9 Ways to Create a Monthly Budget if You Don’t Have One

4) Make a Plan

Once you’ve completed a month of tracking your expenses, it’s time to make a plan. With the information you’ve gathered, you’ll be able to see how much you need for necessities, and how much you spend on non-essentials. Use this information as a guide to formulate a budgetary plan. You’ll be much better able to predict, with a fair level of accuracy, where your money is going each month. Once you’ve included your fixed expenses, you can continue tracking your variable ones if they tend to change often. You can even go as far as to break your non-essential expenses into categories of absolute needs, and those that are just wants. From there, make a wish list. Keep it handy and each month pick something from the list. That way you don’t buy everything at once and can therefore add to your savings.