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Step 1
Learn how and where you spend your money. Stopping for a beer after work and renting a couple of movies on a Friday night doesn't seem like much, but every expense adds up. Get a small notebook and write down every penny you spend for a few weeks, to start seeing your spending patterns and what your expenses actually are (rather than what you think they are).
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Step 2
Create an ongoing spreadsheet listing what you spend, where and when. This will help you track patterns and inconsistencies.
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Step 3
Rank your spending priorities from the essentials (food, utilities, mortgage payments, medical costs) to the nice-to-haves (home improvement, vacations) and the luxuries (new car, high-end gadgets, designer clothes). Use what you learned from tracking your expenses to prioritize your spending. See 2 Set Priorities.
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Step 4
Factor fixed expenses into your budget, such as your mortgage, tuition or car payment, food costs and tuba lessons. Include annual expenses such as insurance payments and taxes.
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Step 5
Pay fixed expenses and bills first and live on what's left. Save up for what you want rather than buying it and then paying it back-- with interest. See 15 Live With Less and 227 Get Out of Debt.
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Step 1
Get an estimated head count of attendees and determine how much money you have available to spend.
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Step 2
Split the event into components (food, alcohol, entertainment, security, decorations) and prioritize them. Call around and get a range of options and prices for each component.
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Step 3
Compare those prices with what you have to spend: If there's a big discrepancy, start slashing low-priority items. Make a cake instead of buying one; hire a DJ rather than a band.
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Step 4
Continue paring back until your expenses equal your budget. If you simply can't reconcile the two, make additional cuts or increase the budget and find ways to bring money in.
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Step 5
Add money to your kitty by asking for contributions, splitting costs with other people, having volunteers take on critical tasks, or bringing in revenue from outside sources. See 381 Plan a Fund-Raising Event.










Comments
Chrissierulz said
on 5/8/2007 Being a university student Ive found myself running into a mountain of debt in recent months on unecessary consumer goods, some of which i already own. The article may come across as nothing new but it requires, and emphasises willpower to succeed. To budget, I now find it a lot easier to spend cash via withdrawal of a strict amount each week, avoiding my credit cards. With this constraint we may think twice before making another unworthy purchase.
question said
on 1/2/2007 I have recently had a chance of using a Personal Finance Software package by Australian business Parcus Group - Personal Finance Associate.
The product is very good. For the AU$29 it costs, you get budgeting, financial planning templates as well as advanced features that typically cost loads more as separate software packages such as investment real estate calculations (mainly based on rental cash-flow analysis) as well as some value based shares valuations (based on Warren Buffet's stock valuation methodology)
Their website is www.parcusgroup.com
For anyone interested in their own wealth creation this product is definitely worth looking at.