The basics

The basics of any system to improve your money, begins with knowing where your money is coming from and where it is going.  I know my friends out there are rolling their eyes at this moment- these are the same friends who gave me  "Budgets are for wimps".    I'll agree that there is nothing sexy nor fun about listing out how much money you don't have; but it is the starting place that will allow you to understand the flows of cash.

For one or two months, make a list (it can be in Excel or Open Office Calculator) of your income and your expenses.  Write down everything, even that two dollars you gave your child.  I've list an example below of a very basic sheet to give you an idea-it doesn't have to be overly complicated.

Once you have this started, you start getting an idea of where our money is going.  For some, and I've been there, there's a lot of negative amounts at the end of each week. That's okay, first things first, see where our money is going before you make any changes.  Too many times, there is a haste to make changes now, without seeing, it's not the lattes each morning that is causing the budget to be blown, it's the credit cards with 22% interest that is causing the issues.

I'll talk about what to look at once you have the basic idea of where your money is going and how to take that information and turn it into a realistic budget that will allow for a savings and building your financial foundation.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Weekly Salary	500	500	500	500
Rent	-300
Gas	-50	-50	-50	-50
Food	-100	-100	-100	-100
Phone		-100
Electric			-100
Car payment				-300
Car Insurance		-100
Credit card		-75	-100
Parking	-30	-30	-30	-30
Balance	20	45	120	20