Creating a Budget and Increasing Your Income

By KatieFagan | 7 Comments | Rating: 2 | |

How to Budget, Save Money & Increase your Income

Budgeting your finances can be stressful. I recently moved out of my parents house for the first time, even better, I moved two states away. This means no support form them at all. I had to learn how to budget my finances for the first time and the hard way, on my own. Most people go into debt the first time they move away, but I didn't.

This article is going to show you how to budget your finances by coming up with a monthly spending plan, increase your budget, decrease your energy bill and make some extra cash easy. Did you know you could make cash fast by writing articles for free online and making a profit? Well, you can and it's just one of the many things I'm going to teach you today.

First I 'm going to teach you how to create your monthly spending plan by making a chart. Here's how:

• You're going to need either Microsoft Excel, or a piece of paper, pen/pencil or ruler.

• You're also going to need your bank statements, avg. rent and monthly income.

1. Your first column should be titled "Weekly Income." To find your weekly income you divide your monthly income total by 4. Underneath the title, write the weekly total 4x down. Directly below the last weekly total line, put "Monthly income," but replacing income with the actual amount.
2. Your next column title should be "Rent/Mortgage." Only type the monthly total rent or mortgage amount for rite now, we'll input the weekly in a little bit.
3. Your next column should be "Utilities." Now, the utilities bill tends to fluctuate so get an avg. amount. To get an average amount, add up the last 5 months total on this bill and then divide by 5, this is the average.
4. The next few columns should be any other bills you may have. For example, blockbuster, paying off a loan or debt, car insurance, etc. If you have too many, add them all up and make only one column for them. Make a note of this, including each bill you've added together and what their averages were, directly below the chart.
5. The next few columns should be the about the different things you mainly spend money on, for instance, cigarettes, food, gas, clothes, entertainment, etc. Once again if there is a lot then add them all together and make a note at the bottom.
6. The last two columns should read "Incidentals," and "Savings." Incidentals is money that you put aside for emergencies. Savings is what you put away to save, pretty simple.

• To get the last two columns amounts, add the total monthly amounts up for each column and subtract from the monthly income, this should give you the amount to divide up as you like between your incidentals and the savings.
  
• To find the weekly input for each column, divide the monthly total for the column by 4, you have your amount.
• If you're not satisfied with the outcome then make some cutbacks where you feel you can.
• This chart should help you understand your budget and get a hold on your finances. It can also show you how much money you need to set aside or limit yourself on for each column. If you don't trusts banks, since our economy isn't that great right now, then I'd suggest separating your money in envelopes or folders.

10 Ways to Decrease your Energy Bill

Now I'm going to give you 10 simple ways to decrease your energy bill, we all know how stressful and frustrating energy bills can be.

1. Replace your threshold gaskets on a regular basis.
   
2. Replace your windowpanes, they tend to get loose or cracks overtime which lets the airflow get in and out of your house.
3. Install a ceiling fan.
4. Buy a couple of inexpensive heaters or heating blankets.
5. Plug holes with foam.
6. Seal outlets and switches.
7. Insulate your attic and pipes.
8. Seal windows and doors with caulk.
9. Replace your weatherstrips regularly with v-strip weather strips.
10. Install new door sweeps.

There you have it, 10 simple inexpensive ways to decrease your energy bill. There are so many other do it yourself jobs like this can help you achieve the same goal.

5 Websites to Make Money Off of Writing

Now here are 5 simple websites to make money off of writing 5 articles a day for a profit. The sites are free to use and you get paid for your work. As long as you have some spare time and simple basic knowledge of writing and the internet, you can be successful. The is extra income to add to your savings or monthly spending plan.

1. www.eHow.com this site is based on "How-to" articles. Anything you know how to do well, write about it. It's just your everyday stuff.
2. www.bukisa.com this site is very easy to use and you also make profit. It's not "How-to." It's about anything and everything you can possibly think of.
3. www.GZYN.com this site, like bukisa, also generates profit for you on any type of article you want to write about.
4. www.Blogspot.com this site is pretty advanced, you actually can customize your entire page. You write about anything you want to write about and link all your blogs together to add more money to each one.
5. www.howhub.com this is just like ehow, only a little more dynamic. You don't specifically have to write "How-to's."

Of course you have this site as well, Infobarrel. These are 6 different ways to increase your budget by adding another source of income. It's simple and something you can do from home at your own pace.

If you follow these simple tips, steps and advice, then you will definitely know your budget, increase it, and be able to reduce your energy bills. Start living a little more stress free today. Thanks for reading!