Create a Budget and Stick To It

Having a budget makes all of the difference when taking control over your finances. We all claim to be "on a budget", but have we taken the time to actually sit down and create one? Furthermore, once we have a written budget, we often fail to stick to it. I want to encourage you to create a budget and track your expenses for 30 days. Like any good habit, it will take work and determination to see it through, but at the end of the 30 days, your finances will be in much better shape!

My husband and I sat down a few months ago and created our budget. We downloaded an excel template from Microsoft and went to work. Believe me, there were many other things we would have rather done with our time, but this was necessary to get us back on track. We had goals for our future, but no extra money to accomplish them. After our session, we had a clear view of how we could set aside money every month. Now we spend about five minutes a day thinking about our budget and plan. This is worth the hundreds of dollars we have saved since.

I will share with you how we set up our budget and how we stuck to it.

1. Create a ModernDebtRelief.com account. It's free and easy to join.

2. Download the budget sheet from the tools tab of ModernDebtRelief.com's member menu.

3. Open the budget sheet in Miscrosoft Office Excel.

4. Fill out the actual cost for your expenses first.

5. Look at the actual balance and decide how you will raise that amount. That is how much you will have left at the end of the month after all of your bills are paid.

6. Click the 'Action Items' tab on the bottom of the sheet.

7. Write down the steps you can take to lower your bills (e.g. consolidate your phone, cable, and internet bills for a lower monthly payment)

8. Click the 'Monthly Budget' tab on the bottom of the sheet.

9. Fill in the projected costs with the new amount of your expenses will be once you implement the action items.

The 'Total Savings' reflected in red will show how much you save with your projected changes.

10. Spend the next day or two implementing the one-time-only actions on your list (e.g. switching your cable plan) I recommend that you add your actions to your short term goal list on ModernDebtRelief.com and remove them when you have completed the action.

11. Don't remove the daily tasks that you have assigned yourself (e.g. cutting down your eating out budget)from your short term goals list. It is beneficial to see your goals daily to keep you on track.

12. Keep your goals with you and track your spending in the different categories. The way that we keep track of our spending is with our cell phones. Nearly everyone has one these days and it is an easy way to keep notes. Write Your goals in the notepad of your phone and edit it as the month goes along. You spend $10 eating out. Note it, and deduct it from your monthly limit.

Do this for 30 days and watch the savings pile up. Use it to pay off debt or achieve other goals. Afterall, that is what we are here for. Let me know how it works out.