Household Budgeting: How to Make a Budget

Household budgeting can help you manage your financial affairs. How do you make a good budget that you can follow and keep up with? Read our tips. Or, if you want to manage your money without budgeting, read our article on how to NOT make a budget.

Tips on budgeting: how do you make a budget?

A budget is a document that lists what your income is every month, and on what you spend your money each month (see the example budget below).

Once you have your budget ready, you can use it to balance your personal finances.

There are many books you can buy on household budgeting, but we recommend: it is simple, so keep it simple.

1. First, at the top of the page write down what you bring home each month.
2. Then, write down everything you spend money on each month. Most people remember their rent payment, but often forget the newspaper they buy on their way to work each morning. We recommend that you carry a small notepad with you every day, and write down everything you spend money on, including newspapers, lunch, magazines, and your morning coffee. By doing it you will have a complete list of all of your expenses, which will make it easier to create your budget.
3. Once you have your budget in writing, make it work for you by either cutting down your expenses or by increasing your income. Our Personal Finance & Budgeting: Tips on Budgeting page addresses this subject in greater detail.

Download a free budget template

To download a free sample budget, please right click on the image below and save the file to disk. Then open the file in MS Excel 4.0 or higher.

You can then change the budget template to suit your situation by adding/removing income and expense items as needed.

You can also prepare your budget on-line! Get a free, one-month trial of Calendar Budget now!

For more ideas on how to improve your household budgeting, and for more tips on budgeting, please visit our Tips on Saving Money section.

Or, for a totally different approach to budgeting, read our article on how to NOT make a budget. It's simple, and it works!