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The “budget” in budget planner has a very scary ring to it. Scary, maybe, but in no way should it be. While it is true that preparing your budget is going to take a little bit of preparation time you can easily make a budget that is going to work for you.

By following some of the advice below you’ll be able to get your budget and be well on your way sooner and a lot easier than you thought you could be.

Building Your Budget

You’re going to want to use your budget with your net pay. It gives you that real figure where your gross is going to be really misleading if you try to use that for your budget. Add to that the fact that it’s easier to use net pay it makes it definitely the less complicated and better way to go.

If you already have some deductions taken out for a 401k or a retirement plan then you can move onto the next step. If you don’t you need to make a consideration of how much your remaining net you could afford to put into a 401k or a retirement plan. It’s recommended that you put in 10% of your paycheck but if you can’t something is better than nothing. Also the thing to consider is most all of these types of plans will come out pre-tax so you’ll have a little more left than the amount you deduct to put in.

Adding the Bills

Now you’ll need to go through adding up all your bills and the spending that you have every month and list out separately each of your bills and that bills amount. If it is a bill that has some variance each month just put the average amount that you’re paying each month. Make sure that you’re including the expenses that you have that are regularly occurring like dining out and groceries, etc…

Determine Cutbacks

Take a look at any of the things that you don’t really need that you can cut out completely or at least modify to free up some possibly much needed money. For instance can you cut back on the cable a little bit or drop the plan on the cell phone.

Total Out and Final Thoughts

Now that you’ve went over everything add everything up and then subtract your total from your net pay and then see what’s left. Anything that is left you should put into an emergency fund and maybe take a little of it to have a little fun with if you wish. It’s those unexpected things though that can throw off a budget so quickly so having some money set aside is one of the best things that you can do to protect yourself and your budget should something like that come up.