After defining what budget is, we will now prepare your monthly budget. First of all, we will NOT prepare your budget for the current month. This will be your budget next month or the month after next. Confused?
This is the principle behind an effective and realistic budget. We must first gather receipts, list down payments to a notebook for one whole month. Then we will classify them accordingly. To make it easier to track down your expenses, you can use a planner instead of a notebook. If you can’t find one in your home, don’t buy! Just find an old notebook and label the pages per week. If you can attach the receipts, so much the better. This will be helpful in analyzing your expenses for groceries, shopping, school supplies, etc. There may be expenses incurred for the current month which may not recur the following month, like purchases of items with future use, such bath towels, pillow cases or a vase. You don’t buy these items on a monthly basis, but these are mimimal expenditures with little or nominal value in the future.
Can’t wait for another month? Okay then, if you can vividly recall all expenses last month, you may also write these down in your notebook, this time on a monthly basis, since you may not be able to recall the dates of payment but only the cost paid. Are you ready?
