FREE  BUDGETING  PLAN

Hello, my name is Jay Lillard and I am a retired auditor. I have several web sites devoted to helping people begin, develop, maintain, follow and revise their personal, family, household and home budgets. All of the budget and budgeting worksheets and spreadsheets I have are free. You can use them in any non-commercial way you wish.

When preparing a budget for yourself, home, household or family you should follow the four steps below.

• Document and analyse your past spending habits. This means gathering all your receipts, paychecks, checkbook, etc. and classifying each expense such as food, payments, rent, car expense, etc. This way you will get an idea of how much you spend monthly on each category of expense and how much money you make to satisfy those expenses.



• Set saving and spending goals based on your income and expenses. These monthly goals should allow for 10% of income to go into savings.



• All members of your household must agree to this new budget and commit to following it each month.



• Keep track of current expenses and record them so you can determine if your are staying on your budget. Revise the budget, moving money from category to category, in order to keep your spending levels in line with the budget. Keep putting that money aside into savings, no matter what happens. And don't touch your savings. Let your savings grow.

All of the worksheets and spreadsheets you will need to successfully perform the above steps are at my mega-budgeting site, Foxway. There you will find tons of information about budgeting, saving money, investing and other personal financial tricks and tips. While you are at Foxway, be sure to sign up for my FREE 5 part budgeting email course. It is designed to walk you step by step through the budgeting process.