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I have several credit cards, rent, a loan payment, etc. – it seems that I am always short at the end of the month when most of my payments are due. How do I set-up a weekly budget that will stop this problem and allow for other expenses such as food and gas?

I have read Crown Financial (above poster: www.crown.org) but I use Dave Ramsey’s budget. His is to the dollar which helps me. His budget forms are on his website and he explains how to use them. (http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/?FuseAction=dspContent&intContentID=135 you will want the Monthly Cash Flow Planning Forms).

Either site Crown or Ramsey will send you in the right direction. Both have the same philosophy, get out of debt, use cash and have financial peace!

This film features Jeanette, who is already enjoying the benefits of a personal budget. For more information about personal budgets, please contact 0344 800 8014.

Duration : 0:2:44

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Technorati Tags: personal budgets, self directed support

i need help on my budget at my job i make like $730 hr i still live at home with my mom. how can i make a Personal Budget on clothes, cell phone bills , going to the hairstyles, and save money on a car, dinner out with friends, i help my mom with the rent i pay her like $50 so and anyone help me!!

You need a goal. What are you hoping to attain? A car?, a house? money for an apartment? an operation? a horse? etc.
If you are trying to budget, that tells me you probably spend more than you make. You have to get in the mind set that that stops right now.

Next you will need to project your future expenses. Start by writing down everything you KNOW, and how much it costs each week. Then you have to add a category for "future" and assign a number to it.
For example: you spent $400 on clothes (for the year), $19 for haircut every month x 12= yearly expense, cell phone is 45 a month x 12= yearly expense, dinner out 50.x 12= , rent x 52 weeks per year = ,
"future car" $50 week x 52= grand total. Divide grand total by 52 weeks a year to arrive at your weekly expenses needed to just break even. Then $7.50 an hour x how many hours you work a week = how much you actually make.
If you make more money than you actually spend, then great! If you don’t, then you have 2 choices here. You can work more hours, and make more money OR you can cutback on unnecessary expenses.

Just be honest with yourself when cutting back. For example: did you really need to buy that pair of shoes when you already own 5 pairs? Did you need to go out with your friends and buy dinner for all of them (your treat) ? Do you really need to have a cell phone? etc….
I applaud you for trying to budget now. I have seen too many people get out of control with their spending, and get a credit card (huge mistake!), and act like the money is free. You should only have what you can afford. That’s the best rule to live by. And the other one is, don’t expect your Mom to keep buying stuff for you, you need to be doing this for yourself.
A great way to keep track of your spending is to actually write it all down in a notebook, and add it up every week. It is an eye opener for a lot of people. They are in denial as to how much they are actually spending…and they wonder why they are in debt.
And even worse, they spend their parents money too, and then the parents suffer, while the kids have everything.
Good luck with your budget, you can do it.

It seems nearly impossible to pay off old credit card debt and save money. Are there any good budgets/formula’s in order to pay off debt, stay debt free, and still save some money to travel or buy a house? My first plan of winning the lottery is not working out so well…
Thanks!

This worked for me when I first started out on a budget- maybe it’ll click with you, too:

1.) Figure out how much money you need to cover mandatory expenses. (Rent, electric bills, basic groceries, credit card minimum monthly payments, etc.) Keep this much money in your checking account each month.

2.) Look at the amount of money you have coming in that is in addition to your mandatory expenses. This will combine to be your savings money, your pay-off-that-credit-card-debt money, and your fun money. Maybe your amount is $600- you could put $200 in each category.

3.) Pay yourself first- I would set up both a short-term emergency fund, and a permanent retirement savings fund. Even if you think you have too much debt to save for retirement right now, I think it is very important to begin, at whatever level! If your employer offers a 401(k) with a match, enroll, even if it is only at 1%! Once you see how easy 1% is, you will be motivated to bump it up until the next thing you know, you’re saving 10% of your paycheck, which is a great goal.

You should also have an emergency fund so that the next time the car breaks down, you don’t have to put it on the credit card. Choose a high-yield savings account. I do mine online through ING Direct- you get 4.5% interest at the moment, and it’s really easy to set up automatic deposits from your checking account. Even if you can only do $30 a month, you will still have $360 at the end of the year. If you can do more, fantastic! This emergency fund can double as your home buying fund, or fund for whatever other short-term financial goals you have.

4.) Now, to pay down the credit card debt. If you have multiple cards, look at the statements and see which one is charging you the highest interest rate. That is the one you want to focus on paying down first. Of course you will need to make the minimum payment on all of them to protect your credit score, but whatever amount you can pay above the minimums, put towards the one with the highest rate. You’ve got to do this- it will take years and years to pay them off if you only pay the minimum!

5.) About those credit cards- put them in a big Ziploc bag, and fill it with water. Now, shove the whole bag in your freezer. This way, if you have a genuine emergency, you have your cards, but it will be a lot harder to make any impulse buys.

6.) Whatever amount you designated for fun money, take it out in cash. If you are going to buy something you want, as opposed to something you need, pay cash for it. If you have cash in your wallet, you can buy it. If you don’t, you can’t- it’s as simple as that. At the same time, if you have cash, you can buy it without feeling one bit guilty about it!

When I first started budgeting, I beat myself up so much over every single purchase, I was pretty miserable. This method finally allowed me to stick to a budget and feel happy about myself.

This film will give you more information about personal budgets and features inspirational stories from Norfolk
people already using the scheme. For more information about personal budgets, please contact 0344 800 8014.

Duration : 0:1:52

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Technorati Tags: personal budgets, self directed support

I am in college. I have housing covered. I make about $150/week at my job.

I have to pay for groceries, my cell phone, and anything else I might want.

Can you help me plan my budget?

First of all break down the dates of when you will get paid and how much money you will have for that month.
Then put aside lets say $65 out of your monthly expected income.
Next calculate how much you usually spend on groceries and how many times a month you buy them.
Depending on when you will need to spend the money on grocery’s and your bill is when you would deduct that much from each weekly pay.
For example if you got paid on the first of the month and you phone bill isn’t due until the end of the month then wait until you last weeks check to pay that.
Also I would recommend budgeting out money for gas and a small amount into savings for emergency’s.

As for spending money, I would wait until right before you next check to spend whatever you have left over or just go by how much you have left over after calculating out your weekly necessary bill pay.

Budgets aren’t fun and they aren’t sexy. They are, however, completely necessary. Cheryl Porier, AKA Miss Download, takes a look at BankTree Personal Finance and loves how easy, intuitive and relatively painless it can be to track money coming in and money going out. A Internet video by butterscotch.com.

Duration : 0:3:34

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This site literally has step by step instructions.

http://www.ehow.com/how_9701_create-simple-budget.html

I need to find software to help make and stick with a budget. What is the best out there?

I used Quicken and it’s great. Takes a little bit of time to set up if you have a lot of accounts (I had over 30 so it took me a while) but once it’s up and running, you can update it periodically and you can spit out any type of report. You can "what if’s" and a variety of analyses. There’s a free 30 day version to see if you like it. Just go to the Quicken site and you can download it for free.

Finding Totals and Over Under in this free series of personal finance video from our professional Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Expert: Tom Noah
Bio: Tom Noah has been a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) for over 27 years.
Filmmaker: Drew Noah

Duration : 0:3:5

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