Budgeting Again

I know it is already May 10th, but this morning I finished putting together a spreadsheet of my 2009 spending.  It has in it all of the money spent in all of the columns I had last year and adds it all up for each month and then adds those up to have a total of the year spending.  Thankfully the number didn't add up to what I make a year.  That means there was some savings!

Again, I want to say that a budget is not restricting.  Actually, your income is what should be restricting.  A budget shows where the boundaries are, thereby freeing you to know what you can and can not buy.  By budgeting, you know that you make this amount of money a month, and that is what you have to spend.  So you break down this money into different categories (groceries, gas, car payment, mortgage, ect.), subtracting from the amount of money that you have, until you are left with all the bills paid and (hopefully) a few dollars left over for things you would like to do or buy and something to put into your savings account.

I have made available the exact spreadsheet I use online.  It allows for columns of categories for bills and the like, and then rows to place an amount spent at each date.  Then it subtracts you budgeted amount from your budget total and you know exactly how much you have left over after you spent some.  It is only the 10th day in May.  You could easily start a budget today or tomorrow and be caught up.  If you get in the habit of putting what you spend into the budget, just like you should be doing in you check book register, you could be well on your way to knowing exactly where your money is going, and eventually be working your way to saving more of your money each month.



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