Need help making a budget

**mikkismama** · 10-27-2006, 02:04 PM

I'm sure there is a post in here talking about how to make a budget from scratch, but I cant search for budget because that would obviously come up with too many hits.
Can someone please direct me to any resources or give me advice on where to begin, how much is a good amount to allot to each area, etc. I haven't made a budget in years and I really would like to make one and try to stick to it.

**Dedlered** · 10-27-2006, 02:19 PM

Mellie

There was a lot of good information posted here:

How do you set up a budget??

**Emjo** · 10-27-2006, 05:30 PM

Here's how we did up our budget:

1) We figured out exactly how much take home pay we had. DH is paid hourly so his pay varies from cheque to cheque, so we had to estimate. If you guys are paid hourly I would suggest figuring out an average work week without overtime; that way you're not relying on overtime for basic expenses. We also pay a 10% tithe on our income so we took that off before we started allocating money for other things.

2) We figured out our fixed expenses (things that are exactly the same each month); for us this is rent, my student loan payments, insurance and bank fees. We then subtracted that from our income.

3) We figured out our "semi-variable" expenses, as I call them; things that you have to pay every month but aren't always the same amount. We estimated how much these will cost; usually they are a few dollars under our estimates, sometimes a few dollars over. For us this includes phone and utilities. We also include gas in this category, although many people don't. We then subtracted this from our total.

4) Now we had a $ figure for how much we could spend on variable expenses; for us this includes food, baby stuff, entertainment, clothing, debt repayment etc. (Many people put gas in this category, but we don't as DH uses his car to drive from job site to job site so gas is an essential expense for us.) We decided out of this set $ figure how much would go towards each expense.

For us to make our budget work we found it was ESSENTIAL that all variable expenses be paid for in cash; keep receipts and adding it up later was a recipe for disaster! Every week I take out cash and separate it into different jars. We can borrow from other jars if we run out, but we can't take out anymore cash. We save up our extra at the end of the week for things like clothes, hair cuts, gifts and car maintenance.

Hope that helps...I know this way doesn't work for everyone but it's one idea!

**mikkismama** · 10-28-2006, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Emjo

For us to make our budget work we found it was ESSENTIAL that all variable expenses be paid for in cash; keep receipts and adding it up later was a recipe for disaster! Every week I take out cash and separate it into different jars. We can borrow from other jars if we run out, but we can't take out anymore cash. We save up our extra at the end of the week for things like clothes, hair cuts, gifts and car maintenance.

Thats a great idea. We definitely need to do this. So far this month we racked up about 100 just in overdraft fees because we werent communicating and keeping track of all the little things we bought.

**pammy** · 10-28-2006, 01:18 PM

There's lots of different ways to budget out there. When you find one that will work for you don't get too discouraged if it doesn't go smoothly right away. Expect a few months of tweaking.

We get paid every other week and our bills come in scattered throughout the month. It took a bit, but found something that worked for us. Click here. Might not work for everyone, just as everyone's budget may not work for you.

Best of luck, cause I know how hard getting a budget running smoothly. The good part about it, though, was when we finally got it going good it was like we got a raise! We found money we didn't realize we had when we got on a budget. Best of luck!!!

**stoneking78** · 10-29-2006, 10:28 AM

Pammy, I really like your budget plans seems easy to follow and that it works well for you. We always buget however we never do the $0 budget. I am trying to get dh on to this. I think that next payday we will start. I will start gathering information about how much we should put in each envelope.

**sheidi** · 10-29-2006, 02:58 PM

millie - you have such a lovely family!

i agree with the zero budget. i am still working on my budget (as pammy said, it takes time and tweaking!) but you can look at the resources on here as above, and go to the www.spam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typedspam! It is better fried than typed.com site, the one about dave ramsey's plan. they will help you with the nitty gritty of setting it all up as well as recommend ways to cut your budget and save.

good luck!