Quick story:
My grandpa doesn’t fully know how to read or write. He knows enough to get by but he is not completely literate.
Despite this big limitation, he was able to start and run a successful business at a young age. My grandparents still operate this business today.
The other day while visiting my grandma, she asked me if I could help her out with some translations and reading a letter from a client. I asked her about some numbers written down on a worn out piece of paper on her table.
It was a budget!
She has it written in a piece of paper on the front fold of an old notebook where she keeps track of my grandpa’s business expenses and finances. She told me she puts it in the front of the notebook as a reminder of their monthly bills and to track their income from their business so they can estimate how much they’ll have leftover each month.
GO GRANDMA!!!
As we just learned from grandma, creating a budget is not difficult. It doesn’t have to be typed, formatted or even look good.
It just has to written and kept some place where its visible.
The basic formula comes down to this:
Income – expenses – bills = Budget
Everyone needs a budget even if its just to track where your money is going.
When I helped my parents create theirs they were shocked at the amount of money they were spending on certain things that they didn’t even need. It was real eye opener seeing the numbers laid out on the table.
Sometimes all we need is to see the numbers written down in front of us to snap us out (or at least make us aware) of our bad spending habits.
Creating a budget is not hard. Just get a piece of paper, fold it in half-start writing how much you bring in per month on one side, start writing your expenses and bills on the other half.
Or if you’re the type that doesn’t like writing stuff down, there are many free templates online for Excel or Google docs as well. All you have to do is populate them with your info and your good to go.
Everyone needs a budget, even if only as a reminder of your debts.
