How to Make Home Budget Charts

Set aside money for bills to avoid late payments.

Creating a home budget chart can help families keep track of incoming and outgoing funds on a monthly basis. Financial crisis can happen unexpectedly in any family if a job loss or sudden illness occurs, but families commonly find themselves slowly sinking into debt due to overspending. A credit card purchase here and there can slowly add up to a mounting financial problem. Tracking expenses and controlling purchases on a regular basis can help families ensure they stay on budget and even put away funds for emergency situations.

Things You'll Need

• Ruled paper
• Pen
• Calculator
• Ruler

Instructions

1. Draw a vertical line through the center of the ruled page, then draw another vertical line in the center of the right half of the page, so you have three columns, and the lines of the paper become the rows. On the first line, write "Monthly Take-Home Income." Skip 10 lines, and write "Monthly Living Expenses" on the eleventh line.

2. Under the income heading, write all the different sources of income applicable to your family, one per line. Salary, Social Security pay, pension benefits, alimony, interest payments, real estate income, unemployment and royalties are all common income categories.

3. Create a list of expenses and write them out underneath the expenses heading. Rent or mortgage, food, household items, utility bills, trash service, automobile expenses, car and student loans, insurance and entertainment (such as Internet, club memberships, etc.) are all common expenses. Anything that occurs monthly belongs in this category.

4. Fill in the chart using your actual numbers. Put income numbers in the second column and expenses in the third column. Add up the numbers to determine your income/expense ratio.

5. Determine whether you have a surplus or a shortage of funds. If you have a surplus, you should try to put this amount into a savings account or use it to pay off loans or debts. If you have a shortage, you will want to look at your actual expenses and determine where they should be cut. For instance, if your cable and Internet expense is $150, you may opt to reduce the services you pay for to reduce expenses.

6. Make copies of your budgeting sheet, and fill it out once a month. If you are trying to reduce expenses, track your progress and hold yourself accountable to meeting your budgeting goals.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have a computer, you can create a spreadsheet to track your income/expenses.

References

• Consumercredit.com: Budgeting
• Budgeting Basics