More on The Budget

Now that the ledger has been drawn out, it's time to make the entries. Enter every amount of income and every expense for a month. Ideally you should do this for 3 months to show a trend. Taking the time to do this will give you an accurate picture of your personal finances.

From here you can begin to examine your regular expenses such as utilities, mortgage payment, food, credit card debt, car insurance, home insurance, personal insurance, right down to spending money, clothing and ANYTHING else you spend money on.

The goal is to get our personal finances under control. When the month is over, is there anything left?

After you have done this over one month, you can begin to itemize the areas of concern. You will begin to ask questions about you mortgage rate, your credit card debt, your utility company rates.