A Basic Outline
The first thing you need is a skeleton to help guide you through the budgeting process. I really like Crown Financial Ministries website. 1. It's a Christian perspective on budgeting - so they talk about the responsibility to tithe and such. 2. They offer a lot of free downloads HERE. I recently revised our budget using the Family of Four (which actually includes a family of three) since we've found out we're expecting.
Putting in the Details
Now that you have a basic outline of what percentage should be in each area, you can plug in your own numbers to get a dollar amount that you should allocate to each area. You can - of course - make your own changes and adjustments. For instance, we don't really have debt so we use that money elsewhere.
Excel Excellence
The next step for me was making an Excel spreadsheet because, let's face it, I LOVE Excel. You can ask my boss. I start with what we should be spending in the first columns, and then I add a new column each month and put in what we actually spend. I do this by putting every receipt/bill/etc. into the spreadsheet. I utilize the comment function to make notes to myself (for instance when we pay car insurance bills I always put which car that bill is for so we know for later).
Here is a blacked-out version of our monthly budget GOALS. I then have this with each month added next to it where I input actual spending.
Adjusting for You!
Finally, after a few months of putting in what we actually spend, Brent and I sit down and adjust our numbers if we need to. It might show us we are spending too much money in one area or that we don't spend near what we thought in another area and can move it around accordingly.
There you go! Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions to your own budget. I'd love to help!
Budget away!
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