How do I create a budget?

If you are following the posts, you are currently tracking your income and expenses.

The information from that exercise will be used to create your budget.

For those who want to jump ahead and start a budget now using what they learned in the brainstorming sessions on income and expenses, let’s get started.

For those who feel they aren’t ready yet for budgets then you can wait until July when we review what you find in your tracking income and expenses exercise.

To get started on budgeting, I would recommend a lined 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and label the top Income and leave 6-8 lines blank and label the next line Expenses.

Under income list where you get your money and under expenses list all expenses. You can also get budget forms online or printed forms at department or stationery stores.

The form doesn’t have to be fancy. You list income at the top and expenses underneath so you can subtract the expenses from income and show a result at the bottom of each column. The goal is for that number to be positive so it can be invested.

Across the top, you put the dates that column of the budget belongs to. See a sample joint budget below.

You can use this one as a starting point and modify for your situation.

I believe in you!