You can make a budget for a specific time frame (monthly or annual are the most common). Take how much you expect to earn next month and use the expenditure percentages from step three to estimate what you can spend. You can now set up next month’s budget.For instance, maybe your typical $500 grocery bill jumps to $700 in November and December, or you pay your homeowners insurance premium at the beginning of each year. Estimate how much you’ll spend in different categories each month over the next year.Use last year’s pay stubs as a reference point and adjust as needed (perhaps you recently got a raise or finalized a new business deal). Estimate how much you’ll earn each month over the next year.Variable/discretionary ordinary living expenses (such as food, clothing, household expenses, medical payments, and other items for which your monthly spending tends to fluctuate).Fixed costs (such as housing payments, utility bills, charitable contributions, insurance premiums, and loan payments).Separate your spending categories into main buckets.(This is an especially useful exercise if you have uneven income.) For instance, let’s say you spent $500 in January on groceries, which was 12% of your household earnings. Note how much you spent in each category every month, as well as what percentage of your monthly income that spending represented. Categorize all of your expenses over the past year.Add up your take-home pay over the past year.Most institutions let you export your transactions as a CSV file that you can open in Google Sheets, Excel, or Numbers. A year’s worth can give you a good sense of how much you tend to spend over a given period of time. Collect all of your bank and credit card statements over the past year.(Ever get hit with a large bill, such as for an auto repair or emergency dental treatment? Those kinds of things can throw your budget off track.) Spreadsheet-based budgets (and some other budgeting tools) prompt you to create a myriad of categories and assign a dollar amount to each one, which is not only overwhelming but also likely to fail. It tracks your spending, revolving bills, savings goals, and earnings history to estimate how much you have left to spend in a given month in any category you want. We recommend Simplifi for most people because it’s a happy medium between the two. Conversely, zero-balance apps encourage a more hands-on approach, forcing you to account for every dollar you bring in (X amount for savings, Y amount for rent, and so on), but they tend to be idiosyncratic and costly. Tracking apps offer a 30,000-foot view of your finances, display your transactions in real time, and require very little effort to set up. How much does it cost?īuddy offers a free version as well as a paid version for $4.99 per month or $34.99 per year.There are two basic types of budget apps: trackers ( à la Mint) and zero-balancers. The app is only available on the App Store. Buddy is available in a free version as well as a premium version. With the Buddy app, you can easily create savings plans to pay off debt or fund future goals such as travel, a vehicle purchase, or education. It provides you with an overview of your expenses, income and savings. You can keep your budget to yourself or share it with your loved ones. Number of starsīuddy is an app that helps you manage your budget and track your expenses. It also has a paid version costing $34.99 per year or $4.99 per month. PocketGuard is offered in a free version. PocketGuard does have a paid version, “PocketGuard Plus”, which gives you access to even more features. An “Autosave” feature helps you reach your goals even faster by saving you a predetermined amount of money over a predefined period of time. Like any budgeting app, PocketGuard lets you select your goals and helps you reach them and track your progress. PocketGuard identifies the expenditures you’re no longer using in order to save you money. The ‘In my pocket' feature shows you exactly how much discretionary income you have left after paying your bills and saving. You can add your credit cards or other bank accounts to see all your transactions and account balances. Its features include building a budget based on your goals, and tracking expenses. PocketGuard is an application that helps you stay in control of your finances.
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