When to start budget
BUDGETING TIPS FOR BEGINNERS | How To Start A Budget (2019)
today we're going to be talking all
about how to start a budget for
beginners so if that is something that
you're interested in and want to know
how to master your budget and windus
money then definitely stick around hi
guys I'm Marissa and welcome back to my
channel the budgeting wife where we talk
about budgeting tips to help you win his
money I love budgeting and I could talk
about it all day long which is why I
have a YouTube channel but budgeting has
been the backbone for us to pay off
eighty seven thousand dollars of student
loan debt in two-and-a-half years I love
a budget because it enables me to tell
my money where to go and I am able to
have control with my finances rather
than letting my money control me
obviously I can't say enough good things
about budgeting and I want to get you
guys excited about budgeting as well so
let's go through the process of how you
can start a budget as a budgeting
beginner first take a look at your
income and expenses for the last couple
months to see where you really have been
spending your money if you don't
currently have a budget or are tracking
your expenses you probably don't even
know where your money is going so print
out your last couple bank statements and
credit card statements and group of your
expenses categorize them buy groceries
by eating out by utilities and figure
out the kinds of things that you're
spending your money on it you can use an
app like mint to help you with this or
you can just do it old-school with
either pen and paper or Excel I do love
using mint to track my net worth but I
have found it to be a little bit
difficult when categorizing my expenses
because it doesn't always choose the
correct category but either way I find
some time and sit down and categorize
where you've been spending your money
you may even be surprised to see it how
much money you've been spending on
certain items like even eating out or
entertainment also be sure to check over
your income take a look at your pay
stubs to make sure that your
withholdings are correct and that you're
bringing home as much income as you
truly should be I know that for us one
time Jacob received a raise at his job
and he didn't notice it for six months
until he actually checked his pay stub
that was the last time we ever made the
mistake of not consistently checking our
pay stubs so definitely be sure to go
check yours to make sure everything
in order next write down your financial
goals if you are single then that just
includes you but if you do have a spouse
sit down with your spouse and dreams or
your financial goals what are you
wanting to accomplish are you trying to
pay off debt say for an emergency fund
contribute more for retirement whatever
that may be it write it down so that you
guys know what you're working towards
with your finances you want to use your
budget to accurately reflect the goals
that you have for your finances so
before you even start a budget make sure
you know what those goals truly are then
decide on a budgeting platform there are
many different platforms out there that
you can use to create a budget you can
use an app like every dollar that is one
of my favorite apps to use or you can be
old-school with pen and paper or even
use Excel which is my favorite method to
budgeting if you're interested in
getting in Excel budget template I
actually do sell them on my Etsy shop
which I will go ahead and leave a link
to it down below and you guys can check
out it is five dollars for the template
and that is the exact template that I
use for my budget every single month but
whatever that platform may be decide on
one and stick to it it should be the
platform that's going to be easiest for
you so that you will stay motivated to
continue budgeting then it's time to
come up with a plan with your budget by
using a zero based budget a zero based
budget is pretty simple it just
basically means that all of your income
needs to equal all of your expenses so
every single dollar gets a name at the
beginning of the month so whether you
put money to expenses like utilities and
rent or even putting money into savings
make sure that every single dollar has a
place to go at the beginning of the
month and that is what we call a zero
based budget so sit down with your
preferred method of budgeting and take a
look at the expense tracking that you
did earlier and come up with a budget
for this month you can use your spending
history as a guide to determine how much
you should be budgeting in each category
and then even tweak it to work on
accomplishing your financial goals or if
you realize that you've been spending
way too much money on eating out maybe
you know that you need to budget less
for eating out to hold yourself
accountable while you are assigning a
budget to each of your budgeting
categories you may need to make some
adjustments because at the end of your
budget you want to make sure
it gets to zero so to be able to get to
zero that means you might have to cut a
little bit out of that vacation budget
maybe you need to trim down your
entertainment or you find that you have
extra money at the end so you're able to
put even more towards paying off debt
make any adjustments that you need to
get down to zero at the end of that
budget if you are married make sure that
your spouse is involved in the budgeting
process money is such an important part
of a relationship money fights are a
huge deal in marriage and so we want to
make sure that we eliminate that as much
as possible so sit down with your spouse
and come up with your budget together
making sure that you're both
communicating about what you want to see
in the budget and also maybe what you
don't want to see in the budget and come
up with a game plan that works best for
the both of you once the budget bounces
to zero and both people are in agreement
with the budget for the month then you
are ready and notice how I didn't say is
that you are done because a budget is
more work than just putting numbers on a
page at the beginning of the month a
huge part of budgeting is actually
tracking your expenses as you go so the
next step is to be checking in with your
budget on a regular basis for us we
check in in our budget every single week
on Sunday evenings I will pull up my
budget and my bank statements and check
over all of the expenses that I've made
and put them into the correct categories
in my budget to track how we're going I
do this to make sure that we are still
on track with our budget and I may even
notice that we might have to make some
mid-month adjustments just because you
make a budget at the beginning of the
month doesn't mean that it's set in
stone so if you notice that you're going
way over on groceries and you haven't
spent anything on eating out maybe you
need to reallocate some funds to put
more towards groceries and less towards
eating out this month to be able to make
your budget work rather than just
throwing them up the way if the first
couple weeks don't work out sit down and
come up with plan B for the rest of the
month's budget you can't still make it
work and I also want to let guys know
that budgeting takes about three months
to get in the habit of so if your first
month is terrible and nothing goes to
plan that's okay take what you learned
and apply it to the next month and see
how that goes
give yourself some grace as you're
learning how to budge
for the first time and if you're able to
stick to it for a few months I guarantee
the budgeting will be a totally worth it
and the last thing I want to remind you
guys up is that a budget gives you
permission to spend maybe you've grown
enough was basically using the word
budget as a bad word of hearing your
parents say it's not in the budget but I
want to let you guys know that a budget
actually gives you permission to spend
so use your budget to be able to
accomplish your financial goals and also
be able to enjoy life a budget is your
guide and it allows you to live the life
you want to live by holding you
accountable and keeping you in between
the lines I hope that this video was
helpful for you if you are looking to
start a budget here on my channel the
budgeting wife I do a ton of videos on
budgeting so if you aren't subscribed I
would love to have you as a subscriber
also don't forget to give this video a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it and leave me
a comment down below and let me know how
long you've been budgeting for whether
this is your first month or maybe your
tenth year I would love to hear where
you guys are at with that and I will
look forward to seeing you guys in my
next video bye guys
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