Budgeting Made Easy
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There is no one that will argue that having a budget and following it isn't a very good thing. Good personal financial health is most easily achieved by having a realistic budget and sticking to it. There are other articles available on this site about how to establish a realistic budget if you need help on that front.
People know that budgets are important, yet many people have a hard time sticking to one and even more find it hard to sit down and set one in the first place. The biggest reasons for this are uncertainty of how to get started and difficulty of keeping track of your budget. This doesn't have to be the case.
If you are reasonably skilled at using a computer there are literally dozens of different programs and resource available to help you in your budgeting. Visit a computer store and ask them what their most popular personal finance software is, read magazine articles, watch finance experts on TV or look at online merchants websites to see what they recommend. Find a software program which is easy to use and suits your needs. The programs are quite reasonably priced.
Once you have a program installed and you have learned how to use it, budgeting will be a breeze. The program will help you set up a budget, track your expenditures and tell you how you are doing each month. It can even give you your information in graphical form if that makes it easy for you. It will take you very little time each month and help you tremendously.
If you don't have a computer or the skills to use one, you can still effectively and easily use a budget. Chances are that your expenditures aren't incredibly complicated (you are just one person or a family, not a major corporation), so you can keep track of them without fancy software. The simplest and easiest way to do this is with a notebook. Buy a plain, lined notebook at the stationary store. Write Budget on the front of it in big letters. On the first page write down the budget you have set up. Have a separate page for each month. Use that page to record your income for that month and all the money you spend that month, too. At the end of the month (and even at times during the month to see where you are at) add up what you have spent to see how you are doing.
Budgeting doesn't have to be complicated and you will be surprised how helpful it will be for you.
Posted by jonathan on October 26, 2005 at 07:45 PM