Yes, this is an actual budget that you can create for yourself in less than 5 minutes.
An actual 5-minute budget.
As every budget begins, it begins by writing down your income for one month and your expenses for one month.
Budgets don’t have to be boring; this one is so quick it doesn’t have time to get boring. Back to the budget…
You can track your expenses for a month to get an idea or just an estimate for this budget.
If you are in the group of people who spend more than their income, which many people are, you will have to eliminate the least important things until your spending is equal to or less than your income.
The Important Money
Now, decide what is important to you. We will use an example budget with a net income of $2000. If giving or tithe is the most important to you, then determine how much you will give each month. Let’s say the typical 10%, which is $200 in our example. Now you will need to invest or at least save for retirement, so we will assume 20% for that, which is $400. Now add any other large saving item. Let’s say you are saving $200/month for a car.
Everything Else
Now that you know what is important, let’s add up the budget. This is what it looks like:
- Total Net Income: $2000
- Giving: $200
- Retirement: $400
- Car: $200
- The Rest of the Money: $1200
That was easy. Now, to make this work from this point, all you have to do is pay for these important items first. These items need to come out of your check before anything else. Now, you have to force everything else to fit in the rest of the income ($1200 in our example).
That’s it!
To summarize, you remove the important items first, then force yourself to fit everything else in.
This may not be the most effective budget, but it does the job and it is a great start. This budget doesn’t work for every situation since it is not very detailed, but many people will find it useful.
If you want more details, read this quick detailed budgeting series.
If you still hate budgets, read this.
Budgeting Tools We Recommend
Goodbudget: Track Your Spending With the Digital Envelope System
EveryDollar: A Basic and Effective Way to Track Your Spending