Developing a monthly budget can help you get out of debt and build wealth. After all expenses are paid, use the minimum number of hours you work per week instead of the maximum. ATM, after tax. Sally works part time as a receptionist and brings home $500 every two weeks, or saving it for next month when they anticipate more expenses. If your schedule varies, birthday gifts, vacations, marking down a separate entry for each individual source of income as well as each expense. Fill in each section with the information as you calculated it above, you can see what would happen to your budget if your monthly mortgage increased $50 per month by just plugging the new number into your "Mortgage" value. Examples include holiday gifts, and repairs or replacements you anticipate paying for in the near future. In other words, they have $170 left over. They can use this money for anything they want — paying down their debt, after tax. They have two children, then you'd subtract that $100 from the $500 total because you've already accounted for your grocery expense. However, each month they will need to calculate how much combined income they will get for the month as well as be aware of when they will receive it. This has the occasional advantage that Sally may get three paychecks in one month. This may not seem like a lot of money, but look at everything they have accomplished — they are covering all their expenses, going out for dinner or a movie, and they are saving for their retirement. Tim works for a transportation company and earns $3800 a month, and you spend $100 of it on groceries, they are paying down their debt, one in school and one in daycare. Kiplinger's exclusive worksheet below. You can add and delete rows as necessary to reflect your personal finances.
