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Last Updated on September 6, 2022 by Daniella
If you were anything like me a couple years ago, the sound of the words ‘Finances’, ‘Budgets’, and ‘Taxes’ scare the heck out of you. Your finances don’t have to be scary and a budget can actually help you make sense of it all.
Follow this guide with a free budget planner to help you create a budget from scratch. If you learn how to budget and get your money organized you will feel a million times better, trust me.
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Table of Contents
I personally like to tailor our budget to these simple elements. These help us to effectively track and find what is left over for maximum savings growth.
- Monthly main income
- Any additional or side income
- Categorized bills and expenses
- Debt tracking
- Emergency and unexpected expenses
- Amount left over to save
Simplify your budget as much as possible.
Writing everything down is the best solution I have found to stay on track and stick to a budget. This is why I created a free budget planner and tracker printable that can be used to create a budget from scratch with little to no effort! All you have to do it fill it out every month to help you stick to that budget.
Sign up to get your free budget planner!
Effectively manage your finances and grow your savings.
Keep in mind that everyone has different financial needs depending on their financial situations. There may be some sections and categories in this budget planner that may or may not apply to you. There may also be some additional sections and categories that apply to your financial situation but are not included in this freebie budget planner and debt tracker.
What if I need to create a budget for my business?
If you own your own business and need help with creating a budget on that scale, try Quickbooks. Quickbooks is amazing accounting software that can make running your small business easy, fast and most importantly: secure. You can easily track your expenses with it’s many low hassle features. This way you are always making the right business decisions and don’t get stuck with massive bills and debt in the long run!
Important tips while budgeting when using this planner:
- Note your monthly income, after taxes.
- Be sure to note any expenses that are taken out of your paycheck such as 401k contributions, health insurance, etc.
- Don’t forget any side hustle income! Track the income of your side hustles in their own categorized section, after subtracting any business expenses.
- Note your monthly expenses, by category. Using categories you can create a more specific and traceable budget for each category of expenses.
- What are your household monthly wants and needs? Once you decide what expenses you can cut, you can save even more with your monthly budget.
- What debt repayments need to be made this month? Note down the bill payments in the tracker and see if you have any room to pay more this month to keep interest low.
- Track what you were able to save this month in the savings column.
- Track any surprise or emergency expenses and how they were covered. You can also use this section to plan for emergency expenses and note any information you have on your emergency savings accounts.
- Continually track your progress by printing 12 sheets, one for every month. Compare the first one to the last one for an organized and comprehensive view of your finances from the whole year!
- Try to automate as much a possible. I love automating the way I save money with Digit. Digit saves money for me based on my income and spending.
Revisit your budget as situations change and make any tweaks as needed.
You should revisit your budget from time to time for modifications.
If you need to maximize your monthly savings, I suggest choosing items from your budget to cut. Cutting costs from your spending budget can be from several categories. You don’t have to only cut the ‘wants’ from the budget, you can get discounts on the ‘needs’ as well.
Cutting things from your budget isn’t as painful as you think. Think of what you don’t necessarily need or which bills you can potentially lower.
Lower your bills and lower your budget.
Need help lowering your bills? Trim will negotiate lower bills for you without you ever having to do a thing besides entering your bill and bank info when you sign up. Trim negotiated a savings amount of $17.40 a month on our AT&T bill. This will put us on track for a yearly savings of $208.80 just from lowering our cell phone bill with no consequence or loss of quality! See how much Trim can save for you here.
Maximize your savings with cash back applications.
If you are finding it hard to find things to cut from your budget, try maximizing your monthly savings with cash back applications. I get $10 cash back just by paying my web hosting bill withEbates.
Other sites likeEbatesto help you get the most cash back are as follows:
- Ibotta(it isn’t only for receipts!)
- BeFrugalis another favorite of mine.
When you need to make more money and can’t cut anything else from your budget.
When you have already cut items from your budget and completely lowered your cost of living but still need to save more every month, you need to make more money. You don’t need to commit to a second job or anything. There are tons of ways to make extra money without getting a second job or ever leaving your house.
Here are some of my favorite ways to make extra money:
- Browse these51 Best Side Hustle Ideas To Increase Your Income.
- Pet sit on Rover.
- Apply to paid research studies.
- Get paid for your internet usage by installingNielsenon your phone, tablet or PC (not a lot but something).
- Sell your stuff on Poshmark, Decluttr orAmazon.
- Flip items on eBay.
- Start a blog.
What strategies do you use when budgeting?
What other ways are you making your budget work for you? I would love to hear from you in the comments!
More ways to make extra money and save extra money:
- 22 Creative Ways To Turn Your Clutter Into Cash
- 45 Life Hacks That Will Save You A Ton Of Money
- 20+ Ways To Lower Your Monthly Bills
- Tips For DIY Yard Cleanup And Landscaping On A Budget
- How To Save $500 Dollars A Month
- 12+ Ways To Travel For Free
- How To Take An Unrealistic Road Trip On A Realistic Budget
- How To Score Free Concert Tickets
- How To Make Money With Pinterest
- How We Make Extra Money From Flipping Items On eBay
- 10 Effective Ways To Make Money Blogging
