How to Create a Weekly Planner

Video Transcript

"Hi. My name is Bill Rae. I'm with Alumni Financial Services. I've been the finance and the business world for well over 30 years. Today's questions is how to create a weekly planner. What we're going to do is we're going to take you, first of all, in order to create a weekly planner, I think you really ought to look at a bigger picture and go for a monthly budget or a monthly planner. It will also help you to project out for a full year. In other words, get an idea of what you're going to be doing all year round and then break it back slowly into small increments. So whether you're doing a monthly, semi-annual, annual or a weekly planner, if we're talking about budgeting, there's a few things you're going to want to keep track of. First of all, you're going to want to list all of your expenses, what are the things you actually spend on. Of course, you're going to need to offset that with your income. Now, when it gets down to expenses, you can do something as simple as on a pad of paper. You can write down where you're spending your money to start with. There are many other books on the market. You can go to any one of the office locations and buy little generic books where you can keep track of things. But the idea is to begin to record every time you spend a dollar. If you haven't done this, it's going to take a little bit of time to get it under control so don't sweat the small stuff. But, basically you're going to want to break down categories. Are you renting or paying mortgage? Do you pay electric or gas? What about cable, satellite, Internet, water, sewer, phones, food? Now, interesting thing about food, in your food category, a lot of folks like to just lump food and think that's all they want when I go to the grocery store to spend for what I got in my refrigerator. But they don't count stopping at McDonalds or going out on a nice night as in that budget. Quite frankly, that's what you should do. Okay. So, the question again is how to create a weekly planner. You can go on and you can create these things as complex as on a computer system with a little database. You can go into a store, you can get something as simple as this, where you have a file folder and you can write down your bills and you can use folders such as this. What I recommend when you're first starting, however, and this will really really help those of you trying to maintain control of your budget is go back to the old simple days of little white envelopes. Now on this one here, I have insurance, auto, (insurance could be life/health), food, water, electric... . You get the idea. Now if you really really want to get on top of this thing, what you would do, is if you're paid let's say every 2 weeks, and you know you're planning to budget $400 a month for food. So on the first, you would put $200 in here and then again on the 15th, you would put $200 in here. If you really want to get this system down quick, put it in cash. And that way there, when you go out to buy food, whether it's going to the grocery store or you want to skip down to the local fast food restaurant and get a double cheeseburger, look in this envelope. Only take money out of this envelope. When it's like this, you don't get to spend. You have to put more money in. Now if that means that's empty on the 12th, and you're not scheduled to put money in until the 15th, guess what? You don't get to spend. However, I always recommend when people are starting a budget, the first month you're really kind of getting an idea of where you're going. Adjust for the 2nd month and you might even find some major adjustments going for the first 2-3 months. So, don't get too upset if by the 10th you have no money here. So for the first couple of months if you have to, of course, you can adjust slightly. But I encourage you, don't get in the habit. If you go this method, when it's empty don't spend. That's just the beginning. I wish that I had hours to explain it to you but it is crucial to start a budget to know what you're going to spend and where you're going to spend. Plan all your shopping trips. Make sure that you have the money set aside and stick to it. My name's Bill Rae. I'm with Alumni Financial Services and always were here to help YOU save money."