How To Create A Woking Budget

Jeff works with a marketing company where he earns $5,000 every month, everyone thought he was damn rich because he lived beyond his means without a working budget.

One day Jeff thought about his financial life and couldn't account of were his hardly earned $5,000 plus bonuses was channeled into, he also discovered his credit cards debts was speedily increasing as he depends solely on it to solve his Emergencies and other Expenditure. His life was mainly a paycheck to paycheck one, and other of his colleagues were doing better than him as he sometimes borrowed from them to fuel his car and do some other things.

Now, were was his hard earned money going to? Oh! he was a fan of Starbucks, he took coffee everyday, he was too generous as he provided everything his wife and kids asked for, he couldn't control his impulse and didn't even try to, he didn't wanna buy stuff cheap, in fact he doesn't bargain, he was just overspending on things that isn't in any way necessary. That was Jeff for you!

However, Something terrific happened to Jeff that made him vow never to live his life without a budget, not just a budget but a working one for that matter, saving for emergencies, practicing frugality and more. And what exactly happened to Jeff for him to make such life changing decision?

The company were Jeff worked was shut down and seized to function, due to some downturns the management team had. So Jeff had no saving nor investment due to his unplanned lifestyle, he thought of what to do and how he could end his nightmare.

Along the line, Jeff's first son became ill and needed money to pay his medical bills, his car also broke down, he started experiencing several financial plights and more monetary issues arise speedily. He turned to his credit card but it couldn't help him this time as he was already drowning in debts, he was stranded and confused. He couldn't turn to his wife because she was just a stay at home mom who wasn't working because he didn't allowed her to work even when she requested. Jeff regretted and weep bitterly, he learnt it was best to make hay while the sun shines.

Then he wished for a second chance so he could amend his ways but do you think he would find luck? Maybe yes or no but he can't regain the wasted time and that alone have stop the speed of him attaining wealth and riches. So that goes in support of the popular saying "Few years from now, you will wish you started today or sooner".

So are you like Jeff that doesn't have a working budget? Spending money on things that isn't necessary? When are you planning to start budgeting? Are you waiting until you experience similar stuff like Jeff? Hell No, you shouldn't pray for such thing to happen to you! 😳

Why not start today? I mean here, now and with me! I know creating budget seems overwhelming if you're starting new, in fact most people don't stick to their budget even after creating, they just can't resist the impulse to overspend.

Today I will help you with a step by step guide to create your budget and stick to it, okay let me be real, I'm not a magician that can make you to stick to see your budget, I can actually help you create a good budget but I can't force you to stick to it, it's up too you, make that decision.. Though I have something for you that Worth's more than any magic and it's called "Knowing your why". That prompts me to introduce you to the first step of creating your budget!

1.Why Are You Creating Your Budget
This is one important question you should ask yourself when starting out With budgeting, You need to know your why!

Why do you need to know your why? It helps you stay motivated, when you feel like giving up after a little failure, you remember why you're budgeting and how important it's to you..

There are tons of reasons you might want to budget and they're all unique in their own way. Below I have listed some top reasons you might want to start budgeting, like Jeff who decided to budget after an awful experience...

Most people decide to budget because they want to:

•Save Money
•Get Out Of Debt Or Stop Getting Into Debts
•Relieve Theirself Of Financial Stress
•Manage Their Income Well
•Prepare For Emergencies
•Prevent Financial Crisis
•Build Their Way To Riches and the list could go on.

Whatever you WHY is, you should make sure it's something of great value and importance.

Now you've known your why, what's next?

2.Gather Your Financial Informations

After you've come up with a good reasons to start budgeting, you should then Gather all your financial informations, if you have savings account, investment account, checking account & any financial instruments, you should orginise them using any handy tool like pen and paper, smartphone, etc. In this you should record how much you have in each of these accounts plus their interest rate. This will help you make more sound financial decisions, determining your net worth and more!

After then what's next?

3.Know How Much You Earn.
The next step is to know how much you earn, including your allowances, extras from side hustles, bonuses and more. This is a lot easier if you have a fixed amount you're being paid, you can easily track your monthly income even if you're paid weekly or daily, as long as it's fixed, you can related to this!

But isn't for those their salary can rise and can fall unpredictably, It isn't that easy for those who their increases or decreases. The easiest way to go about this if you're an irregular income earner is to use your average recurring income for the past 3-6 months. If you want to be more conservative, you can decide to use your lowest income of these months or even earlier (it's your choice).

Now what's the next step?

4.Know How Much You Have.
This is different from how much you earn, this is usually when you've substitute all the mandatory charges like governmental fees, tax and other unavoidables.

In addition, this may include mortgage, students loan, debts, monthly payment, credit card debt, car loans and a fixed amount allocated to savings and/or investment.

Note- I'm not advising you clear all your debts, I'm referring to debts that's recurring monthly and those that leaves you with no option than paying them.

After you've deducted the necessary, the remains are the ones you can bodly call your own and can use to solve your needs and wants as the case may be.

For this, I recommend you have a separate list where you write down the unavoidable expenses, Use tools like Microsoft excel, or one of the following online budgeting tools like Mint, YNAB, Mvelopes and more. If possible put this expense on auto pilot, especially those allocated to savings or investment.. This helps you pay off even before cashing out your salary. So if you don't see the money, you won't be able to spend it!

Now what's next?

Create A List Of Your Reccuring Monthly Expenses
After you've known how much you can call your own on a monthly basis, the next step is to create a list of your recurring monthly expenses.

Track the things you spend on regularly, on a monthly basis, and put it down in your notebook, smartphone App or any handy material you could think of.

These may include Gas, Groceries, Health products, utilities, clothing and more.

If you don't keep track of your expenses, you can check your previous receipt (if there's any), bank statements and more. This maybe helpful in retrieving your previous expenses.

The idea is to know what you've been spending on regularly for previous month, if possible get list of things you spent on for the last 3-6 months and see the ones that is recurring, ask yourself if you'll be needing them next month.. This way you've tracked what you've been spending on; monthly.

Now,

Break Expenses Into 3 Categories
After you've successfully discovered what you've been regularly spending on monthly, the next step is to break those expenses into three categories. (Remember to use any tool like pen and paper or smartphone App).

Why this is necessary, this helps you stay organized, helps you know what is more important than the other, or what you've been blindly spending on that isn't necessary. The list could go on but I'm leaving you at this point.

Your Expenses should be broken into the following categories below:

•Fixed Expenses
Here, you should write down expenses that remains the same each month and are essential for our day to day life.

This may include , Internet, Car, Insurance and more!

It's unlikely you'll be able to cut off  any cent from these category, as almost everything are important. Or should I say everything here is important? Anyway you get the picture.

What's the next category you should create? The variable expenses.

•Variable Expenses
Here, you should write down the expenses that changes on a monthly basis.

This may include food items, clothing, eating out, gasoline, Entertainment and more.

There are few opportunities you'll be able to cut back some amount here maybe when there is decrease in price or you found something cheaper!

Now, create a category for discretionary.

•Discretionary.
This are things you spend on but are not necessary for your survival, it isn't a must when compared with stuff food or clothing. They may be for pleasure and fun!

This may include traveling, Tv Subscription, movies, and impulse spending.

These are areas you have huge opportunity to cut back from, as this area isn't crucial for survival, it just a matter of choice and decision.

If you read personal finance books, blog or listen to podcast on budgeting, you will find out that they recommend you break your expenses into two categories (fixed and variable),  I decided suggest 3 because it will easy to for you, especially if you're over spending and not managing money well.

Note: Stuff in these categories should be listed with the price of each, like I said; use any handy material to record this. But most preferred, use Microsoft Excel, or online tools like Mvelopes, YNAB, and Mint.

Now you should,

Tally Monthly Income And Expenses.

The next step after you've broken your expenses into categories that suits them properly is to tally your monthly income with your monthly expenses.

It's a good financial practice not to live beyond your means and spending less than you earn, if you don't follow this rules you'll be stuck in debts or leave a paycheck lifestyle.

If you're being paid weekly, no problem; just multiply your weekly salary by 4 ( 4 weeks of the month), then make necessary deduction, what's left is your monthly income.

Now, sum up all your monthly expenses and deduct it from your monthly income, If you have remains then that's great but if you have a negative sign, that's to say your expenses was more than your income then you need to really cut off some things you're spending on, a good place to start from is the discretionary category.

Note: The income I'm talking about is the remainder after making necessary deduction like Savings, Investment and more. I have talked about this above!

Now, Plan On How To Achieve Your Why And Get Started
Remember you have a reason why you decided to start budgeting, so you should make plans to achieve it. Some WHYs requires you saving a specific amount of money to accomplish while some doesn't (maybe your time).

Lets say your why is to save $1000 for your child's admission to secondary school, you should plan on how to achieve this WHY, How much will you be needing to save every month in order to achieve this WHY.

What you will be needing to save every month in order to achieve $1000/year goal is around $90 (not up to though), so when this is happening, you will be able to track your progress, if by 6months you've not reached around $500 then you're doing too good and would need to make adjustment in order to meet up with your WHY!

The best way to go about it is by auto saving the money for your WHY, you may want to use online automatic saving tools like Digit or manually setup to transfer a certain amount from your account to another that's specially for your WHY. Though I prefer the online saving because is saves time and also reduce stress of me going to a bank to create account and managing it.

If your why doesn't have a specific amount requirement, you can still save or invest, maybe you want to control your money, after you've successfully budgeted, the remaining should be used based on your decision, you may want to save/invest some or all or allocate some or all to your emergency funds. While doing this, you should set aside an amount for yourself to spend guilt freely, these helps controls your impulse to spend extraneously or feeling pinched on your budget.

Now what else should you do?

Make Adjustments To Your Budget...
As time goes on, you will want or need to make adjustments to your budget, this can be decided by you (may be after you've found something cheaper) or impulsed on you by nature (maybe when price increase or decrease).

There are tons of reasons why you may want to readjust your budget, maybe you lost interest in something you've been using and budgeting for. The reasons for this are endless.

Whatever your reason(s) maybe, make sure you're doing what's right. Below I will somewhat highlight some reasons why you may wanna adjust your budget.

What If My Budget Is Too Tight?

Sometimes out of our desperation to achieve our WHY, we create tight budget for ourselves even without realizing it, so if you eventually find yourself in this state, you should not fright, there's a way out or rather ways out😜.

When your budget too tight, I will advise you to go back to your (or should I say 'our') Discretionary category. In fact that's one of the reason why I asked you to split expenses into 3 categories, so feel free, and cut off some irrelevant stuff or should I say too or most irrelevant?

Because most stuff in that category are irrelevant and isn't a must since it isn't necessary for survival. If the Discretionaries isn't enough you can go to the Variables and so on and see if there is any thing to discard or replace with something cheaper.

Or look for alternative to some stuff in any category, lets say on your categories of expenses, you budgeted for newspapers and magazines, when you're feeling tight you may consider alternative like online news  and magazine platforms which maybe cheaper or even free... Like me , I've been reading news and browsing for free with Airtel Freebasics with Facebook partnership and I have saved myself money I would have spent on Newspapers and I've also saved myself some Time. There's always alternative to stuffs, if you're feeling tight about your budget then start searching for alternative.

Looking for money making ways? I think I've suggested a whole of them below (just keep reading).

What If Price Of Some Expenses increases?
Nature plays a lot on us and we can do only little or nothing to control these, sometimes prices of things we budgeted for may increase and we will need to make adjustments in order to cope, if price of something you budgeted for increase, you may want to check and discard something that isn't important, look for something cheaper or reduce the amount budgeted for saving or investment, though I don't recommend it, I will rather do one of these below.

Note: These will work if you're feeling tight with your budget or wanting to make some extra cash.💲

•Adjust Your Habit
When there's changes in your budget, whether it's because of price increase or wanting to adjust as a result of tight budget.

You may consider changing your habits, how do I mean? If you're a fan of movie, and you pay for it, you may want to change your habit and stop spending money on TV subscription. If you love a certain brand and it's becoming too expensive, you may start trying out on other brands or discarding the product totally.

If you like a certain kind of pizza, you may wanna stop buying it, if you're a fan of Starbucks, you may wanna stop Starbucking or reduce the intake rate. The list could go on. But truth to be told, changing habit isn't easy, you need persistency and determination. You can start by reducing your addiction to the habit until you've got rid of it permanently.

•Ask For Increase In Your Salary
Another way is to ask for salary increase, if you work self employed, you should work hard to pay yourself more. If you work for someone or company, sincerely ask for salary increase. It isn't a crime.

•Cut Down On Some Expenses
I have said this timelessly, you should learn to cut off some expenses especially if it's extraneous. If you decide to give it up despite it's relevancy or your love for it then it's superb. In fact, learn and study those things that Isn't Necessary For Survival and look for solutions or alternative.

•Do Side Hustle.

Everyday we increase in size, length and more. So also do we increase in needs, and most times our one stream of income may no longer be enough despite how superb our budget seem, if you're in such then it's time to start side hustling; looking for ways to make extra money aside our main income.

There are tons of side hustling you can do if your budget is tight or there's an increase, they range from offline to online side hustling jobs. I'm not a savvy when it comes to offline business but I know you can rent an apartment on Airbnb, Do some money task after work, Sell certain stuff at work, help colleagues do something and get paid. The list can continue, one thing I advise you do is to be creative and find ways you can make extra cash...

If it comes to E-world side hustling, there are tons of online side jobs you can do to earn extra cash. Some of which includes:

Blogging.
This is a great side hustling idea but it takes a while before you start earning but it worth's the time. I'm currently blogging and i earn from it but not 6figure though. Bloggers like Michelle makes over $100,000 a month, that's 6figure. Silas and Grace makes cool amount as fulltime bloggers also, the list of bloggers making good income is endless. You too can be there!

Resources
This is what you need to get started with blogging.

Writing skills: you need to be a good writer, it's not hard since you will be writing what you know and beside you can learn.

Platform/Hosting
This is where your blog will be hosted and software it will run on, Since your aim is making money from your blog, use bluehost as your blog's host and install install WordPress as the platform it will run on. I have heard good testimonies about siteground, check them out.

For domain name I.e www.lovenancials.com use Namecheap and go daddy, they are the best I have used and can recommend. Bluehost and some other offer free domain when hosting but I recommend you host your domain elsewhere (Namecheap) for security purposes.

Blog Topic
People wants to here from you, so what do you wanna tell them? You should tell them what you know and what they wanna hear! Not everything you know they'll wanna hear, so tell them the things you know that they want.

So what's going to be your blog topic? are you gonna teach people about relationship (like myself) or you're gonna talk about finance, health, food, photography, marriage, fitness and more? These is what you need when starting out. So decide now!

Okay it's enough, we are talking about Budgeting not blogging, if you wanna blog read my article on starting a blog.

Affiliates Marketing With Social Networks
You can make money with social network by doing affiliate marketing. It's simply promoting people's products on social networks and receive your own share. I'm an affiliates for bluehost, if you click my link and host on Bluehost, I will be given a commission at no extra charges on you. That's how affiliates marketing works. I don't have a post that's specially for affiliate marketing on social network, but you can check out my article on making money with social networks  where I talked about affiliate marketing.

Transcribing
With this you're paid to listen to audio and type what you've heard. You need to be good at listening and typing. You earn around $10 and more per audio hour.

Express Scribe
The best transcribing tool I've come across, it works with foot pedal so you can control the speed of the audio when transcribing.

Rev: If you're an experienced Transcriber you can earn up to $39 per audio hour with Rev.

TranscribeMe: Get started with transcribing earn up to $20 per audio hour but you need gain some expertise in order to pass their test.

Scribie: Get started with transcribing, earn $10 per audio hour, audios are short 6min or less.

Virtual Assistant Job and more. I have an article where I have covered these and other side hustling ideas. If you are ever interested in side hustling, read this article and pin when done!

•Practice Frugality.

When you're felling pinched on your budget or an item increases its price, you may want to stop spending unnecessarily, control your impulse, look for alternative, find something cheap and use coupons, these is another great way to save money and attend to other needs. Uhmm, I have already written an article that divulges some frugal habits and also how to save money (the post is on saving money but contains frugality hacks). Click here to read!

What If Price Of Some Expenses Reduces?
I talked about price increasing, yeah price may decrease also, if that happens then it's a bonus to you, all you need is to adjust your budget and channel the amount gained from the decreased (in price) product into any sector of your choice..

Must-Read: How To Healthily Manage Your Money.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations, you've successfully started your budget.
Budgeting isn't the only step, in fact it's just the first step, you need and have to develop the habit of sticking to your budget. Mehn it's not easy but yes you can!

I remember back then when I started new, I felt so overwhelmed, I was like 'what's all this budgeting trash? I nearly gave up but my WHY was superb, So I knew I needed a working budget to achieve it. I persevered and it's now paying off. 😮

Perseverance is a strong and that's what you need. Also, don't let your over spending habit control you, be on top of your game. When you're budgeting or after budgeting, make sure you do the following I'm listing below:

Emergency funds, This is crucial, so ensure you have some amount meant for managing emergencies. This is so so crucial.

Pay Off Debts If You Have Any, I'm not a fan of advising people to pay off debts once, but slowly and steadily pay off your debts.

In addition, Avoid Running Into Debts, Debts can disorganize your budget, so don't run into debts of any kind whether credit card or another. But if need arise, you're free to borrow but don't forget to pay back ASAP at the due time.

Always Review Your Budget
This is another habit you should embrace, once in a while you should review your budget (I do mine monthly), glance at it and do adjustments if necessary, you might even find something you can cut off to gain some extra cash.

Don't Give Up Because Of Failure
I nearly gave up on my budget, I wanted to spend my money anyhow it pleases me but that wasn't the best, yeah it was fun, seriously it's but it's not healthy, I needed a healthy fun while living debt freely and stop the paycheck lifestyle.

So I learnt from my failures and refused to give up, I told myself 'After I've finish spending my the money I allocated to myself as guilt free spending I won't touch any other money,' I tried it for 2months and it became my habit.

So learn from mistake and don't give up, have a strong WHY and always practice frugality; use freebies and cheap stuff, don't leave beyond your means (cut your cloth according to your cloth).

Lastly be sincere (to yourself and other), trust solely in God and he will motivate you to achieve the desired.

Thanks for reading, please can I hear from you? Have you created a budget? How is it.

What are your challenges, what's your contribution? Please drop a comment, I value them than Gold!

Don't forget to pin and share, have a blissful day and stay beautiful!😄

Jeff works with a marketing company where he earns $5,000 every month, everyone thought he was damn rich because he lived beyond his means without a working budget.

One day Jeff thought about his financial life and couldn't account of were his hardly earned $5,000 plus bonuses was channeled into, he also discovered his credit cards debts was speedily increasing as he depends solely on it to solve his Emergencies and other Expenditure. His life was mainly a paycheck to paycheck one, and other of his colleagues were doing better than him as he sometimes borrowed from them to fuel his car and do some other things.

Now, were was his hard earned money going to? Oh! he was a fan of Starbucks, he took coffee everyday, he was too generous as he provided everything his wife and kids asked for, he couldn't control his impulse and didn't even try to, he didn't wanna buy stuff cheap, in fact he doesn't bargain, he was just overspending on things that isn't in any way necessary. That was Jeff for you!

However, Something terrific happened to Jeff that made him vow never to live his life without a budget, not just a budget but a working one for that matter, saving for emergencies, practicing frugality and more. And what exactly happened to Jeff for him to make such life changing decision?

The company were Jeff worked was shut down and seized to function, due to some downturns the management team had. So Jeff had no saving nor investment due to his unplanned lifestyle, he thought of what to do and how he could end his nightmare.

Along the line, Jeff's first son became ill and needed money to pay his medical bills, his car also broke down, he started experiencing several financial plights and more monetary issues arise speedily. He turned to his credit card but it couldn't help him this time as he was already drowning in debts, he was stranded and confused. He couldn't turn to his wife because she was just a stay at home mom who wasn't working because he didn't allowed her to work even when she requested. Jeff regretted and weep bitterly, he learnt it was best to make hay while the sun shines.

Then he wished for a second chance so he could amend his ways but do you think he would find luck? Maybe yes or no but he can't regain the wasted time and that alone have stop the speed of him attaining wealth and riches. So that goes in support of the popular saying "Few years from now, you will wish you started today or sooner".

So are you like Jeff that doesn't have a working budget? Spending money on things that isn't necessary? When are you planning to start budgeting? Are you waiting until you experience similar stuff like Jeff? Hell No, you shouldn't pray for such thing to happen to you! 😳

Why not start today? I mean here, now and with me! I know creating budget seems overwhelming if you're starting new, in fact most people don't stick to their budget even after creating, they just can't resist the impulse to overspend.

Today I will help you with a step by step guide to create your budget and stick to it, okay let me be real, I'm not a magician that can make you to stick to see your budget, I can actually help you create a good budget but I can't force you to stick to it, it's up too you, make that decision.. Though I have something for you that Worth's more than any magic and it's called "Knowing your why". That prompts me to introduce you to the first step of creating your budget!

1.Why Are You Creating Your Budget
This is one important question you should ask yourself when starting out With budgeting, You need to know your why!

Why do you need to know your why? It helps you stay motivated, when you feel like giving up after a little failure, you remember why you're budgeting and how important it's to you..

There are tons of reasons you might want to budget and they're all unique in their own way. Below I have listed some top reasons you might want to start budgeting, like Jeff who decided to budget after an awful experience...

Most people decide to budget because they want to:

•Save Money
•Get Out Of Debt Or Stop Getting Into Debts
•Relieve Theirself Of Financial Stress
•Manage Their Income Well
•Prepare For Emergencies
•Prevent Financial Crisis
•Build Their Way To Riches and the list could go on.

Whatever you WHY is, you should make sure it's something of great value and importance.

Now you've known your why, what's next?

2.Gather Your Financial Informations

After you've come up with a good reasons to start budgeting, you should then Gather all your financial informations, if you have savings account, investment account, checking account & any financial instruments, you should orginise them using any handy tool like pen and paper, smartphone, etc. In this you should record how much you have in each of these accounts plus their interest rate. This will help you make more sound financial decisions, determining your net worth and more!

After then what's next?

3.Know How Much You Earn.
The next step is to know how much you earn, including your allowances, extras from side hustles, bonuses and more. This is a lot easier if you have a fixed amount you're being paid, you can easily track your monthly income even if you're paid weekly or daily, as long as it's fixed, you can related to this!

But isn't for those their salary can rise and can fall unpredictably, It isn't that easy for those who their increases or decreases. The easiest way to go about this if you're an irregular income earner is to use your average recurring income for the past 3-6 months. If you want to be more conservative, you can decide to use your lowest income of these months or even earlier (it's your choice).

Now what's the next step?

4.Know How Much You Have.
This is different from how much you earn, this is usually when you've substitute all the mandatory charges like governmental fees, tax and other unavoidables.

In addition, this may include mortgage, students loan, debts, monthly payment, credit card debt, car loans and a fixed amount allocated to savings and/or investment.

Note- I'm not advising you clear all your debts, I'm referring to debts that's recurring monthly and those that leaves you with no option than paying them.

After you've deducted the necessary, the remains are the ones you can bodly call your own and can use to solve your needs and wants as the case may be.

For this, I recommend you have a separate list where you write down the unavoidable expenses, Use tools like Microsoft excel, or one of the following online budgeting tools like Mint, YNAB, Mvelopes and more. If possible put this expense on auto pilot, especially those allocated to savings or investment.. This helps you pay off even before cashing out your salary. So if you don't see the money, you won't be able to spend it!

Now what's next?

Create A List Of Your Reccuring Monthly Expenses
After you've known how much you can call your own on a monthly basis, the next step is to create a list of your recurring monthly expenses.

Track the things you spend on regularly, on a monthly basis, and put it down in your notebook, smartphone App or any handy material you could think of.

These may include Gas, Groceries, Health products, utilities, clothing and more.

If you don't keep track of your expenses, you can check your previous receipt (if there's any), bank statements and more. This maybe helpful in retrieving your previous expenses.

The idea is to know what you've been spending on regularly for previous month, if possible get list of things you spent on for the last 3-6 months and see the ones that is recurring, ask yourself if you'll be needing them next month.. This way you've tracked what you've been spending on; monthly.

Now,

Break Expenses Into 3 Categories
After you've successfully discovered what you've been regularly spending on monthly, the next step is to break those expenses into three categories. (Remember to use any tool like pen and paper or smartphone App).

Why this is necessary, this helps you stay organized, helps you know what is more important than the other, or what you've been blindly spending on that isn't necessary. The list could go on but I'm leaving you at this point.

Your Expenses should be broken into the following categories below:

•Fixed Expenses
Here, you should write down expenses that remains the same each month and are essential for our day to day life.

This may include , Internet, Car, Insurance and more!

It's unlikely you'll be able to cut off  any cent from these category, as almost everything are important. Or should I say everything here is important? Anyway you get the picture.

What's the next category you should create? The variable expenses.

•Variable Expenses
Here, you should write down the expenses that changes on a monthly basis.

This may include food items, clothing, eating out, gasoline, Entertainment and more.

There are few opportunities you'll be able to cut back some amount here maybe when there is decrease in price or you found something cheaper!

Now, create a category for discretionary.

•Discretionary.
This are things you spend on but are not necessary for your survival, it isn't a must when compared with stuff food or clothing. They may be for pleasure and fun!

This may include traveling, Tv Subscription, movies, and impulse spending.

These are areas you have huge opportunity to cut back from, as this area isn't crucial for survival, it just a matter of choice and decision.

If you read personal finance books, blog or listen to podcast on budgeting, you will find out that they recommend you break your expenses into two categories (fixed and variable),  I decided suggest 3 because it will easy to for you, especially if you're over spending and not managing money well.

Note: Stuff in these categories should be listed with the price of each, like I said; use any handy material to record this. But most preferred, use Microsoft Excel, or online tools like Mvelopes, YNAB, and Mint.

Now you should,

Tally Monthly Income And Expenses.

The next step after you've broken your expenses into categories that suits them properly is to tally your monthly income with your monthly expenses.

It's a good financial practice not to live beyond your means and spending less than you earn, if you don't follow this rules you'll be stuck in debts or leave a paycheck lifestyle.

If you're being paid weekly, no problem; just multiply your weekly salary by 4 ( 4 weeks of the month), then make necessary deduction, what's left is your monthly income.

Now, sum up all your monthly expenses and deduct it from your monthly income, If you have remains then that's great but if you have a negative sign, that's to say your expenses was more than your income then you need to really cut off some things you're spending on, a good place to start from is the discretionary category.

Note: The income I'm talking about is the remainder after making necessary deduction like Savings, Investment and more. I have talked about this above!

Now, Plan On How To Achieve Your Why And Get Started
Remember you have a reason why you decided to start budgeting, so you should make plans to achieve it. Some WHYs requires you saving a specific amount of money to accomplish while some doesn't (maybe your time).

Lets say your why is to save $1000 for your child's admission to secondary school, you should plan on how to achieve this WHY, How much will you be needing to save every month in order to achieve this WHY.

What you will be needing to save every month in order to achieve $1000/year goal is around $90 (not up to though), so when this is happening, you will be able to track your progress, if by 6months you've not reached around $500 then you're doing too good and would need to make adjustment in order to meet up with your WHY!

The best way to go about it is by auto saving the money for your WHY, you may want to use online automatic saving tools like Digit or manually setup to transfer a certain amount from your account to another that's specially for your WHY. Though I prefer the online saving because is saves time and also reduce stress of me going to a bank to create account and managing it.

If your why doesn't have a specific amount requirement, you can still save or invest, maybe you want to control your money, after you've successfully budgeted, the remaining should be used based on your decision, you may want to save/invest some or all or allocate some or all to your emergency funds. While doing this, you should set aside an amount for yourself to spend guilt freely, these helps controls your impulse to spend extraneously or feeling pinched on your budget.

Now what else should you do?

Make Adjustments To Your Budget...
As time goes on, you will want or need to make adjustments to your budget, this can be decided by you (may be after you've found something cheaper) or impulsed on you by nature (maybe when price increase or decrease).

There are tons of reasons why you may want to readjust your budget, maybe you lost interest in something you've been using and budgeting for. The reasons for this are endless.

Whatever your reason(s) maybe, make sure you're doing what's right. Below I will somewhat highlight some reasons why you may wanna adjust your budget.

What If My Budget Is Too Tight?

Sometimes out of our desperation to achieve our WHY, we create tight budget for ourselves even without realizing it, so if you eventually find yourself in this state, you should not fright, there's a way out or rather ways out😜.

When your budget too tight, I will advise you to go back to your (or should I say 'our') Discretionary category. In fact that's one of the reason why I asked you to split expenses into 3 categories, so feel free, and cut off some irrelevant stuff or should I say too or most irrelevant?

Because most stuff in that category are irrelevant and isn't a must since it isn't necessary for survival. If the Discretionaries isn't enough you can go to the Variables and so on and see if there is any thing to discard or replace with something cheaper.

Or look for alternative to some stuff in any category, lets say on your categories of expenses, you budgeted for newspapers and magazines, when you're feeling tight you may consider alternative like online news  and magazine platforms which maybe cheaper or even free... Like me , I've been reading news and browsing for free with Airtel Freebasics with Facebook partnership and I have saved myself money I would have spent on Newspapers and I've also saved myself some Time. There's always alternative to stuffs, if you're feeling tight about your budget then start searching for alternative.

Looking for money making ways? I think I've suggested a whole of them below (just keep reading).

What If Price Of Some Expenses increases?
Nature plays a lot on us and we can do only little or nothing to control these, sometimes prices of things we budgeted for may increase and we will need to make adjustments in order to cope, if price of something you budgeted for increase, you may want to check and discard something that isn't important, look for something cheaper or reduce the amount budgeted for saving or investment, though I don't recommend it, I will rather do one of these below.

Note: These will work if you're feeling tight with your budget or wanting to make some extra cash.💲

•Adjust Your Habit
When there's changes in your budget, whether it's because of price increase or wanting to adjust as a result of tight budget.

You may consider changing your habits, how do I mean? If you're a fan of movie, and you pay for it, you may want to change your habit and stop spending money on TV subscription. If you love a certain brand and it's becoming too expensive, you may start trying out on other brands or discarding the product totally.

If you like a certain kind of pizza, you may wanna stop buying it, if you're a fan of Starbucks, you may wanna stop Starbucking or reduce the intake rate. The list could go on. But truth to be told, changing habit isn't easy, you need persistency and determination. You can start by reducing your addiction to the habit until you've got rid of it permanently.

•Ask For Increase In Your Salary
Another way is to ask for salary increase, if you work self employed, you should work hard to pay yourself more. If you work for someone or company, sincerely ask for salary increase. It isn't a crime.

•Cut Down On Some Expenses
I have said this timelessly, you should learn to cut off some expenses especially if it's extraneous. If you decide to give it up despite it's relevancy or your love for it then it's superb. In fact, learn and study those things that Isn't Necessary For Survival and look for solutions or alternative.

•Do Side Hustle.

Everyday we increase in size, length and more. So also do we increase in needs, and most times our one stream of income may no longer be enough despite how superb our budget seem, if you're in such then it's time to start side hustling; looking for ways to make extra money aside our main income.

There are tons of side hustling you can do if your budget is tight or there's an increase, they range from offline to online side hustling jobs. I'm not a savvy when it comes to offline business but I know you can rent an apartment on Airbnb, Do some money task after work, Sell certain stuff at work, help colleagues do something and get paid. The list can continue, one thing I advise you do is to be creative and find ways you can make extra cash...

If it comes to E-world side hustling, there are tons of online side jobs you can do to earn extra cash. Some of which includes:

Blogging.
This is a great side hustling idea but it takes a while before you start earning but it worth's the time. I'm currently blogging and i earn from it but not 6figure though. Bloggers like Michelle makes over $100,000 a month, that's 6figure. Silas and Grace makes cool amount as fulltime bloggers also, the list of bloggers making good income is endless. You too can be there!

Resources
This is what you need to get started with blogging.

Writing skills: you need to be a good writer, it's not hard since you will be writing what you know and beside you can learn.

Platform/Hosting
This is where your blog will be hosted and software it will run on, Since your aim is making money from your blog, use bluehost as your blog's host and install install WordPress as the platform it will run on. I have heard good testimonies about siteground, check them out.

For domain name I.e www.lovenancials.com use Namecheap and go daddy, they are the best I have used and can recommend. Bluehost and some other offer free domain when hosting but I recommend you host your domain elsewhere (Namecheap) for security purposes.

Blog Topic
People wants to here from you, so what do you wanna tell them? You should tell them what you know and what they wanna hear! Not everything you know they'll wanna hear, so tell them the things you know that they want.

So what's going to be your blog topic? are you gonna teach people about relationship (like myself) or you're gonna talk about finance, health, food, photography, marriage, fitness and more? These is what you need when starting out. So decide now!

Okay it's enough, we are talking about Budgeting not blogging, if you wanna blog read my article on starting a blog.

Affiliates Marketing With Social Networks
You can make money with social network by doing affiliate marketing. It's simply promoting people's products on social networks and receive your own share. I'm an affiliates for bluehost, if you click my link and host on Bluehost, I will be given a commission at no extra charges on you. That's how affiliates marketing works. I don't have a post that's specially for affiliate marketing on social network, but you can check out my article on making money with social networks  where I talked about affiliate marketing.

Transcribing
With this you're paid to listen to audio and type what you've heard. You need to be good at listening and typing. You earn around $10 and more per audio hour.

Express Scribe
The best transcribing tool I've come across, it works with foot pedal so you can control the speed of the audio when transcribing.

Rev: If you're an experienced Transcriber you can earn up to $39 per audio hour with Rev.

TranscribeMe: Get started with transcribing earn up to $20 per audio hour but you need gain some expertise in order to pass their test.

Scribie: Get started with transcribing, earn $10 per audio hour, audios are short 6min or less.

Virtual Assistant Job and more. I have an article where I have covered these and other side hustling ideas. If you are ever interested in side hustling, read this article and pin when done!

•Practice Frugality.

When you're felling pinched on your budget or an item increases its price, you may want to stop spending unnecessarily, control your impulse, look for alternative, find something cheap and use coupons, these is another great way to save money and attend to other needs. Uhmm, I have already written an article that divulges some frugal habits and also how to save money (the post is on saving money but contains frugality hacks). Click here to read!

What If Price Of Some Expenses Reduces?
I talked about price increasing, yeah price may decrease also, if that happens then it's a bonus to you, all you need is to adjust your budget and channel the amount gained from the decreased (in price) product into any sector of your choice..

Must-Read: How To Healthily Manage Your Money.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations, you've successfully started your budget.
Budgeting isn't the only step, in fact it's just the first step, you need and have to develop the habit of sticking to your budget. Mehn it's not easy but yes you can!

I remember back then when I started new, I felt so overwhelmed, I was like 'what's all this budgeting trash? I nearly gave up but my WHY was superb, So I knew I needed a working budget to achieve it. I persevered and it's now paying off. 😮

Perseverance is a strong and that's what you need. Also, don't let your over spending habit control you, be on top of your game. When you're budgeting or after budgeting, make sure you do the following I'm listing below:

Emergency funds, This is crucial, so ensure you have some amount meant for managing emergencies. This is so so crucial.

Pay Off Debts If You Have Any, I'm not a fan of advising people to pay off debts once, but slowly and steadily pay off your debts.

In addition, Avoid Running Into Debts, Debts can disorganize your budget, so don't run into debts of any kind whether credit card or another. But if need arise, you're free to borrow but don't forget to pay back ASAP at the due time.

Always Review Your Budget
This is another habit you should embrace, once in a while you should review your budget (I do mine monthly), glance at it and do adjustments if necessary, you might even find something you can cut off to gain some extra cash.

Don't Give Up Because Of Failure
I nearly gave up on my budget, I wanted to spend my money anyhow it pleases me but that wasn't the best, yeah it was fun, seriously it's but it's not healthy, I needed a healthy fun while living debt freely and stop the paycheck lifestyle.

So I learnt from my failures and refused to give up, I told myself 'After I've finish spending my the money I allocated to myself as guilt free spending I won't touch any other money,' I tried it for 2months and it became my habit.

So learn from mistake and don't give up, have a strong WHY and always practice frugality; use freebies and cheap stuff, don't leave beyond your means (cut your cloth according to your cloth).

Lastly be sincere (to yourself and other), trust solely in God and he will motivate you to achieve the desired.

Thanks for reading, please can I hear from you? Have you created a budget? How is it.

What are your challenges, what's your contribution? Please drop a comment, I value them than Gold!

Don't forget to pin and share, have a blissful day and stay beautiful!😄