Some banks have free savings programs you can enroll in, such as Bank of America’s "Keep the Change" program.Adjust the savings amount as necessary, or, better yet, adjust your spending if possible! Money you save can later be used to invest or you can save with some other purpose in mind, like buying a home, college tuition, vacations, or anything else.Don’t wait for there to be money left at the end of the month. We all are too familiar with arriving at the end of the month and having nothing left over. This is enough to make your savings grow fairly quickly while not so much that it will crimp other areas of your life. A great target is 10% of your paycheck.While not everyone can afford to save money on a regular basis, everyone should have it as a goal and do it if they possibly can. You may want to investigate this option if regularity is important to you. Some utility companies will allow you to pay average amounts all year, instead of having your bill fluctuate each month.Try to either round up or down to the nearest $10 for an average estimate on how much you spend for each item.Put in an estimate of your recurring bills (perhaps what you paid the previous year for that specific expense) but once the bill comes and you pay it, put the actual amount into your ledger. Some bills, such as your rent or mortgage, usually stay the same every month, while others are more variable (like utilities).Put in estimates as placeholders until the actual bills come. Installation payments, such as student loans and credit cards, also go in here. X Expert Source Samantha Gorelick, CFP®įinancial Planner Expert Interview. Some examples would be car payments, rent or mortgage, utilities (such as water, electricity, etc), and insurance (medical, dental, etc).
Put your biggest regular expenses into the spreadsheet or ledger.
If you are using software you will be able to add rows easily to fit all of your expenses in.
Utilities, such as electricity, gas, and water.Rent/Mortgage (make sure to include any insurance).Common categories include: X Research source This will help you when you go to input your expenses and when you want to look through them for a specific expenditure. Each entry should go into a category so you can easily see how much you spend on monthly and yearly bills, regular essentials, and discretionary costs. X Research sourceĬategorize your expenses. You can also use electronic budgeting software, such as, which will help you keep track of your spending.They will need to be customized for your specific needs but will be easier than starting from scratch. Many spreadsheet programs come with a built-in template for calculating a household budget.However, they are not free, so you will need to invest a little bit of money in order to use one of them. This type of program also has additional features that may come in handy for formulating budget, such as savings tools. Calculations in a simple accounting program, such as Quicken, are virtually automated, as they are made for this type of project.