Kalysha Clark

Welcome to my series on budgeting! This is the first post in a series of blogs dedicating to learning how to budget and saving money. If you have questions about anything, feel free to post them down below or reach out to me! Today's post is all about tracking your spending and making a budget.

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So you want to learn how to create a budget and stick to it? The first thing you’ve got to do is identify your spending habits.

For a month, carry around a little notebook and write down any and every time you spend money. Note what you spent it on, how much you spent, the date you spent it and put it into a category. Example categories include: groceries, eating out, entertainment, transportation, etc. You should do this with cash and cards, including your credit card, if you have one.

Once you’ve identified your spending habits, decide what changes you need to make. If you’re spending $100 from every paycheck on eating out for lunch, instead you might choose to add $50 to your grocery budget and pack your own lunch. If you’re going to the movies every weekend, maybe you’ll decide to go to the movies every other weekend and spend the other weekends doing something free like going to the park or watching a movie on Netflix. If you go to Starbucks every weekday and get a $2 cup of coffee, that adds up to $40 a month. You may decide to purchase a reusable mug and bring your own coffee, instead of buying it.

After you’ve figured out how the changes you’ll need to make, you’ll need to decide how you want to break down your budget as far as numbers go. There are two ways to do this. If you get a paycheck that is usually the same price every time you get paid, you can use set amounts. For example, if I know my paycheck is $500 twice a month, I can elect to put $50 from each paycheck toward groceries. If your paycheck varies, you may want to use percentages instead or a combination of both. For example, if you have a variable paycheck, there will still be some things that are a set amount or within a certain range, like your utilities. Here’s a sample budget:

Now, that is just a simple example. You’ll have to figure out what your monthly spendings are based on your personal bills and experiences.