The Beginning to the budget

           Lets start this thing off with a bang.  First you need to sit down and really come to terms with how much money you have going out and how much money you have coming in.  I first started by making an excel spreadsheet to make it easier for me to track it.  But if you are not good with that sort of thing than use paper and pencil.  First I wrote down in the first column how much my monthly income was.  For example I made about $2500 a month and my wife made about $3000 a month, so together we made $5500 a month.  This is about the normal amount most Americans make a month, some less, some more, but the budget will work either way.

         Once you write down how much money you have coming in then its time to see how much is going out.  Put all expenses, for example: Cable, water, rent, car payment, credit card payment, student loans, etc.  When you have this then compare the 2.  If you have more money coming in then going out then you are in a good place.  But don't forget about other things that are apart of our everyday life such as gas, food, clothing and misc stuff.  The first time I added these numbers up I about had a heart attack. Well you need to make those things an expense, money that is still going out.  

         If you don't bring in more money than you put out every month then you need to change some things.  There is odd things that I was subscribe to, like magazines, credit checks, game subscriptions, shooting range memberships, etc.  Well those are the first to go if you need to get yourself back to more income than out going.

          To budget for gas, and groceries you need to  first look at you bank history and take the medium of what you usually spend each month on each.  I started with $200 of gas and $500 on groceries since I had to feed a family of 4 and we didn't drive much or far.  

        This is a good start to figure out what you have coming in and what you have going out.  Remember to you exact numbers to the cent and don't over look anything, no matter how small.

         In the next blog i will go over how to take this budget to the next level and modify it to fit your lifestyle.