Happy New Years!!! Another year is about to begin.
It's highly recommended to track the expenditures for the upcoming year to help achieve our goals, both business and personal. One of the best ways to track expenditures is to create a budget and plan of attack.
Tracking your spending isn't quite as hard as you think. A pencil and notebook will do the job, however, if you want more details, you can use software such as Money or Quicken. Or you can list your expenses using http://www.budgetworksheets.org/worksheet/family. This way you can see where the bulk of your money is going. Learn how to create and maintain a personal or family budget and use spending guidelines to help you find the right plan for you and for your family.
1. Getting Started:
Start by listing your fixed costs:
- Mortgage payment or rent
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Car payment and operating costs, including gas, oil changes and scheduled maintenance.
- Food, including what you spend to eat out.
- Clothing for you, you partner, and the kids.
Take a little off the top each month for savings - think about setting up an automatic transfer from your paycheck.
2. How to Save
It's highly recommended to track the expenditures for the upcoming year to help achieve our goals, both business and personal. One of the best ways to track expenditures is to create a budget and plan of attack.
Tracking your spending isn't quite as hard as you think. A pencil and notebook will do the job, however, if you want more details, you can use software such as Money or Quicken. Or you can list your expenses using http://www.budgetworksheets.org/worksheet/family. This way you can see where the bulk of your money is going. Learn how to create and maintain a personal or family budget and use spending guidelines to help you find the right plan for you and for your family.
1. Getting Started:
Start by listing your fixed costs:
- Mortgage payment or rent
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Car payment and operating costs, including gas, oil changes and scheduled maintenance.
- Food, including what you spend to eat out.
- Clothing for you, you partner, and the kids.
Take a little off the top each month for savings - think about setting up an automatic transfer from your paycheck.
2. How to Save
- The biggest area we can cut back on in our home budget is usually spending too much on food, especially restaurant meals. Make restaurant trips an occasional treat - not a substitute for preparing a meal at home.
- Install a programmable thermostat that flips the heat on each morning, backs off during the day when you're at work, drops it to 55 degrees or so overnight.
- In the summer, turn off the air conditioning when you're away.
- Grab store coupons at the mall for mundane things you plan to buy. Many Internet sites now offer printable coupons.
- Renting DVDs is cheaper than trekking to the cinemas. It is possible to buy your favorite movie on DVD for less than the price of two theater tickets.
3. Remember to include emergency and long term savings as an expense item in your budget. Putting money aside for an emergency fund for potential major expenses that may come such as losing a job, replacing as hot water heater or needing a new roof on your house.
Drafting a family budget is the easy part, sticking to it takes work. But if you track all your expenses within the framework of a realistic budget, you'll be able to manage your money and won't be living paycheck to paycheck. If you manage to save a significant amount of money, who knows you'll be able to go to that dream vacation you've been thinking of for a long time. All we need is a little discipline and we can make it work! Please see http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson2/index.htm for a more in-depth discussion on how to make an effective financial budget. Once you read these articles and follow the tips, it's a guarantee that you'll be a smart spender with some savings to spare.
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