Budgets: The How To Guide

An introductory guide to budgets. Learn how to make your first personal budget and stick with it. 

A lot of people have been asking me how I budget my money. In response to their questions I have decided to write a post about budgeting. This post will teach you how to start a budget if you don't have one or maybe give you some ideas for improvement if you already have one in place.

Why Budget?

You might think that you don't need to budget because you keep good track of your money anyways. You might also think that a budget would be too restrictive and stop you from doing the things you want to do. In my case I found this to be the opposite. Throughout university I lived without a budget because I thought I didn't need one. Whenever I needed more money I would just work more. In retrospect I realize that I could have done more with my money if I had just planned better. I did up my first budget when I was temporarily laid off from work. I had a limited budget to work with but I was able to make it work. I was still able to go out with my friends and buy things I wanted. Having a budget lets me know when I can do things and how much I can spend. Rather than just always thinking, "I don't have enough money to do that", I now know how much money I have every month and can plan how to use it wisely. Make a budget and feel the freedom I've experienced from having mine.

Where To Start

The first thing you need to do when making a budget is figure out how much money you make. Make sure you know you're actual take-home income, not your income before taxes. If you have a regular income this should be a lot easier for you, but if you have a variable income you'll have to figure out your average. I have a variable income and I always budget my income as being lower than it actually is just because it's easier to deal with extra money than not enough.

The next thing to do is figure out how much money you spend every month. This is the hard part. Before I started budgeting I thought I knew how much I spent every month, so  I made my first budget with those numbers. I realized quickly that I was generally off on what I thought I spent. It's fine if you're wrong at first because you'll learn through experience. With time you'll be able to make a solid budget you can easily work within.

Categories

When I first started my budget I used a sample one from Gail Vaz-Oxlade's website. It's a great start because it has almost every conceivable category of expenses. Choose the ones that apply to you. You might also find you want to add some categories of your own creation.

So once you have the categories that apply to you, you need to put in the amount you spend on each. It is easier to start with the fixed expenses, and then play around with what money you have left between the variable expenses.

Fixed and Variable Expenses

Everyone will have different categories for things they spend money on but they can all either be classified as fixed or variable expenses. Fixed expenses are things you can't change how much you pay a month. Examples of this would be rent, car loans and mortgage payments. Variable expenses are ones that fluctuate and you are able to control. Examples include groceries, gas and vacation.

It can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between fixed and variable expenses. I would consider a phone to be a variable expense because you can control what kind of plan you have. You might need a phone, but you decide how much you're willing to pay for it. Rent on the other hand you have no choice on, unless you move. I believe it's important to learn to distinguish between these terms because it will allow you be flexible when making a budget. 

The Life Pie

According to Gail Vaz-Oxlade, a healthy budget should be divided thus:

• 35% for housing (mortgage/taxes, rent, utilities, insurance, maintenance),

• 15% for transportation (car payments, gas, repairs, insurance, parking, transit),

• 10% for saving (long-term saving),

• 15% for debt repayment, and

• 25% for life (everything from groceries to entertainment, medical to childcare… In fact, everything that’s not in the other four categories.)

     (Vaz Oxlade, 2009)

The life pie is a good guideline to go by, but don't worry if your percentages are different from the ones Gail Vaz-Oxlade sets as guidelines. I like to use the pie to remind me that it's important to round out your expenses. Don't spend too much in any one category, otherwise it will take over all your other categories. For example does it make sense to spend 60% of your income on housing and have only 40% left for everything else? 


Sample Budget

Here is my own budget with percentages of income instead of dollar amounts. This is just a sample to show you how a budget could look. Everyone's budget will be different so make one just for you.

MONTHLY EXPENSES
Category	Percentage of Income
Rent	20.9
Hydro	1.0
Internet	1.6
Phones	2.5
Groceries	12.5
Household Supplies	6.3
Insurance-Apartment	0.8
Insurance-Car	4.1
Car Loan	7.5
Gas	4.0
Car Maintenance	1.9
Vacation	2.5
Family/ Gifts	2.0
Personal-Scott	6.3
Personal-Laura	6.3
Emergency Fund	3.8
Retirement-Laura	3.8
Retirement-Scott	3.8
House Savings	5.0
Medical	1.3
Cool Stuff	2.5
TOTAL	100.0

Some of the categories I use are pretty straight-forward, but let me explain a couple of the other ones:

Household supplies: This category includes anything related to running the household. Examples of this are toilet paper, vitamins and laundry. This category is a variable expense because the things we include in here change every month. 

Car Maintenance: I set aside money every month for car maintenance until it reaches a certain threshold, then I divert that money elsewhere. I think it's important to do this because a car can have a lot of unexpected expenses so it's best to be prepared for them. Oil changes, licence plate renewal and any other car maintenance would be included in this category. In order to decide how much money to put into this category, I would recommend figuring out how much all the regularly scheduled maintenance and assorted expenses are for your car yearly. Then add about 10-20% more for unexpected expenses. Divide that number by 12 and you should have the money you need to set aside every month. Remember that keeping your car in good working order will save you money down the road, so don't skimp in this category.

Family/ gifts: In our society there are so many occasions where gift giving is expected. These could be birthdays, weddings, retirement, holidays, etc... I prepare for this so that if we have a lot of commitments in one month and not that many in another it's not impossible to meet them all. I try to keep this category high as well because come Christmas you're going to be spending a lot in this category.

Personal-Scott/ Laura: Each month my husband and I get a set amount of money transferred to our personal accounts. What we do with that money is completely our own choice. We found this was the best system for separating personal and household expenses because each of us had different opinions on what it is important to spend money on. I value things like eating out, clothing and membership to clubs, whereas my husband places a high priority on technology. Rather than sharing a joint budget for these expenses, we leave it up to each other. For us personal is anything only the one person will enjoy, like a haircut, clothing or book. If we go on a date, then we can chose to split the bill or the one person can pay completely. We also use this category to buy gifts for each rather than the family/ gifts category so that they stay a surprise. Personally we love this system and find it works great for us. We don't argue about this money because we both agreed that what we do with our personal money is our own business. 

Medical: While we have some benefits through work and school, there are many medical expenses that are partially or not at all covered. I think most people will find they are in the same situation. Think about glasses, orthodontics and prescription footwear to name a few. We also allow over the counter medication to be included in this category rather than household supplies.

Cool Stuff: This category is one of my husband's favorites and he is always planning what we can do with it next. The purpose of this category is to purchase big ticket items that we want, but don't need. We set aside some money every month for it and then when we have enough we can buy that item. This works great because it gives to time to think about what you really want. You might want a big screen tv now, but in 4 months once you've saved enough money you might think it's not that important. In order to spend the money from this account we both have to agree. We periodically go over the list of things we want, roughly how much they will cost and a timeline for when we want them. We have a lot of fun with this category because we like thinking about what we might want and getting excited for when it arrives.

Excel

You might be wondering how best to keep track of your budget. Personally I use Excel for that purpose because I find it's super convenient. There are so many features like the ability to make pivot tables and graphs that make generating a budget quick and easy. 

Triple Paycheque Month

Like most people (I think) I base my monthly income on 2 paycheques. If you do this you'll find there are 2 months a year where you'll get 3 paycheques in those months. These are my favourite months because of all the extra money I get! I generally try to spend half the money on something necessary liking paying back loans or saving for retirement and the other half on something fun. It's important to plan in advance what you're going to spend the money on so you don't blow it on something you regret later.

Stick With It

You might be motivated to start your budget at first, but lose interest after awhile. Try your best to stick with it. The first few months are going to be hard and you'll probably be off budget a bit. That's ok though, because you'll learn what works for you. Once you get used to budgeting you'll find it easier to follow every month.