The Easy Way to Make a Budget

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Remember, money management begins with a realistic assessment of your financial status. See my earlier post here: More Money - The Basics.

It's time to make sure your budget is realistic, and if you don't have a budget then you need to make one.

Budgeting and sticking to the budget is critical to money management. The most successful budget will be the one you make for yourself - only you know what you are realistically willing to do and not do. By all means, get advice. And another opinion of someone you trust is always helpful to give you ideas. But be honest with yourself about your priorities. After all, it is your money that you're spending.

If you are not familiar with budgeting software (are there are tons), start with Microsoft Excel. You are just entering what money comes in and what money goes out - categories and amounts. Excel makes it easy to increase and decrease numbers in each category to see how you can get a better result.

This is a great post I happened upon: How to Make a Budget in 10 Easy Steps

It's a worthwhile read on how to make a budget - easily!