Planning a personal financial budget does not have to be difficult. It also does not mean you have to give up anything you are already spending your money on. A budget is simply away of helping to ensure that you don't run out of cash before you run out of month.

A budget can also help you to realize where it is that you need to adjust your spending habits in order to afford other things that you may feel are more important. Maybe you are wanting to take a vacation but you never seem to have the extra money to do so. Well if you stick to a monthly budget and avoid impulse spending you may find that you actually do have the funds to enjoy a vacation.

If you are ready to put in a little elbow grease and really work out a budget that you can stick to it can really make a huge difference in your daily life. You will always know where you are at financially and you may be more prepared to deal with little emergencies that can come up along the way.

To get started with your monthly budget you are going to need a few things. First of all you will need to gather up your monthly bills, including your utility bills, credit card statements and also mortgage and loan statements. It is very important to have all your bills together so you can look them each over and be sure not to miss anything.

Ok, now that you have collected all your bills lets take a look at a good base for a starting budget:

• Household @ 35%
• Transportation @ 15%
• Debt @ 15%
• Savings @ 10%
• Living Expenses @25%

When you start out with your budget you will want to allocate approximately 35% of your monthly income towards household expenses. These expenses include

• Mortgage or rent
• House insurance
• Utilities

Next you will need to deal with your transportation expenses. this should be about 15% of your monthly income. This can include but is not limited to:

• Vehicle payments
• Vehicle insurance
• Gas
• Bus or cab fares

Next you will want to be putting 10% into savings every month. This is probably one of the most important aspects of a budget. It is not a good idea to live from pay cheque to paycheque without something to fall back on. Be sure an put your saving away first and foremost. You will want to save short term and long term so put 5% of your monthly income away for each.

Dealing with debt causes alot of stress if it gets out of control so it is vital to you and your budget to allow for at least 15% of your income to go towards paying off your debts. Such as:

• Credit Cards
• Loans
• Lines of Credits
• department store credits

Always try to make more then the minimum payment. If you only ever pay the minimum it will take forever for you to pay off these debts and the interest can be brutal.

 The last thing you need to deal with is personal living costs. For this you will need about 25% of your monthly income and you will cover cost such as:

• Clothing
• personal effects
• groceries for the month
• eating out and
• entertainment

Also any other cash you will need for gifts and such.

 Now that you now what you will be working with it is time to start working towards making your budget work for you. All of your basic monthly costs as covered in household, transportation, debt and savings should run approximately the same every month. So go ahead and work out what you can afford for each category.

It is best if you can set up all your monthly payments to come out of a different account then what you will use for your everyday spending. This way when your paycheque comes in you can put cash in one account for your fixed expenses and you will not have to worry about accidently using that money somewhere else.

The harder part to deal with is the living costs. This can change from month to month making it hard to keep your budget on track. A great way to figure out what you are actually spending and where you are spending it is to carry an envelope with you and keep every reciept you get. Then after a month sit down and go through your reciepts to see where you are spending. From here you will be able to decide if there are things you need to cut out in order to make you budget work for you.

A little thing like stopping for a coffe every day at your favorite coffee shop may not seem like it is having an impact on your budget but on further investigation you may decide that cutting out that coffee may be the difference in getting other items you feel are more important. Like the above mentioned vacation.

The most important part to creating a budget you can stick to is to not make it unbearable. Slowly changing your spending habits and tweaking your budget on a monthly basis is the key to finally sticking to your budget.