Who here has a spending problem? More importantly who likes having money to spend?
Most of us would probably say that we don’t have enough money, but really we just don’t take the time to budget. Dave Ramsey said, “We need to start telling our money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” The budget that I find to be the most practical is a zero-based balance budget. This is just a fancy way of saying that every penny will be spent or put into savings and the end balance will be zero. I like to use Excel to so that figuring out how much I spent is easy and quick.
Step 1: Figure out how much money you make and delegate it to a category
-Notice how the end total is zero. If you have anything else then you are not telling your money where to go and it will leave you.
-How much you start out with depends on how much you make and the amount of times you make up a budget is based on how often you get paid.
-It is important to prioritize. Would you rather eat or have nails that could cut an envelope? Think carefully.
-Don’t forget to put some money towards paying existing debt.
Example:
Step 2: Keep up with your spending
-The nice thing about Excel is it does the math for you. Under each category, list the amount of money you spend. For example, if I go to Walmart and spend $50 on groceries, $10 on clothes, and $15 on pet food, then I take $50 away from food, $10 away from clothes, and $15 from pets. Then you can see how much you have left to spend.
A zero-based budget is one of the most basic ways to make a simple budget and keep up with it. With just two easy steps everyone can keep up with their spending and save money!
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