Budgeting

When you put a budget together, you are going to need to monitor your progress at the end of each month to ensure you are keeping on track.

Here are four quick tips you can use to ensure that you are indeed living within your budget:

1. Add a column to your monthly budget can call it "actual"

2. Pull all of your spending records together. Be sure ton include cash receipts, bank statements and check registers. Add up both your income (from your check register) and expenses.

3. Record all of the amounts in the appropriate "actual" column

4. Calculate the totals for the month

What you find may shock you, especially if you have just started working with a budget. While your situation may be different, the most common culprits for going over your monthly budget are these six:

1. You simply overlooked an expense or debt when you put your budget together

These situations can be discouraging because it will likely mean that you'll have to cut back somewhere else.

2. Your budget simply wasn't realistic to begin with

You cut it too far. There is no way you can live under a budget that's not realistic. There is no sense in wasting time putting a bogus budget together as it won't do you any good in the end.

3. You or your family members didn't try hard enough

When putting a budget together, it's critical that the entire family is on board and is willing to make the needed sacrifices.

4. Expenses that were beyond your control

Maybe the cost of gasoline went up 50 cents during the past month. Or your son had a car accident that caused your car insurance premium to go up.

5. You endured an unexpected expense during the month

Perhaps your car wouldn't pass inspection unless you bought four new tires, or you had to work late at the office the past 3 weeks, causing your child care expense to skyrocket.

6. A drop in income

This has become more and more common. Pay reductions, layoffs, sales commission that is lower, or maybe a client didn't pay you. All of these things can and do happen - especially during a recession.

Depending on your situation, you may have to make adjustments to your budget for the coming months to help offset some of these issues. If you've got to increase the amount of one expense, but back another expense by the same amount. If your income has dropped, do your best to cut expenses evenly across the board so that no one member of your family feels like they are getting the short end of the stick.

If you find that some of your expenses actually came in lower than you budgeted for, don't get too excited just yet. It's best to let the budget ride for a few months to see if these lower expenses were a one time deal, or if they are the real deal. If you still see that the budgeted amount was too high, take that extra cash and start paying more on your highest interest debt. When that debt is retired, move on to the next highest, etc.

Your budget needs to be viewed as a constant work in progress. It's always going to have to be adjusted to reflect current circumstances in your life. But, the faster you learn to live within your budget and any needed adjustments, the faster you'll start paying off your debts. Not only that, but you'll find that you'll be able to start to add some nice extras to your budget as well! You'll also get to the point where you can start building your savings so that you'll have a financial safety net, should you ever need it.

If you are able to continually monitor your budget every month, be careful in your spending habits, and minimize your use of credit, you'll come out on top in the end. Imagine how great it will feel when you are in the position to make your family financial goals come true!