Do you need help creating a monthly budget that works? Just follow the seven tips below and you will be well on your way to creating a working monthly budget.

Tip #1 – Know Where You Are – It is important to know where you are financially before you create a month budget. This process includes documenting all your income sources, what you think you spend on expenses each month, and listing all your creditors and the debt that is owed to them. By doing these three things you will get a better understanding of where your finances stand.

Tip #2 – Track you spending – Tracking your spending for 30 days before creating a budget will give you the concrete numbers of how much you spend in each expense category every month. Many people are surprised to see how all the little purchases at up at the end of the month. By knowing how much you typically spend in each expense category you can now plan those expenses for the next month in your budget.

Tip #3 – Plan for periodic expenses – When creating a monthly budget that actually works you will need to plan ahead for periodic expenses such as car insurance (if not paid monthly), yearly car registration, gift giving, school shopping, and insurance deductibles just to name a few. If you estimate these expenses for the year and then divide by 12 you will get an amount that you can save each month for these expenses.

Tip #4 – Allow for Savings – It is always a great idea to plan to save a certain amount of money each month. This can be the beginning of an emergency fund so when unexpected expenses come your way you don’t have to reach for your credit card. This is an important step to getting and keeping yourself out of debt.

Tip #5 – Write Needs/Wants on a Special Worksheet – As members of your family express certain needs and wants, it is helpful to record them on a needs and wants worksheet. This will help to spend money wisely as it becomes available instead of make impulse buys and forgetting what you really wanted or needed.

Tip #6 – Use the Right Worksheets – When creating a budget it is helpful to use the worksheets that will have all the information you need to make a working budget. These worksheets should include a way to track spending, your repayment of debt, a monthly financial report and a monthly budget worksheet. These worksheets will make it easy for you to see all the information you need to create a working budget and show you expense categories you can adjust to make a balanced budget.

Tip #7 – Allow Yourself Some Mad Money – The best tip you can have when creating a monthly budget is to allow some mad money for yourself and spouse in the budget. This is the number one reason most budgets fail and people do not continue using a monthly budget. The resentment of not being able to spend any money makes people frustrated and then they stop tracking their spending all together. If you allow yourself and your spouse even a small amount of money to be spent on anything you wish without having to confer with the other person, your budget will have a much better chance of being successful. If money is tight just allowing a very small amount will help keep the resentment at bay.

Fact: tracking your spending is essential to working your way to financial freedom. Everybody knows that your best defense against financial hardship is simply knowing how much money is coming in vs. how much is going out. You need to make sure you’re making more than you’re spending.

How?

Well- you can SPEND money to budget on programs like Quicken, Pearbudget, Mint, Mvelopes, or YNAB. Many can provide you with resourceful tools that will help you keep your finances in check; however, you actually have to spend more money to use them! Aren’t you creating a budget to save money?

Solution: Use microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheets to create a monthly budget for you!

Following are some of the advantages to making Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheets your official financial planner:

1. Costs Nothing – Microsoft Excel is a program that most of us own. And if you are one of the rare people that don’t have your own copy, don’t go out and buy it! You can easily do the exact same thing the an Excel spreadsheet will do with a Google Docs spreadsheet- and that’s for free! The fact is a spreadsheet’s capabilities can do virtually everything you need them to. Most of your fancy financial software programs will cost you hundreds of dollars in the long run. Seems a little funny that you’re going to spend your money on something that is going to save it. Be resourceful; use a spreadsheet.

2. Easy to Set up – Whether you’re using Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheet, you’re not going to have a hard time setting them up. In fact, if you’ll just learn a couple of quick formulas, you’ll easily be able to make your numbers automatically add up, multiply, subtract, and divide when and where you need them to.

3. Simple – In my experience using financial budgeting software, they just aren’t that simple! The first one I ever bought was Quicken, and I found that it did too much. All I needed was something that I could customize to build a budget that worked for me; Quicken complicated things to a point where I didn’t even want to use it. It was not user-friendly at all, and that’s what I needed when it came to a monthly personal budget. Pearbudget.com and Youneedabudget.com do a pretty good job to keep things simple and if you ever did decide to pay money for a monthly budget, that’s what I would recommend; however, using a free spreadsheet will save you the money period, and it’s just as simple to use.

4. Fully Customizable – Why not use a budgeting software that enables you to completely customize what you need?! Choose your own colors, categories, sizes, fonts, styles, and structures to fit what you need. After all, everybody is different and one standardized budgeting software isn’t going to work for all! Fit your budget to your needs.

In conclusion, my personal recommendation when it comes to organizing your money is either a Microsoft Excel budgeting spreadsheet or a Google Docs Spreadsheet. Don’t waste your money on buying budgeting software. You’re pocket book will thank you for choosing an alternative route- budgeting for free!

Are you in need of a personal budget? Well, join the crowd because many people today could use a little help in that area. Here are a few free personal budgeting tips that may be able to help you out.

Analyze Your Situation

The first and biggest thing you have to do when trying to create a personal budget is analyze your situation and be truthful about what your income and expenses really are. This may seem like a no brainer but many people that set out to create a budget for themselves fail before they even begin by not being one hundred percent honest with themselves. Some people may think that their smaller credit cards are not that big of a deal so they tend to leave smaller credit card payments out of their budget. This is a mistake. When creating a budget you want to make sure that each and every little expense has been accounted for.

Budget for Fun Events

A good budget will even have room for fun events. Some people don’t include fun things like going out to clubs in their budgets. This can lead to money missing at the end of the month. Guys, make sure you budget that trip to the driving range and ladies, don’t forget to include getting your nails done in your budget. It may sound a bit too strict but to become good at budgeting you have to keep track of your spending habits. Once this is done, you should be able to see areas where you can get better at spending your money.

Budget for the Unexpected

The biggest mistake that people make is not budgeting in miscellaneous cost. If your like most people, there is always going to be some sort of miscellaneous expense that shows up every month no matter how much you stick to your budget. There is always someone’s birthday or someone getting married or maybe just something that goes wrong with your car that you didn’t plan for. Make sure that you always plan for the unexpected.

Hopefully you enjoyed these free personal budgeting tips. Budgeting can be as easy or as hard as you make it. Just be sure to be honest with what your situation is and make sure to save room for unexpected events. You will be able to better track your spending habits and see where certain areas may be able to be improved.

We have all heard the saying “Pay Yourself First” when it comes to creating wealth and a budget. But more importantly than that is to allow for a little mad money for yourself and your spouse. The lack of a little fun money is the number one reason most budgets don’t work.

So, what is mad money and why is it so important when creating a budget. First of all, mad money is a certain amount of money that is set aside in the budget for yourself and your spouse. This money can be used by each party for whatever he or she chooses. For instance, if the budget does not allow for a month facial, the woman in the relationship could take her fun money and get a month facial if she so chooses.

If you don’t allow for a certain amount of mad money for you and your spouse soon resentment will start to set in. Each party will get very frustrated about having to stick to such a strict budget and not having any money for fun. Likewise, even if some money is allocated in the budget for fun, one of the partners may get tired of not being able to spend some money how he or she would like. This special money even allows you to save some money for a larger purchase you may want to make.

Even if money is extremely tight in your monthly budget, it is highly recommend to allow each spouse a small amount of mad money to help make the budget work. Everyone is more willing to save and track their spending if they are allowed a certain amount of mad money to spend how they wish.