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So, you’re ready to create a budget and looking for a quick and easy solution to get started? Well, you’ve found the right place. In this post I’m about to show you how to create a budget, quickly and easily.
Before we get started, I need to tell you, budgeting changed my life!
Actually, I’d even go so far as to say budgeting saved my life!
I know that sounds sort of weird. I mean, those probably no more boring and dry a topic than budgeting, let alone personal finance. When the subject used to come up years ago, my eyes would glaze over. I thought at the time I was doing pretty well in life.
Turns out I wasn’t. But that’s another story.
If you’re carrying debt like I was, you’re probably wanting to pay off that debt fast.
I was sick and tired of paying all that interest to the banks.
I get it. I’ve been there!
Alternatively, if you’re not in debt you’re probably looking to be able to save more money. Doing so means you can get ahead faster.
I get that too! I’m currently at the stage of my journey where I’m working hard to increase my savings.
Whether you’re paying off debt or you just have a savings goal, either way a budget is going to help. It will help you get your money under control.
A good budgeting system will get you where you want to be, faster.
This is what happened when I created a budget that worked
I was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before I found a budgeting system that worked. Once I got a good system in place I was able to pay off $5,000 of debt inside 6 weeks.
The budgeting system showed me where I needed to cut my expenses. I was able to see how much money I could use to repay debt without creating a problem. Finally, I was then able to work to move debt around so I wasn’t paying as much interest.
All this helped me save money on interest payments and pay down debt faster.
The most important aspect of it all though was that it clearly laid out a plan for me. I had all my income and expenses mapped out before me.
This removed my stress and worry about not knowing if and when I could afford things. I knew well in advance exactly how much I’d have in my account every week for years into the future.
Because of this, all I had to do was focus on sticking to the plan.
When I was going to be overdrawn I knew weeks or months in advance. This meant I could work to reduce my expenses or bring in some extra income before that problem hit me.
All of a sudden, bank overdraft charges became a thing of the past. From there everything snowballed in the right direction and life got better and easier day by day.
Just 3 years later I went on to clear over $150,000 of debt to become debt free.
It was the most amazing feeling to clear the last of my debts.
After three years of sticking to a plan I was free.
Trust me, there’s no greater feeling than paying off the last of your debts. It feels amazing!
But what I found truly amazing was that after this it was so much easier to reach newer heights once I was out of debt.
During those three years I had formed such incredible habits that I was able to grow a savings account with ease.
My savings started to build up at a phenomenal rate.
After all, I was no longer paying interest to the banks but was instead earning it.
Just a year after clearing my debt my partner and I achieved a dream that had seemed impossible.
We bought a house together!
And believe me, that is no easy feat given the impossible house prices where we live.
As you can imagine, with such success, I’ve learned more than a few tips, tricks and strategies to achieve financial success through budgeting.
The foundation of my success was a budgeting system that I created that works wonders!
As you search for information on how to create a budget, chances are you’ll find many sites telling you to create a typical family budget. A typical family budget is normally a monthly budget outlined on a single sheet of paper.
This single sheet will list your income and expenses to give you a sum total of what you have left.
I call this a simple monthly budget.
Creating a simple monthly budget
Simple monthly budgets are indeed simple and straight-forward. Compared to the budgeting system responsible for my success, a simple monthly budget lacks the power you need to take control of your finances.
That power and control will ensure you hit your financial goals faster.
Whilst these simple budgets have their place, I don’t like monthly budgets for a bunch of reasons.
They provide a basic approach to creating a budget. I tend to think they are overly simplistic and really limited. I use a spreadsheet for my budgeting which is simple, easy and powerful.
But at the end of the day, some people love printing out a budget template and filling them in.
I prefer a spreadsheet that can calculate and recalculate all my figures on the fly so I can see what’s happening, even when I make changes.
It makes keeping the budget updated really easy leaving me with more time to spend on things I love.
My time is important to me so my budgeting system had to be quick and easy!
I also keep a weekly budget rather than monthly.
Among other benefits, doing so makes lighter work of entering your expenses each week; freeing up even more time.
More importantly, a weekly budget allows you to react faster to overspending or unexpected expenses.
When this happens you will be able to correct yourself, avoid being knocked off track and continue toward successfully hitting your goals.
Investing some time on your budget by filling it out by hand instills a certain degree of ownership and accountability. This has a strong psychological influence in helping you stick to your budget. But I tend to find that I get this with a budget spreadsheet.
Now let me save you some time…
If you’re looking to create a simple monthly budget and you’d prefer to print it and fill it out by hand then I can save you a bunch of time. After all this post is about helping you create a budget fast.
In fact, permit me to save you time and stack a bunch of free goodies on top to help you on your way to financially better times!
Here’s a free simple monthly budget template!
I’ve got a free eBook “Beginner’s Budgeting: 4 Steps to putting money back into your pocket fast”.
This book is going to save you needing to create a budget on your own!
I’ll explain why in a second…
The Beginners Budgeting ebook takes you through the four key steps to create a budget. It’s an easy read but packed with valuable, actionable content to get you up and running with a budget fast!
Get the free budgeting eBook + printable budget template
You can get a copy of the Beginner’s Budgeting eBook for free by signing up to my mailing list below:
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You’ll need to confirm your email before getting access to the eBook. You can then read it on your computer or phone, or download it to your computer to print out and read offline.
It includes a monthly budget template PLUS emergency fund cheat-sheets for free
And, because I think you’re awesome for looking to get your finances in order, you’ll not only get my free budgeting eBook.
I’ll be throwing in some bonuses!
In addition to the free budgeting eBook you’ll also get a copy of my monthly budget printable to get you started.
No need to create a budget now!
Just download and print the free budget template and then use the free Budgeting eBook to help you understand how to get started.
You’ll also get a set of printable Emergency Fund Challenge cheat-sheets to help you save over $1200 in the next year. Here’s a couple of articles that explain the Emergency Fund Challenges:
- 12 Month Emergency Fund Challenge
- How to Save a $1,378 Emergency Fund and Have Fun Doing It!
If you don’t have an emergency fund yet you need to start thinking about that. The challenges make saving for a fund a little more fun and they are particularly good if you have children to get them involved.
Now, don’t run off just yet. I have more.
This free monthly budget printable can be used to get started with a basic budget. The steps inside the budgeting eBook will help you start budgeting quickly and get some idea what’s happening with your finances.
If you’re looking to create a budget fast then this printable is your solution!
BUT…
If you want to get on top of your finances faster and see financial problems months in advance so you can deal with them before they happen then you should get a copy of the budget spreadsheet I use.
This spreadsheet gives you much better visibility of your finances and helps you stick to your budget more easily. It will help you:
- get to a place where you have a better understanding of your cash
- you’ll feel more in control of your money
- you’ll be able to map out a workable plan to hit your financial goals leaving you free to just focus on sticking to the plan to achieve success
- and, ultimately, it will help reduce or remove all that stress and anxiety your probably feel about your money and your bills
This is the budget spreadsheet I use!
I can guarantee that it is way more powerful than any simple monthly budget. After all, it helped me pay off over $150,000 of debt in 3 years.
It’s only $9, but this comes with $97 of extra bonus goodies!
The spreadsheet template comes complete with the following:
- Lifetime access to my cash flow budget spreadsheet template.
- A copy of my eBook explaining The Cash Envelope System a prove method for helping you stick to a budget, particularly if you’re a bit of an over-spender! This is an incredible strategy will teach you how it works so you can keep on track with your budget and hit your financial goals.
- My Cash Envelope printable template so you can create your own cash envelopes at home on your printer and save a little more money.
- A set of Debt Tracking Printables to help you get your debt in check quickly and easily.
I hope you find the above helpful. Budgeting has truly changed my life.
And it is for this reason that I’m offering this bundle of products for such as a low price. I’m determined to help people just like you get to the amazing feeling of being debt free or saving money for that dream home, car or retirement fund.
But, here’s the thing…
…I’m not alone.
The $9 budgeting spreadsheet has changed other people’s lives too
My budget spreadsheet has already helped other readers of my blog achieve amazing success.
One of my favourite stories from one of the readers of my blog, Elizabeth, began using my $9 spreadsheet.
Elizabeth and her husband were able to pay off $25,000 of debt, to become completely debt free in just 8 months!
She originally wrote to me in December 2017 after getting the budget template in September that year. She sent me the following:
If it weren’t for your spreadsheet, My husband and I wouldn’t be paying off around 22k of debt and helping us also put money aside in emergency cash. We didn’t have to ask family for a loan 2 wks back when our suv broke down, we paid for the parts ourselves and fixed it. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if I hadn’t ran into your blog and got the spreadsheet. Every budgeting sheet i tried before never helped. So Thank you for providing the tools we needed. I found and started the spreadsheet on July 21st 2017 and in March 2018 We will be 100% debt free!
And then in March 2018 she updated me excitedly to tell me:
I thought I would update you since the last time we emailed! I’m happy to say We have paid off everything with the exception on on credit card of $4000 We have added it up And we have paid off around $24000-$25000 after this last Credit Card is paid off. I can’t thank you enough for the tools you have given me to help my family become debt free in 8 months! Thank you so Much! ~ Elizabeth
I can tell you, that email made my year!
You can do this too!
If you want to be achieving what Elizabeth and I have managed to achieve then get my $9 budget spreadsheet today. Every day you put this off is another day you’re delaying making a positive change and achieving your financial dreams.
You may very well be in a hole like I was. You may very well have a lofty goal of saving a large mound of cash to buy a house or save for retirement. Either way getting there is a step by step process. Starting with the first step is the most important.
I buried my head in the sand for too long and slid deeper into a mess. That mess was avoidable. I just needed to take action. I just needed to make a decision right then and there that I was going to take that first step.
When I made the decision to get my finances under control my world changed for the better. Looking back, I truly wish I’d done it earlier. I would have saved thousands had I got a budget in place sooner.
And there’s no denying it can be hard. Particularly if you’re in a mess like I was. But it gets easier as you make progress, just keep going!
Let me know how you get on
If you do happen to pick up my $9 budget planner bundle please do let me know how you get on.
I’m always keen to hear other people’s success, it really does make my year, let alone my day!
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