1. The desire to control your money
2. A list of all of your bills and monthly minimums
3. Your paycheck amount
4. Pen or pencil
5. Paper
6. About an hour every week
7. Calculator
8. Computer with Spreadsheet Program (optional)

Now that you have all of your supplies, you can start putting your budget together.

Write down all of your bills. Don't worry about the order. Just make sure that you write down every single bill that you have to pay. Some of the most common bills are:

-Food
-Mortgage/Rent
-Clothing
-Electric
-Oil/Gas
-Car Payment
-Car Insurance
-Health Insurance
-Life Insurance
-Homeowners/Renters Insurance
-Credit Cards
-Student Loans
-Personal Loans
-Cable
-Telephone
-Cell Phone
-Internet

You may have more or you may have less. It doesn't matter how many bills you have, you still need to write all of them down. Don't be afraid of using more than one sheet of paper if you have too (hopefully you won't)!

Now, next to each bill that you have written down, write down the minimum payment that needs to be made. Be sure to use the minimum even if you are currently paying more than the minimum. The number can be adjusted later on.

Are you finished? Good. Now take a long hard look at all of the bills that you have written down and make sure that you haven't left anything off.

Are you currently being paid by the hour, on commission, or salary? Is your paycheck the same each and every week or does it fluctuate? This is a very important question that you need to answer. Why? Because when you are budgeting your money, you need to know the minimum amount that your paycheck will consistantly be.

If you are paid a salary and bring home the some amount each pay period, you can skip the next 2 paragraph.

COMMISSIONS
Many sales people are paid a base salary and then they are given commissions on top of that. If this is the case, you will be using your base salary to budget your money. This way you will not run into trouble if you don't make any sales! I hope that doesn't happen to you but it could. Being realistic is a huge part of budgeting your money.

HOURLY WAGES
If you get paid by the hour and have fluctuating hours, you need to figure out what the minimum amout of hours you would work. Hopefully that answer is 40. Let's assume that it is. Don't worry about the overtime you work just yet. You have to assume that your OT will be taken away from you. Again, I hope it doesn't but it might.

Now that you have figured out what your minimum paycheck will be, write that down at the top of the page. You only want to write down how much 1 paycheck will be. Don't figure out how much you make per month. Many other budgeting programs will tell you to figure out how much you make per month. Not this one. Chances are that if you are looking for a budgeting program that works, you are living paycheck to paycheck. If this is the case, why would you worry about 2, 3 or 4 paychecks down the line? Stay with me on this...you'll see where I'm going.

Let's break out the calculator and do some math!

If you have followed me this far, you should have your list of bills, your minimum payments for each of those bills, and your paycheck amount all written down on what was once a nice crisp piece of paper. If you don't, stop here, go back and review the steps. If you get confused, please ask for help.

Got it all? Good. You are now going to do the following for each and every one of your bills:

Divide the minimum payment by the # of times you get a paycheck per month

WEEKLY
For example...Let's say your cable bill is $120.00 each month and you get paid weekly. Since there are 4 weeks in every month, you would divide 120.00 by 4:

$120.00 / 4 = $30.00

BI-WEEKLY
For example...Let's say your cable bill is $120.00 each month and you get paid bi-weekly. Since there are 4 weeks in every month, you would divide 120.00 by 2:

$120.00 / 2 = $60

MONTHLY
If you get paid monthly, I am sorry. I had to deal with that during my first real teaching job in North Carolina. By the end of each month, all I had in the fridge was a bottle of catsup and some mayo! Anyway, if this your situation, you don't need to do any dividing.

Go ahead and do this for every single bill that you have written down. What you are doing is figuring out how much money you need to put towards each bill every week so that you will have the money to pay the minimum payment when it is due.

Now, take all of these pay-period amounts and them together and compare that sum to what you have written down about your paycheck. Hopefully the paycheck number is larger. If it is, you are in good shape. You have a lot of options for what to do with this extra money:

-Pay down bills more quickly
-Stash it in savings
-Invest it
-Give it to charity

If, after comparing the total of the pay-period amounts and your paycheck, your paycheck is the smaller number...you have a little problem. You have more money going out than you have coming in. Never a good thing. You too have some choices to make:

-Get a 2nd job to make up the difference
-Cut back on expenses by getting rid of cable, cell phone, home telephone, internet...)
- Get ready for the bill colletors to call if they haven't already started!

You are done! Congratulations on setting up your first budget! That wasn't so hard was it? I must stress one thing to you before I go. KEEP IT GOING!!!!! This is something you need to revisit every week, every month, every year. Once you know how much money you have compared to how much money you spend, you are controlling your money.

I have been using this system for years and it has never failed me once. I swear! If you don't like how this budgeting system works for you, I am sorry. All I can tell you is something that my father has told me for years and it still rings true...