Regardless of your income level and how often you get paid, it is a sound idea to keep a monthly budget. Most bills are monthly expenses, after all. Keeping a monthly budget will allow you to be able to use your money more responsibly because you will have the opportunity to see and plan for your expenses from a longer-term perspective than a weekly or biweekly budget may allow.

Choose a Method

Plenty of methods are available to create a monthly budget, ranging from practically free to very pricey. Any method you choose will only be as good as you are about using it. Select a method that matches your preferences and lifestyle. Do not buy a fancy budget book--graph paper and a binder will do. Alternatively, use Microsoft Excel or Apple's Numbers to keep your grid. Draw or insert calendar pages to aid you.

Determine Your Bottom-line Expenses

Map out your bills to determine if your incoming funds can adequately cover them. Write down each bill for the month in chronological order. This does not yet include food or other necessary but nebulous expenses. Highlight the bills that are necessities. For example, the rent or mortgage, utilities and student loan payments are necessities. The gym membership and the cable payment are probably not necessities, regardless of how painful they might be to lose. Next, include food, sundry household necessities (such as laundry detergent or toilet paper) and gas expenses. Be honest with yourself about how much you spend. Figure these in as weekly expenses.

Allocate the Funds

Write down the incoming funds you will receive during the course of a month and when you will receive them. If variables occur, err on a conservative estimate. Can you cover your bills and basic expenses? Will you have enough money in your bank account at any given time during the month, or do your pay days not quite work for the bills? If you have problems, it is time to cut back. Take a hard look at the bills that aren't highlighted and at your expenses. Are there any that you can do without? Eliminate items until you are spending no more than 90 percent of what you earn so that you can save. Make sure to also budget in personal expenses and little splurges for yourself. It will help you stay in line with your budget long term and resist temptations that you cannot afford.


Source: eHow

Debt is a concern for many families, making it important to establish healthy money-management habits at a young age. Many kids don't realize how money and budgeting works. Teach them about budgeting, saving for the future and planning for large purchases to set them on the path to making smart financial decisions as adults.

Allowance Budget

Help your kids create an allowance budget. Designate a certain percentage of each week's allowance for different budget areas. For example, 60 percent of each allowance goes to savings, 20 percent goes to a gift fund and 20 percent is fun money to spend as the child wishes. Assist your child in determining the breakdown of his budget and make suggestions as to the amount for each area. Provide a container to hold the money for each part of the budget.

Big Purchases

Help your child plan for big purchases she wishes to make. Help her assess the amount of money she has available to put toward the purchase and how much more she needs. Determine how much of her allowance can be put toward the fund for the purchase. Create a tracking sheet that she can update each time she puts money toward the large-purchase savings. Seeing the progress may encourage her to continue saving and finding other ways to earn extra money.

Board Games

Play board games with kids that involve money. Use games such as Monopoly, Life and Payday so kids get the chance to handle money. These games require your child to make decisions involving money that could help or hurt them later in the game. These games also give kids the chance to practice counting money and learn about loans.

Family Budget

Include the kids in the family budget as much as possible. Discuss with them where the money goes so they gain an appreciation for money. Discuss the decision-making process when you are considering a large purchase for the family.

Shopping Assistance

Have your child assist you with the grocery shopping. Ask your child to help in clipping coupons and finding sales in grocery ads. Create a shopping list together based on the weekly budget for groceries. Have your child help you locate the items on the list at the store and keep a running total of the amount of money spent.

Visual Reminder

Provide the kids with a clear container for storing their money. The clear container allows the kids to watch their money increase while monitoring the savings. They will also see the amount of money physically decrease when the use some of it to make a purchase. Use the visual reminder to encourage saving their money.

Source: eHow