The basics of budgeting

Creating a plan for a healthy financial future

Do you know where your income goes each month?  How much do you spend on coffee or eating out?  How much are you saving each month?  If you can’t answer these questions, it’s time you consider creating and following a spending budget.

Living paycheck to paycheck is frustrating and can often end in debt.  And nobody wants to be in debt.  In order to reach your financial dreams and goals, it is important to have a current budget.  Though it may seem tedious, it can help you stay out of or get out of debt.  A budget can also help you save and make some spending cuts in certain areas.

Many people get into debt trouble because they don’t know where their money goes.  For example, let’s say you spend $3.00 on coffee everyday.  That adds up to $90.00 a month.  Over the course of a year, your daily coffee would set you back $1095.00.  If you had saved this money by taking coffee from home, you’d have a nice chunk of money in your savings.  Budgeting will show you ways to cut some of your current expenses to help you meet your savings goals.

Knowing how much you're spending will help you avoid overdraft fees and help you keep your spending reasonable.

Download our Adobe file budget worksheet and create your own budget today.

If you’re not sure how much you should be spending, check out our budget guidelines for some general rules on spending.

Tiny tips for balancing your budget (and your checkbook)
Balancing your budget and checkbook can be time consuming, but here are a few seemingly small things can help save time. When writing checks or recording entries in your check register, print or write neatly and use dark blue or black ball point pen. (Avoid gel pens, light colored inks or pencil which are hard to read or fade.) You may also want to get duplicate (carbon-copy) checks so you will immediately have a record of each check you write as soon as you write it. If you are writing a check to pay on an account that has a number, include the account number to be paid in the “Memo” area of your check.