How to Make a Reasonable Budget
- 1). Sit down and write out a list of your monthly bills. You want to know exactly where your monthly income is going. List the bill, how much it is, as well as what time of the month it is due. This will give you the minimum amount of what you are looking at going out each month. Do not include living expenses such as gas and groceries, you can look at that later in your budget.
- 2). Add up the total income of your household. You want to also know what kind of money is coming into the household each month. If you make an hourly wage, figure your wage based off of the average hours worked per pay period. Do make sure you are accounting for all income such as child support and paychecks.
- 3). Compare the two incomes to see what you come ahead with extra. If you do not come ahead, you will want to consider additional sources of income, such as a second job. If that is not feasible, you will have to look at what bills you can cut, such as cable TV. You can also seek out county or state help to see if you can qualify for some assistance.
- 4). Decide where you extra leftover money is going. The majority of leftover income will probably go to living expenses, such as gas and groceries. Figure and average you spend a month on these types of expenses and see if there is anyway you can cut from here. Make a list of everything you spend money on in a month, even things like lunch money for children.
- 5). Plan where any extra income is going. There is several ways you can wisely put this money so you do not waste it. First of all, you can open a savings account so you will have it in case of an emergency. Another option is to invest you extra money. Even if you have extra money now, you may not have it for instance around the holidays when you are spending extra money on gifts.
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