Finances:  The Importance of Creating a Budget for Yourself

Are you a debt-ridden woman?  Even if debt may not be an issue for you now, there is a good chance that it will become one in the future. Whether you are in debt now or if you are looking to prevent yourself from falling victim to it, you may want to examine budgets. Creating a budget for yourself is a simple process, but it is one that can help to keep you out of debt or even get you out of debt.

Before examining how you can go about creating a budget for yourself, it is important to understand the importance of budgets.  As previously stated, budgets are a tool that can be used to make sure that debt isn’t any longer an issue for you.  By creating yourself a budget you are able to track your spending, as well as ensure that all needed expenses, like your car instance or your mortgage, get paid.  This also gives you the opportunity to examine how much extra money you have each month, money that you could put towards repaying your debt or put in a savings account, if you aren’t in debt right now.

When it comes to creating a budget for yourself, you should be able to find a number of budget templates online for you to use. While these free resources are nice, you may only want to use them as starting points.  You can get great ideas from them, but you may want to create your own budget. This is important because not all individuals lead the same lives or have the same expenses to take care of.  For instance, a budget template for those in New York City may not necessarily call for car payments or auto insurance, but if you had a vehicle, you will need these sections displayed on your budget.  

It is also advised that you take the time to create a budget for each month of the year.  As previously stated, a budget allows you to account for your spend in advance.  If you have a birthday party in July that you need to attend, you may need to account for buying a gift.  However, this is something that will likely not occur each month.  Creating individual budgets for each month of the year may seem like a complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be.  It may take a few extra minutes, but those few minutes are more than worth it.

To get you started with saving your money, to help relieve the stress and other issues often associated with debt, you will want to start by outlining all expenses that you must pay for on a monthly basis.  These expenses are ones in which you cannot go without paying, like rent, mortgage, renters insurance, homeowners insurance, auto insurance, auto loan payments, groceries, and your utility bills. These are the expenses that must be paid, no matter what.  

Once you have a detailed list of important expenses, like those that you are unable to go with out, you can focus on the next level of importance.  These are items such as internet access or cable television.  If you are just looking to save money, possibly to put into a savings account, you should be able to continue paying these expenses without any problems.  On the other hand, if you are looking to dig yourself out of all of the unpaid debt that you have accumulated, it may be a good idea to go without internet access or cable television, if at all possible, even if it is just for a short period of time.

You can also use your budget to determine how much extra money you will have each month.  You can do this if you regularly work the same hours or if your pay is salary based.  Once you have totaled up all of the aforementioned expenses, you can subtract that from the amount of the money that you bring home from work each week.  Any extra is money that you may want to consider putting towards your debt or saving, just in case.

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