Fully Man

I’m starting up my blog again with. I know what you’re thinking,

“Here’s the return of the blog that nobody asked for.” 

True as that may be, I’m back. Deal with it.

I’m even starting up a new feature! Man-Up Monday. Wherein on Mondays I’ll share with you man knowledge. Some of it will come from my own brain, some of it will come from elsewhere, and some will come from guest contributors (any takers?) For that minority that wasn’t thinking the above statement allow me to introduce my first topic for Man-Up Monday . . .
Making a budget

Few things are more boring than making a budget. Not that that’s out of the way let me continue by saying few things are more rewarding than making a budget. Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of making a budget.

Pros

• You’ll always know how much money you have
• You’ll always know where you money is being spent
• You can adjust your spending habits to save more or less money
• You never have to feel guilty about spending as long as you stay in the budget.

Cons

• You’ll have more money than you know what to do with. 

As you can tell from the above list I really like using a budget. So let’s get started. 

Getting Started

Without a doubt the best way to make and keep to a budget is using Microsoft Excel or a comparable program. You can do a budget without a computer (who are you and how are you reading this blog?) but it is much easier with one. Excel is by far and away the best program. But there is freeware from Open Office that will do just fine. Before we make the sheet there are a couple of questions you need to figure out. Here are a few,

How much do I make in a month? (I do my budget by month but you can do yours by week.)

What do I want to save for?

What are things I have to pay? (Things like rent, food, and car insurance)

How much do I pay for the things I have to pay for?

Have you figured out the answers? No? Too bad we’re moving on any ways. 

Design

Sorry about the quality :(

Here’s a shot of how I set up my budget.

You’ll see that I’ve itemized every expense (blue arrow).

Itemize? That mean’s I’ve specifically noted every expense and subtracted it from what I make every month. By the way, you don’t need to know how poor I really am so I made up the numbers. But I assure you I don’t clear 60K per year.

Also, you’ll notice that I have tabs on the bottom (Pictured above, black arrow). These tabs further itemize all my expenses. Let’s take a closer look at the “food” tab.

I'll try for better pics on the next post. But you get the idea.

You see that on the left I’ve included the date (blue arrow), the place I spent the money (black arrow), and how much I spend (yellow arrow). You’ll also notice that the number on the right keeps going down. The reason it’s going down is because Excel is automatically subtracting based on a formula I put in.

Pretty cool, right?

At this point you’re asking, “how can I make an awesome budget like this?” I’m not gonna tell you this week.

Come back next week and I’ll get into the nitty gritty of making your own budget.

It’s good to be back . . .

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