by Diane Palmer

Created on: January 21, 2008

The word "Budget" usually leaves a bad taste in most people's mouths, because it conjures up feelings of restrictions, penniless, and not fun!

But it doesn't have to be that way.. The first thing you need to do, is find a few hours, when you will not be stressed or distracted. Find all your bills, receipts, and pay stubs.

Fixed Expenses:

Take a pad of paper, and figure out the fixed expenses. Those are the expenses, that you cannot change, such as the mortgage, car payments, property taxes etc.. Add these up, and work out how much of each pay needs to be dedicated to these expenses.

Savings/Emergency fund:

Next you need to allow for a savings plan, even if its just a little one. This can be counted as your "emergency fund". Try and take at least 5% for savings of your takehome pay 10% would be great, but any percent you can manage is a good start. Have it taken out every payday automatically at the bank and transferred to a savings account, and forget about it.

Work Expenses:

Now you need to work out how much it will cost you per week or per paycheck to go to work, this includes your gas, parking, tolls, coffee's, vending machines, treats etc.. write this down. If you are not sure, then take a week and a small pad of paper and write EVERYTHING down, even the newspaper.

Groceries:

We all need to eat, but we don't need to eat take-out everynight. With some careful planning you can make some great meals at home. Try and stay away from pre-packaged foods as much as possible, and you can cut your grocery spending down. Start with a set amount and if you just can't make it work, then take some from your work expenses, such as the coffee money etc. Also shop on the outside aisles first, this is the fresh foods, and try and make up some double sized meals, so you can freeze half for a busy day, this saves on pizza takeouts!.. and will probably help your waistline!

Entertainment:

We are all human, and need a little fun in our lives, you need to budget in some fun time, even if its just renting a moving, or going to a game on the weekend something, or you will not stick to this budget, you need some kind of reward.

In a perfect world, we would have a bunch of money left over after the bills, and book that exotic trip, but life doesn't always work like that.

Now if you find your money is dwindling, you will need to do some investigating into where your money goes exactly. Take a note pad and track how many latte's or coffee's or muffins or takeouts you are having on work days. It

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