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You will need the "No Excuse Budget Worksheets" to complete this section.
Click here to Join our newsletter to download and print the free budget worksheets.
Now you have all the tools of the trade and are ready
to start budgeting! You should be in a quiet, clean area with space to work. All assumptions are that you are working via
the old school way, on paper and have quicken too. If you are working with only Quicken, enter all the same information
in the program that you would on the paper. If you have not purchase Quicken then purchase it now and enter everything on the worksheets till you get it. Remember to
add any and all financial obligations you may have. You want this to be a complete picture of your finances so you need
to have everything available in one place so you can make the best decisions.
Let's get started...
1. Stack all of your monthly bills in a pile.
2. Make another pile of any Notes ie. car loan, mortage, personal
loan to a private person or other entity.
3. Fill out the "debt summary sheet" for each obligation you have.
Please include each and every one no matter how big or small.
4. Fill out "Monthly Budget Organizer" include
info. from the "debt summary sheet" and all your other monthly bills including gas, groceries, electricity, heat
and so on. We're keeping this simple. If you have the past few months of receipts add up all you have spent over that
time and divide by the number of months you added up the bills from. This will give you an estimate of what your monthly expense
was for this item. An example would be Say you spent $33.56 on October 1st and then $456.00 on the 15th and then Nov. 13th
you spent $65.66 and then Nov. 24th another $134.55 your average amount spent on groceries would be $344.86 ($33.56+$456.00+$65.66+$134.55=689.77
divided by 2 = $344.86. Add them all up and tally at the bottom of the page. Write in your monthly income. If you do not receive
a regular paycheck write in the past few months average income or leave it blank. Either way you will be able to see what
you need to bring in to cover your expenses.
You now have a clearer picture of where you are at money wise. You
are either doing great or in a world of hurt. Based on the current months expenses and your goals start to full out next months
budget. Either way your goal is to make more money and cut back on your expenses. Write at the top of this next months budget
your goal. HAVE ENOUGH TO PAY MY BILLS or SAVE $150 (or whatever your goal is. You need to start working towards a savings
of 3 months living expenses- AT LEAST! Some will say because you never know what will happen like you could loose your job
or an emergency expense could happen. I'm going to call them on this. It's not really that random! Is your Boss acting
worried, have you slacked on the job? Has the company stopped hiring, and started cutting expenses? Really if you look
back after a "randon layoff" you can normally see the signs. Read the book "Who moved my Cheese" (look
to the right). You have to stay aware at work and see the signs. I won't accept that you were just randomly let go. So
I want you to have 3 months savings incase you see the signs and need the money to better your situation and not feel STUCK
on a sinking ship. Remember you need money to make money! If you had a safety cushion you would be willing to leave that job
and find a better more secure one before you were let go!
Continue to Step Three
