The Dreaded "B" Word... Budget!

One issue that a lot of people have is momey management. I personally have dealt with the issue of compulsive shopping, or "Retail Therapy" if you will...

As I mentioned before, I am in Chexsystems, which means that no bank wants anything to do with me. Because of this, I was forced to figure out a less traditional means of managing my money and making sure that when the time came to pay rent I had it.

If you have tried budgeting in the past and have failed (don't feel bad, I've been there!), don't give up, just try this method out and I am confident that you will succeed this time around.

First off, start by writing down all of your monthly expenses. This is my list to give you an idea:

Church Offering
Rent
Loan from Mom
Gas
Cell Phone
Car Insurance
You get the picture... Once you have your list, write down the amounts due each month next to each expense. Depending on how often you're paid (daily, weekly, semi monthly, etc) divide each expense by that amount.

So, for instance, when I was working through a temp agency I was getting paid Thursday of every week, so I went down the list and divided each one by four (just for the sake of math I always estimate that there are four weeks in a month). Now that I am permanent I get paid on the 15th and the last day of each month, so I would divide each expense by two.

Some of you reading this might be working in a job where you get tips, like as a waitress for example. If you work five days a week, for four weeks a month, you would divide each expense by 20 because that is how many times a month you receive money.

Depending on what you prefer, either take several envelopes (one for each expense), or a little coupon organizer with tabs (they have them at Dollar Tree, and sometimes in the "Dollar Spot" section at Target). Write each expense name either on the designated envelope or tab.

Whenever you get paid take the cash and separate the amounts into the designated envelope/tab. Use the amounts that you got when you divided each expense by number of pay periods. Once you have "deposited" the money into each expense's "account", put your bank away where you won't be tempted to touch it until you either have more money to add to it or until it's time to pay the bill itself.

Any money that you have left outside of what you put into your mini accounts is yours to either spend, save, or anything else, but at least you can feel confident in knowing that your bills will be paid when the time comes, without worrying about the possibility of overspending and accidentally dipping into money that needed to go to next month's rent.