5 Easy Ways a Budget Will Save you Money and Reduce your Debts

Unless you step up to the challenge of controlling your finances, your debt level and your financial future, who else will? Preparing a budget is the ideal tool to get you started. It’s also really quite easy.

#1. A budget will show your current financial position.

Without a budget you are not able to clearly see the extent of your spending compared to your income. This is the most important role of your budget. It will show you whether you are living within your means or whether you are living on borrowed funds. It is also the tool that can show you where all your money is being spent. This allows you to answer important questions, such as “Am I wasting money on things I don’t really need?” “Is my credit card debt to blame for my predicament?” and “How much better off would I be if I could manage to be debt free?”

#2. A budget points you to the areas that need your attention.

There are reasons why you are in this worrying financial position. It could be that you are spending more than you earn, you are not paying off the credit cards quickly enough and are paying interest on the interest. Or it could be that you’re not saving for those inevitable emergencies and large financial bills that arise from time to time. The budget can provide answers that show you what is required to fix each situation.

#3. A budget helps you set goals to pay down the debt and save for emergencies.

A budget can help you calculate how much you need to put aside to save for emergencies and large unexpected bills. Is it the children’s education? Is it a holiday for the family or yourself? Is it to set some money aside for retirement? Or, is it to replace the car, furniture or washing machine? If you are spending all you earn and not saving any, you may be condemning yourself to lifelong poverty. Not a happy prospect.

#4. A budget shows whose money you are really spending.

The budget can show you how much of your spending is being funded by others. How much is being funded by the Credit Card provider or the bank. The cost of this funding is interest. The interest costs are most likely the reason you are in this situation, currently. It can clearly show how much you need to reduce your spending to live within your means

#5. A budget can keep you on track and motivated.

Once you have set up a budget it is no use putting it into the drawer and forgetting it ever existed. It is meant to be a living document that can help you often. It can keep you motivated to stick to your plan by tracking your progress towards the goal and seeing your savings rising and debt falling.

A budget is the key to getting your finances under control and the debt worry off your back. Preparing your own budget is very enlightening and offers you the chance of finally getting control of your financial future. Isn’t it worth a little effort? Don’t you deserve it?

Tags: budget, Debts, Easy, Money, Reduce, save, Ways

Easy Tips for Starting a Home Budget

A home budget is often considered a frustrating venture into the world of managing money. Getting into the habit of following a budget might seem like a chore, at first. This is especially difficult for people who are impulse buyers and free spenders. But using a budget can end up saving plenty of money, if you take the time to learn how to live with one!

The first step in setting up your home budget is to write down all your income and expenses. Try to include upcoming expenses or those that occur only once a year. By including them now, the bills won’t be a surprise and the money to pay them will be readily available. If you’re not sure how to set up a home budget, plenty of free forms and guidelines available online will help you get started.

Always include “fun” money in your budget. A budget isn’t there to restrict your spending or cut out all the entertainment. Rather, it helps you see at a glance where your money is going. It allows you to manage income and expenses far more effectively. You may also discover that what seems like small purchases add up to big money. This helps you curb costs and redirect money towards better expenditures.

To help you stay on track with your home budget in the first few weeks, stop carrying cash. It’s easy to pull out a twenty when something catches your eye. The less cash you carry, the harder it becomes to make that unnecessary purchase. Even a dollar here and a dollar there add up quickly. Before you know it, the cash you had is all gone.

If you prefer paying with cash over debit or credit cards, decide before you leave home how much you need. Only take that much and no more when you go shopping. You can’t spend what you don’t have!

Using a list is one of the best ways to stay on track with spending, especially in places like the grocery store. Training yourself to follow a list for purchases helps you eliminate impulse buys. Also, a list helps direct your course through the store. Wandering about is just what store owners want you to do, it increases spending and makes them more profitable.

Using a budget doesn’t mean you have to become a coupon-cutter, but coupons do add up to big savings in the end. Clearance stores and discounted items also lead to savings. That money could go towards a reward for yourself, like a trip or a night on the town. It’s important to remember to please yourself, even if you are on a budget. You just have to be careful with your spending and keep your eye on the prize!

Really, a home budget isn’t about tracking spending and income. It’s about self-control and sticking to a plan to achieve a result. A home budget helps retrain your thinking to avoid wasting money in light of other, better goals.

If you find sticking to your home budget difficult, use the buddy system. When faced with the urge to buy something, call your budget buddy. Ask the person if he or she agrees with your desire to purchase the item. They’ll help distract you from the craving to spend and help keep you on track. Even better, take the person shopping with you!

A new habit takes about two weeks before starting to settle into permanent behavior. Getting into the habit of sticking to your budget is worth the effort. Before long, you’ll be seeing a definite change in your spending and more money at the end of the month. You’ll have a good feeling about yourself, proud of what you’ve accomplished. You might even be amazed at how much money you’ve saved!

Tags: budget, Easy, Home, Starting, Tips

The Easy Way To Family Budgeting

For some, the idea of a budget is often a blur. It is frustrating to see how hard it is to do a budget and realizing that with one wrong purchase, you can actually ruin the entire thing. And this has been a perennial headache for most homemakers.

It is about time to overhaul the way people look at budgeting. It can actually be a great way to keep track of your family’s expenditures and help you evaluate the things that you spend the lion’s share of the family’s earnings on.

What is a budget? A budget is a tool for handling your finances by controlling the family’s expenditures in a way that money is enough for paying up bills, and still ensuring that savings are set aside for future expenses – vacations, or children’s education, or even for retirement.

Try these simple steps in preparing a no fret family budget, and see the benefits of intelligent spending.

1.Gather three months of your pay stubs and get your average monthly earnings.

2.Get out three months of your monthly bills. Do this for the fixed expenses like the rent, phone bill, car payments and other loans that come monthly. Add them up and get the average. Do the same for other expenses like groceries, and credit card bills.

3.Evaluate the results of your computations. Looking at your average monthly earnings against your monthly fixed expenses and other monthly expenses, think of some ways to economize. Cut back on some items that are somehow unnecessary.

4.Knowing the facts of your income and expenses, develop a family budget and try to stick to this monthly budget.

5.Now that you have a monthly budget, set up a savings account. Save up by making regular deposits to this account.

6.Keep track of this monthly family budget just to see if it is working for you. Try to fine-tune the “rough edges” of this budget as you go along.

7.If you can get hold of a personal budgeting software or spreadsheet application to keep record of your budget, the better. This will make organizing your expenses very easy.

These are the basic steps in developing and implementing a no fret, easy to stick to monthly family budget. Of course each family has diverse needs and wants.

You have the freedom to develop your own monthly family budget, depending on your family’s financial background and needs.

No matter how you do it, just focus on the end result, which is building a savings that leads to a bright and financially stable future for your family.

Tags: Budgeting, Easy, Family

Easy Personal Budget: How to Make One in 5 Minutes

Do you find yourself with not enough money to do the things you’d like to? Do you wonder exactly how much you spend on everything every month? You don’t need to be an accountant to figure it out. Follow this basic formula to find out how you spend, and how to help save by cutting unnecessary costs:

First, think about the things you can’t change. These are called “base cost”. You don’t need to turn your life upside down moving into a cheaper place, but at least get organized:

4 things to think about:
Rent & Utilities
Phone Bill
Car Insurance
Credit Card Minimum

These won’t change. If you’re living in a place that’s way beyond your means, that’s one thing, otherwise, move on.

Now come secondary costs. These things are necessary but can be rebudgeted:
Food
Gas
Entertainment (including drinking)
Clothing

Compare this number to your total income. What can you change?

Operating unde the assumption that you’re not binge drinking 5 nights a week, or you’re not buying a new wardrobe every day, FOOD is the number one thing wrecking your budget. Most people either entirely never cook, or cook rarely (putting a pizza in the oven doesn’t count). You might be surprised to hear that a coffee drink at starbucks and a fast food meal can equal a half week of groceries.

Here are some staples that can create a massive variety of dishes, and can cost around 50 cents per meal:

Eggs (Scrambled, over-easy, ((either on toast)), poached, fried, etc)
Beans (In sauce, or with veggies, you can easily make a vegetarian chili)
Pasta (Unlimited possibilities to combine with various sauces, veggies, meats)
Chicken (Fried, pan-sauteed, poached, baked, thousands of possibilities and marinades)
Rice (As many, if not more possibilities than pasta. This is a staple across the whole world but an afterthought here. Obviously there are thousands of ways to prepare it)
Bread (to be combined with the above, obviously you can go the spread route or pile on chicken or cold-cuts to be taken with you for lunch)

Also, make sure you save odds and ends. For example, grocery bags can be used as trash liners and to pick up dog crap. Look around you, there are a lot of opportunities with a little imagination.

Tags: budget, Easy, Minutes, Personal

How to become a crorepati? It’s easy

How to become a crorepati? It’s easy
Becoming a crorepati by saving and investing smartly is easier — but it requires discipline and patience — than waiting for Lady Luck to smile on you.

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The budget process in three easy steps

The budget process in three easy steps
President Barack Obama unveils his budget request on Monday, but the actual decisions about how the government raises and spends money are made on Capitol Hill. Here’s what happens next.

Read more on MSNBC

Tags: budget, Easy, process, Steps, three

(AFX UK Focus) 2010-01-31 13:15 FACTBOX-The U.S. budget process in three easy steps

(AFX UK Focus) 2010-01-31 13:15 FACTBOX-The U.S. budget process in three easy steps
(For more on the budget, click on) Jan 31 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama unveils his budget request on Monday, but the actual decisions about how the government raises and spends money are made on Capitol Hill in a process that usually lasts most of the year. Here’s how it works, in three easy steps:

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How to Make a Start on your Personal Budget in 6 Easy Steps

You’re a grown adult. Right? How is it then, that this most basic of tasks – the personal budget, has you cowering in the corner afraid of a bunch of papers? It’s only a pile of papers that you will knock into shape with a pen, a pad, a calculator and a little determination. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Easy Step #1. Get those documents into some order.

Go to the drawer, find all the latest credit card statements, the store card statements and the outstanding balance on that personal loan. Get all the bills, the correspondence and other notices and put them in a pile. Now go through each piece of paper and consign it to 1 of 3 piles. TRASH, BILLS, CORRESPONDENCE. Be an adult, get angry and just do it.

Easy Step #2. Categorize the BILLS (not house or car debt)

Go to the BILLS pile and separate the documents into household bills and credit cards/loans. The utilities, phone, local council rates and other regular bills need to be sorted as to their due dates and paid as best you can manage. You may have to forfeit some entertainment and some meals eaten out for a while – just accept it, until these are brought up to date and under control.

Easy Step #3. Work on the Credit Cards and Loans

The credit card and loans are treated a little differently since only a minimum payment is required and you have some degree of freedom with your payment amounts. Add up all the outstanding balances for credit cards and other loans. Once that is done, make a pact with yourself to pay down these amounts as quickly as possible both in terms of money and time frame.

Easy Step #4. Look at your income and spending.

Now that you have a handle on the household bills and the credit card/loans amounts, it’s time to compare your income and spending. This is where a pre-formatted simple spreadsheet can help (but not necessary if you haven’t used one before). Firstly, add up all forms of income (cash in) for a month – salary (less taxes), interest, other income. Secondly, list out all your expenditure (cash out) for the month.

You won’t have this data at hand, today, I know. Short of waiting a whole month to get really accurate data you could estimate your spending to your best ability. Don’t leave any thing out. Include the cigarettes, drinks, gambling, bought coffees, meals out, everything. Now minus your spending from your income and check out the balance.

Easy Step #5. Allocate the free balance to those unpaid bills and credit card/loan amounts.

Allocate the free balance to the bills and the credit card/loans repayments. If there is not enough free cash to pay them all as they fall due you have 3 options. Spend less, earn more or a combination of both. It’s that simple.

Easy Step #6. Commit to Spending Less – Live Within Your Means

You did not get into this mess overnight. Likewise you won’t be able to get out immediately – it will take a little time.

Review your spending items and work out ways to spend less. There are many resources available to help at your local library or on the ‘Net.

That’s it in a nutshell. Face up to the challenge, do the math, make the commitment. Looking back, you’ll be so thankful you made the effort.

Tags: budget, Easy, Personal, Start, Steps

FACTBOX-The U.S. budget process in three easy steps

FACTBOX-The U.S. budget process in three easy steps
Source: Reuters (For more on the budget, click on [ID:nN30164446]) Jan 31 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama unveils his budget request on Monday, but the actual decisions about how the government raises and spends …

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