Budgeting-Great Advice On Budgeting Worksheets, Personal Budgeting, And Budgeting Tips

panacea81 asked:

Hia, I took it upon myself whilst out and about to pick up some beauty products for my nails. When it hit me ” Everyone would like to know how to do MAC Antiquitease nails look on a low budget” and when I say low budget I mean low… at only £3.99 I found: Rimmel nail tip whitener & ASDA george nail pollish ~ golden sands… These products were just dying to be purchased for my little ANTIQUITEASE look experiment so here we go… Hope you guys like it PS I am going to say it again.. THANK …

Brooks Fayard

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.



By: Paul Hata

About the Author:

Alexander Metevelis

Joe S asked:


One of the tasks that managers at Greensboro Company have to complete during the budgeting process is to develop a contingency plan for their organization in case a downturn occurs in their business. This budgeting requirement is an example of:

A) budget coordination.
B) performance measurement.
C) planning.
D) taking corrective action.

Dave Edington

Mlle asked:


My husband and I are trying to establish and keep a reasonable budget each month and we are having a difficult time with our food budget.

We are very particular about the things we eat- we like to make homemade dishes and often use organic produce and fruit when available over conventional (increasing the cost of groceries to some extent). We rarely eat out. We do like to feed our friends a few times a month and that seems to be the most unpredictable- and sometimes the most expensive.

What is a reasonable food budget for us and our 4 year old? Is it a percentage of some other figure? Is it the average of a few months of recipets?

Maximo Froncillo

kd_lifer asked:


Anyone able to recommend good free household budgeting software. Ideally just something to track expenses, financial planning etc. Thanks for any replies.

Trevor Prosser

annie41378 asked:


my husband and i are re-doing our budget. is there a program we can download to help us plan and maintain our budget?

Sal Dardon

John G D asked:


I made over 100k last year and my wife blew threw it as quick as I made it…I worked over 500 hrs overtime! I need a budget that is practical. Does anyone know of a good book or ideas?

Carmela Knavel