creating your own budget?

[Junemommy23rd]

Hello I was wondering I'm a first time mom and I used to live with my mother before and now live with my boyfriend.  How do I create my own budget I'm not working and was going to the food stamps office does any of ya ladies know?

[knufrio]

Budgeting is tough but you will get the hang of it pretty quickly. If your budget is tight make sure you account for little things that don't happen on a monthly basis too, like oil changes and stuff.

[jojobeaner]

Theres a lot of free budget worksheets online, and downloading the app "mint" on your phone is great because it shows you where your money is going. Say it all goes to groceries, find a way to cut back, coupon/sales, etc.

A great budget I use is called "you need a budget", you can download a 30 day trial for free (without entering a credit card or anything) and after a month just transfer all that info into a free template online.

[jess-ann5]

I budget on a weekly & monthly basis. Start by listing all of your bills (Rent, Utilities, Food, Gas, Misc. Items, etc.) and add in an extra $50 to cover things you may not know your spending money on. This may be hard at first but it will get easier to anticipate what your spending.

Next write down all of your income - Boyfriend, Food stamps, Wic, etc.

Subtract your Spending from your Income. This will give you a round about of what you have left over. If it is a negative number, then you know you need cut back somewhere in your spending.

Grab a calendar and write down when your bills are due so you have an idea of how much you will need every two weeks to make sure your bills are paid. Add up the bills for those two weeks and then add up the income you will have for those two weeks. Again subtract the two and if your negative or in a low amount, then you know you need to cut spending somewhere.

[luka_n_baby2]

I looked up "templates" online. Mixed a few together and got ours. Just do what works best for you. You can see tons of different kinds on Google.

[knufrio]

You need to start with what you get: either through income, WIC, food stamps etc and then take out from that what you need:food, bills, rent, etc and then look at what you have left. You can budget on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis depending upon how often you get paid and when certain bills are due