Budgets can be easy

36% of all Americans have absolutely no savings at all, and another 19% have less than $1,000 saved. Just 45% of all Americans have $1,000 or more in savings.

-NASDAQ

Budgeting is extremely important & it doesn’t have to be complicated. What complicates a budget is not following it.

Take a piece of paper, fold it in half the long way (hot dog) and on the left side of the crease make a list of your monthly expenses and how much they cost you monthly -down to the penny. Then add them up and write that total number at the bottom - this list should include everything from home/utility, groceries, pet food, monthly subscriptions, minimum payments due on loans or credit cards, cell phone bills, auto insurance, and gas.

Then on the right side of the crease, add up all your pay stubs for the previous month, don’t guess, round up or down or use approximate numbers; write down each pay stub amount and add them up and write the total number at the bottom.

Now, take your total from last month’s pay stubs and subtract your total monthly expenses. This will show you after all your monthly bills are paid how much money you have left. If you’re in the negative that means you’re living beyond your means and need to cancel some subscriptions or find another way to lower your monthly expenses.

If you’re in the positive you should allocate 10% of each paycheck (if you can) into a savings account. If you can’t allocate 10% find a fixed number like $100, $75, or $50 to put into savings each paycheck. If you put away $52/week for one year you will save $2,704.

A great thing you can try is planning ‘no spend days’. This is a fun way to stop yourself from spending and even forces you to plan a little bit. Pick random days of the month that you highlight on a calendar as a ‘no spend day’ - then on no spend days, be sure not to spend any money!

Remember, it only takes $27.39 of miscellaneous spending each day to blow through $10,000 in a year. So, if you’re someone who buys a coffee and breakfast every morning and you get takeout for lunch every day or maybe you always end up snagging a couple $5 items while standing in the checkout lane - just think of what that unplanned spending can do to your budget.