenses.

4. Check the expense for each category again and see how you did for your target category. If you achieved your target, then reward yourself with something which you enjoy. Don’t overspend just go for affordable ideas. This step is very important.

5. Over the time you will fine-tune your budget and review it every month. And as you achieve your targets every month, you will be more confident for the bigger challenges.

6. So what’s the big challenge? Now it’s time for looking for room to start saving money. You were really creative when you started reducing your expenses by using out of box ideas. The same creativity will help you again. Start with a small saving target.

7. Stick to your budget and start saving money!

So isn’t it easy to put up a budget? Well that’s the fact but implementing it is the real challenge. You should look for help from your spouse or friends or relatives who can be part of your budget review and can monitor your performance. If you can’t manage yourself well, then let others help you manage your financial actions.

For those computer-savvy readers, I am sharing some resources here:

• Simple Budget Tricks
• Personal Money Management System

 Jay Author

Tags: budgeting, budgeting secrets, budgeting tips, how to creat your budget, peronal money management