Budgeting basics
To start, make a list of your monthly expenses. These will most likely include:

• Mortgage/rent


• Car payment


• Insurance


• Student loans


• Phone bill


• Credit cards


• Debt repayment


• Entertainment


• Savings


• Medical/dental


• School/childcare


• Gas/transportation


• Food/groceries

From there, write down how much you spend on each category. Add it up against your monthly ins, or income. If you don't have enough to cover your expenses, look at your budget and see where you can shift amounts. If you have money leftover, consider adding it to savings or investments.

Cash budgets
One type of budget you can use is a cash budget. A cash budget is a great way to determine where your money is actually going and allows you to have better control over your spending.

Cash budgets are easy to implement and allow you to make adjustments as necessary. For example, if you spend a dollar a day on candy at the vending machine, alone it may not seem like much. But a cash budget where you track your expenditures will show you that the $365 a year you spend on candy can better be used elsewhere.

Save receipts
To get an idea of how much you're spending and on what, it's a good idea to save your receipts for a little while. Then you can accurately determine how much you should budget on things like gas, groceries, and entertainment.

Use budgeting software
Whether you are making a cash budget or not, the best way to make your budget is through an Excel spreadsheet or by using a computer program designed specifically for budgeting or tracking expenses. You can start by using a traditional paper and pencil, if you are unsure of the numbers and will be changing them around a lot, but ultimately you should put your budget in a spreadsheet or program of some sort. This will help to increase the accuracy of the numbers as well.

Use envelopes
With a cash budget, the best way to stay within your budget is to use envelopes. Put the cash you have budgeted for groceries, utilities, and so forth in envelopes. Once the cash is gone, then you can better adjust the amounts you need, or learn how to rein in your spending a little better.

Make adjustments as necessary
As you watch your budget, if you notice that the cash is running out quickly and there is no way you can stay within your budget, adjust it accordingly. This can include adding more money to certain expenses or taking money from other areas that you over budgeted on. This is easy with a cash budget, as you can just adjust by simply shifting cash from one envelope to another.

There are many advantages to a cash budget, including ease of implementation and better control of your finances. If you want to do a cash budget, these are a few tips to making a cash budget that works for you.