![]() 4) Truth time: How does your actual budget balance? Eating-out costs, such as takeaway and restaurant mealsĪdd up your monthly expenses to find out your total monthly expense.Transport costs, such as public transport, parking, petrol and vehicle maintenance costs.Types of expenses that might change from month to month could include: Membership fees, such as for unions, sporting clubs and social clubs.Subscription entertainment, such as streaming services and magazines.Additional superannuation contributions.Insurance, such as health, car, home and contents and life insurance.Loan repayments, such as personal loans, car loans, credit cards and buy-now-pay-later repayments.You might calculate an average estimated monthly cost for such variable expenses, for example, by tallying the total for the expense over a period of six or 12 months, and dividing by the same number of months.įixed or periodic expenses could include: For regular expenses that might fluctuate from month to month, make an estimation. Go through your statements and write down all of your monthly expenses. Take a fresh piece of paper (or a new document or spreadsheet), if you like. 3) ‘Actual’ outgoings: Work out your expenses Other income, such as government payments or subsidiesĪdd up those monthly amounts to find your total monthly income.Investment income, such as interest paid to you.Now, work out how much each of those income amounts are per month. Make a note of how frequently this money is paid to you, such as monthly, weekly, etc. Write down all of the money coming in on one side of the page. 2) ‘Actual’ incomings: work out how much you earn “These days, there’s a digital footprint for everything,” Ms Zahos said. When you are preparing your budget, it could be a good idea to have printouts of your statements with you, or be logged into your bank accounts so you can easily reference them. Often, all of these details can be found on your online banking statements and credit card accounts. Records of what you spend your money on – such as utility bills, council fees, rent or mortgage repayments and how much you spend on entertainment, such as subscriptions – any record of money going out. ![]() ![]() Your income details – pay slips, any notices about government payments, or interest payments on savings accounts – any record of money coming in.Here’s a simple guide for how to write a monthly budget: 1) Knowledge is power: gather your financial detailsīefore you start writing your actual budget, it could be a wise idea to gather up all the information that you may need. Then, to make sure you stay on track, it’s a good idea to regularly monitor how closely you are following your budget, and review if necessary. Once that’s done, you can write a budget – a plan for how you hope to spend your money in the future. Then, it’s a matter of deciding what you want to achieve with your finances. Source: Fevziie (Shutterstock) How do you write a monthly budget?įirst up, you’ll need to get an overview of how much money you have coming in and how much is flowing out – your ‘actual’ financial position. Budget is ‘in the black’: When a budget is ‘in the black’, it typically means there is more income than there are expenses, and room to save money (or splurge on something special).This is typically bad news, and usually results in debt. Budget is ‘in the red’: When a “budget is in the red”, that means there are more bills than income.‘Balanced’ budget: The budget has the same amount of money coming in that has been allocated to money going out.If you are not honest, it’s not going to work in reality.” “Budgeting is only hard in the sense that you have to be honest with yourself when you are writing it. If you are just throwing all of your money into a bank account and praying that it will come out alright in the end, you could risk ending up in a financial mess. “Having a budget is about having some control over your money. “It is important to know where every dollar is – just like in your home you have a place for everything so you know where something is when you need it,” Ms Zahos said. While there are lots of software programs or apps that could help you to prepare your budget (such as the Canstar app), at its most basic, all you need is a pen and a piece of paper (or two). Here’s a step-by-step guide for how to write a budget, plus some advice and resources that could help you stick to it.Ĭanstar money expert Effie Zahos believes that writing a personal or household budget does not have to be a complicated process. Writing a budget can be the first step in gaining more control over your finances.
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