Money Matters

One of the big buzz words these days is BUDGET. For most of us, money is tight. What money we do have needs to go even farther. That may mean establishing or updating a budget. Here are some tips to get you started designing this tool to help you plan, prioritize, and manage your income and expenses.
To create a budget, you must
- Write down your monthly take-home pay. If you are out of work, write down your unemployment compensation. List income you receive from any source, including a part-time job, tax refunds, gifts, child support, etc. Add the sources to determine your actual income for that month. Keep in mind that some of the amounts may fluctuate.
- List how much you deposit in savings each month from your take-home income, even if it’s only a small amount.
- List your fixed monthly expenses . These are the predictable, set amounts for the must-have items and services that you pay for each month. These include rent or mortgage, car payment, and telephone, cable, or Internet access.
- List your variable expenses. These expenses are the amounts that change, as well as the expenses you pay weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or every year like groceries, clothing, haircuts, property taxes, auto and homeowners insurance, and gas and electric.
- List estimates for once-in-a-while expenses such as birthday and wedding gifts, or holiday gifts and entertainment.
- Total your fixed and variable expenses and divide by 12 to get a monthly estimate.
- If after paying your bills and putting money in savings, you still have funds, you can carry over the balance for the next month or use it for unexpected expenses. If the month’s balance is negative, look for ways to cut back on the variable expenses.
We have a great budget guide to use for this project. Good luck!