Budget Planner: How To Set One Up & Stay Organized Forever

Everyone wants to be debt-free. To stay happy and not to spend above your budget you need to have a budget planner in place. Using a budgeting-planner will aid you in getting more control over your finances.

Many people still wonder how to budget money. After reading this post you will get a fair idea about how to make a budget and how can you use a budget planner. There are also a few budgeting tips mentioned.

Using a budget planner will definitely make it easier for you to calculate your budgets and your life will be simplified. You can also make a printable budget planner.

The budget planner is extremely useful in family budgeting. You can make a month – by- month budget by filling in all your expenses in the budget planner. Making a budget plan worksheet is the first step towards budgeting.

Where to start with your budget planner

Let’s face it, starting a budget is overwhelming. So knowing where to start putting your budget planner together is important.  There are a few things you want to consider when putting your budget together that we’ll get into more detail later.  They are:

• Calculating expenses
• Unexpected expenses
• Prioritizing your expenses
• Budgeting your expenses

To make that happen you need a budget planner that works for you.  I’ve put together a free mini-budget planner that will do just that.  You can click the image below to grab that.

How to set up a budget planner

Calculate expenses:

It is important to find out how much you spend each month. You can do this by referring to your bank statement, financial files, and receipts. Expenses like insurance payments are intermittent and you will get a clear and accurate picture only if you compute an average for about six months to twelve months. Sum up all that you have spent in the last six to twelve months and divide the total by the number of months. The obtained value is your average monthly expenses.

It is paramount to add each and every expense to get a budget that is realistic. Even if you forget a single bill the savings plan which is made will not be practical. If you are under debt, you should calculate the debt load that you have. Keep a track on the process of debt reduction and each month, make a note of your new debt number and how much has been paid off.

Unexpected expenses:

It is essential for you to include an exigency fund while calculating the monthly budget. This can be done by adding an extra 10% to 15% to your monthly budget. This is one of the top ways to stay away from debt. You should make sure that this extra money is added every month. This money can be used for any unexpected expense such as unintended car repairs.

Expense prioritizing:

If you are in a financial crisis or if you have an income that is irregular, you might not be able to pay all the bills at once. In such a situation you need to prioritize your expenses and decide which bill to be paid first and which ones can be paid later. If you have planned this in advance, you can use the limited money you have in the most effective way.

Meal plan:

If you have a weekly meal plan you can save a lot of money. Make a weekly meal plan to save stress and time, you will order food or eat out rarely and the groceries will be low-priced. You can do this using a budget planner.

Budget every month:

This is useful for family budgeting as well as if you are single.

There is an easy way to do this:

• Write your income in the budget planner.
• Classify all of your expenses.
• From your income minus each expense
• Once you finish subtracting all the expenses, you should either have some money left or the final value should be a zero.
• Cut down on your expenses if you are overspending. This will keep you debt-free.

Progress tracking and bill scheduling:

When you are budgeting with the budget planner it is important to schedule your bills each month and also setting goals every month. If you have an intention to spend money as budgeted and get goals accordingly you will achieve it eventually. Tracking your progress monthly will help you have a control over your expenses.

Be realistic:

If you stick to your budget you will reach your goals (financial). It is fine to break your budget sporadically, but sticking to your budget most of the time will aid you to be debt-free and to save some extra money.

It is pivotal to learn how to set a budget which will make your life stress free. The easiest way to do it is by using a budget planner. By doing this you can stay organized and save time. Set up your budget planner once and you can have the lifelong financial success.

Click the image below to download the free mini-budget planner to help you create a budget that you can stick to.