I’ve worn many different hats in my life. I’ve been a math teacher, a nanny, a youth pastor, a personal assistant….you get the point. I’ve had a varieties of different jobs and have made a very wide range of incomes with these different positions. However, I’ve never run out of money. In fact, in most cases, I was saving a good chunk of that income. How? A budget.

Some of you reading this have a budget. Most of you probably don’t. I say this, because most of the people I know personally, do not have a budget. Which is why a big majority of people live paycheck to paycheck.

Making a budget isn’t hard. I promise. I started my first budget when I was working in fast food at the age of 16. I was curious to see where my money was going, so I started keeping track of it. Can you guess where it was going? FOOD!!! I was going out and getting food all of the time!! That was a moment of awakening. I needed a budget in order to set a firm foundation for my entire future. Today, I am going to give you three big tips that I have learned from budgeting for the past 10 years.

1. Think of your NEEDS first

Some bills come around every month that you MUST have. Other things…..you don’t actually need. This is different for every budget. For example, most people would say high speed internet is not a need, but if you work from home it might be a need. Look through your last month of expenses. Which of those things are MUST HAVES. (keep in mind that a “must have” is not a “must want”)

You need to subtract those “must haves” from your total income for the month. What you have left you can use for your wants. Prioritize the wants and fill them in one at a time.

2. Give every dollar a home

What does this mean? It means, figure out how much income you will have in a month. That entire amount needs a place to go. After you calculate all of your “must haves” and “must wants”, you may have some money left over. That is a no no. That will just give you an excuse to spend. Which may cause you to overspend.

The money you have left over needs a category. Is that the amount you will put in your savings every month? Then, title it as “savings”. Just don’t leave it homeless.

3. Look at your budget (regularly)

I’m not an advocate of becoming obsessed with money. Your money shouldn’t control you, you should control it. However, not paying attention to it may allow it to go crazy. When I first started budgeting, I looked and managed my budget once a week. I’d sit down and calculate where I had spent money that week. This is what I needed to do in order to keep things in order. After a while, I was able to only look at my budget once a month. I learned good discipline and knew what I had to work with.

Once I got married, it went back to once a week. My husband and I figured out our “must haves” and “must wants”. These were different from my personal budget, so it required looking at once a week again. Being that I love math and numbers, I would keep up with the managing of the budget. Every week when I looked it over, I would update my husband on where the numbers were. (Making a budget with your spouse is an entirely different blog that will have to come another day)

Conclusion

Budgeting is important for everyone. No matter how much money you are making, having a budget will help you to stop living paycheck to paycheck. It will bring you freedom. Take my three tips on budgeting to change how you look at your personal finances.