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Trying to figure out how to budget when there just isn’t enough money is stressful. Money affects just about every other aspect of your life. Especially when there isn’t enough of it. I know the feeling well. And I know it’s possible to get above water again.

How to budget when you don’t know where to start

What is a Budget?

A budget is how you decide where your money is going to go.

It is simply figuring it out before you spend the money, instead of just spending as you go and seeing what’s left at the end. Because there’s rarely anything left at the end this way.

But we are going to talk about what we need to do to have some money left over. This probably won’t be an instant fix. And over multiple blog posts I’m going to walk you through the steps to get your head above the water.

This post will mostly talk about getting set up. Knowing what you need to know to be able to move forward.

So let’s jump right in…

1. Get yourself a budget planner

I mean this in the most general terms. But let’s face it, I love any reason to get a new planner.

Now, this doesn’t have to be an actual planner. In a blog post about how we don’t have enough money for our bills, I’m not going to tell you to go out and by a planner. I’m also not going to tell you that you shouldn’t.

When should you buy a planner for your finances?

Let’s keep this simple. If having an actual planner to keep track of your finances in would make you more likely to budget and then stick to your budget, then go get yourself a fancy planner. (*this is me)

Some of my favorites are:

• the Erin Condren Deluxe Monthly Planner (my current budget planner)
• Erin Condren Notebooks (which you can see how I turned it into a budget planner here)
• Happy Planner Budget Expansion Kit or Budget Planners
• Living Well Planner (which has budgeting pages within each month)
• Erin Condren Budget Petite Planner

(Also, if you end up choosing one of the Erin Condren options, you can also get $10 off your order by creating an account through this link)

When should you NOT buy a budget planner

If you don’t need all that to get your budget going, I’ve got some ideas for you too. Because to be honest, any paper will do. You just need something to write on. It’s not like the paper is going to follow through with the budget for you. You are the one doing all the hard work and making this happen! You don’t need anything fancy. So here are the free or really low cost ideas to get started:

• Scratch paper. Although I recommend doing something that will keep all your pages together. Something like a folder or even stapling will do. I want you to save all your budgets and the trackers that you will be making.
• 25 cent notebook. You know those cheap spiral notebooks that they sell by the dozens during late summer and fall (a.k.a. right now) for back to school? These are perfect because they will hold everything together in one place, but they are super budget friendly! And actually, any notebook would do. So if you wanted to spend a couple dollars and get the one with the glittery unicorn on the cover to add a little fun to it, go for it!
• 3 ring binder. If you are anything like my family, you’ve got about a dozen of these laying empty around the house (same goes for the spiral notebooks mentioned just above). These are a great way to hold together any loose budgeting papers and keep them all in the same place. Added bonus, you can even add in dividers.

Honorable mention: Free phone or tablet apps. These will work great for some people. For me though, I really need to see it on paper for it to make sense in my head. But hey, if that’s what helps you master your budget, then you do you!

My favorite budgeting app is EveryDollar.

Why do you need a budget planner?

Because it makes it so much easier to reference information and past budgets when they are all together in one central location. Old budgets are great to keep because you can go back and evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Figuring out YOUR budget might take some trial and error. If you don’t remember how much you put in each category or how much you spent in each category, you won’t know what to change in the next month to make your budget work better.

And whichever type of planner you choose, the main goal is just to keep all your financial information together so you always know where to find it.

2. Know where you stand

In order to move forward, it’s so important to know where you are starting from. This usually isn’t a fun part. It’s so much easier to just “estimate” and coast by. But after the initial shock, then it feels pretty liberating to actually know what your situation really is instead of just guessing.

And coasting by isn’t going to help us make progress. Progress takes action. And we want progress.

I’ve created a free printable that you can download and use to help you figure out where you are starting out financially. These would be great to add into your budget planner. Not only so you can use them as reference (they contain some important information), but also so you can look back later and see how far you’ve come.

How much do you make?

First, you’ve got to know how much you have coming in.

Make a list of all your income for a month. Use the net numbers (not the gross). You want to know what you are actually bringing home, not how much you make before taxes. Make sure to include all your income, if you have more than one source.

If your pay varies drastically each check, look back on the past few months and figure out an average of what you make each month.

Now take a minute to reflect. Is this more or less than you thought it was? Or have you figured it out before and you already knew what it is?

What is going out?

This means actual bills. This includes rent/mortgage, car payments, utilities, insurance, cell phone, internet/cable, and debt payments. You can also include any subscription services like Netflix or Amazon Prime..

And don’t forget the things that happen every year or few months, like car tag renewals. Take the total amount and divide it by 12 (or by 6 if it happens every 6 months, etc.).

The things that we aren’t going to worry about right now are categories like food (including eating out), gasoline, and any other spending money. We will get to those later.

How much do you owe?

The last thing to figure out is how much you owe. If you are debt free, fantastic! You have a much easier road ahead of you (plus you can skip this step).

List out every company and person that you owe money to and how much the total balance is.

This includes things such as family, credit cards, car loans, mortgage, personal loans, and student loans. And anything else you can think of that counts as a debt.

I also like to write down details such as minimum payment, due date, and interest rate. Those will come in handy later and it will be nice to not have to look them up again.

After figuring out each individual debt, add up the total amount. This is probably the least fun number during this process.

3. Now that you know where you stand…

What comes next?

Now that you know where you are, you need to start evaluating where you are.

Are you making enough money to cover your bills, and still have money left over to buy food, gas, and other necessities?

If not, you have two options: Reduce your expenses/spending and/or make more money.

What can you do to reduce costs?

• Which bills can be lowered? (Insurance, cell phones, internet services)
• Which bills could be eliminated? Do you really use both cable/satellite and Netflix/Hulu enough to spend the money on both of them? Which services could you cut out? Or maybe you could cut them all out temporarily while you get back to stable ground.
• Are there small debt balances that could easily be paid off to eliminate those minimum payments?
• Are there areas that you are spending in that you could reduce? Instead of eating out frequently, you could eat at home more or pack your lunch. Or meal planning around the grocery sales. (For lots of tips for saving money while grocery shopping, I highly recommend Fun, Cheap or Free!)

What can you do to increase your income?

I don’t want to just give you a list of side jobs you can do to earn money. There are tons of blog posts already out there with much better ideas than I have. But what I can do is tell you some of the things that I’ve done to earn extra money. Like:

• Asking for a raise or promotion.
• Finding a new job (especially if your current job also isn’t fulfilling).
• Find an additional job (especially something that can be done in your spare time).
• Start a blog or Etsy shop (check and check).

None of these are especially easy. But they are ways I have been able to earn more money than I was already getting. Do some research. There are tons of opportunities out there.

Free Printable Worksheet

I wanted to make sure this process was as easy as possibly, so I designed two pages of printable worksheets to walk you through the steps I talked about above.

You can get them by filling out the form below, and once you confirm you will get a link to download the PDF.

These are for your personal use only and may not be shared or sold to others. If you know someone who would also benefit from them, please send them to this post so they can download it themselves. Thanks!

I believe that you can make this happen. You can get your head above water! I know how hard it feels now, but don’t give up! You need to make the decision that you are done with how you have been living, and that it is time to make a change. You got this!