Are there any good resources or books out there for managing a basic home budget? I would love to get some learning tools on saving money and paying bills. Everything I find is way too complex.
Well it's really not that hard. Total income for the month minus constant and unchanging expenses (rent, bills, subscriptions etc) = money that you have left to spend on food, clothes, activities etc. Then how you spend that money is completely up to how you want to live your life.
I agree, a home budget is something really basic meaning that we can't spend more than what we earn, but the end of the month always teach us that. So be frugal in your spendings at the beginning of the month and spend at the end if you still have left.
As a worker with a tiny salary, my main goal is to spend less than I make. It's about the bottom line in budgeting, in my opinion
I would go to reddit.com/r/frugal to learn more about making your own budget. Helped me when I wanted to save up money.
I'd love it if you would visit my new blog at moneygal.ca. I made a video series on using Excel for making your budget, but even if you're not using Excel, there's some basic info on how to make and balance your budget, as well as tracking your cash flow against it. I'd appreciate your feedback regarding if they were helpful to you.
In econs 101, we learned about the differences between 'needs' and 'wants'. For example, you NEED a car, but you WANT a BMW. You NEED food, but you WANT steak. You NEED clothes, but you WANT jewelries to go with it. I guess my advice would be that, if you find yourself straining your budget a bit too much, take out a piece of paper and note how much you're spending on your needs and wants. Cut everything back to the basics, see how much money you have left after that, then start adding your 'wants'.
Yep, this is essentially what I do when crafting my monthly budget. I put all my necessities that I absolutely must pay every month (Rent, car payment, school loans,) in one column, needs but can be slightly flexible on (gas, food) and then my wants/fun things I want to do. This way, it allows me to allocate and plan ahead for any big purchase I want to buy and plan accordingly. Having a clear picture of all your expenses is probably the best advice when developing a budget.
Well, some more information would really help. What about budgeting do you find hard? Where to start? Are you trying to save money? If so, what have you tried? It's important to know how much money you spend a month, and where most of it goes. Then try to see if you can make changes towards that.
Thanks for all the advice. I do get the bills paid every month, but what I need to do is really budget the other things I spend money on so I can build my savings. That is the most important thing to me right now.
