Budget Basics

   Now that we've jump started our savings, let's lay some ground work. The first thing anyone should do when trying to save money is make a budget. Your budget should include your total income, as well as all debt, bills, monthly expenses, etc. Hopefully - fingers crossed - when you put this on paper, your income should be greater than your necessary expenses. If it's not, take a good look at your budget and see if there's anything you can cut from your expenses.
   If your income is greater than your expenses, however much that is should be your monthly goal for savings. Don't forget to give yourself a little cushion for things like lunch once a week, dinner with a friend, renting a movie, the things in your life that aren't necessary but you don't want to give up. For example, our household monthly budget includes a few hundred bucks that we call "flex money". Date night is important to us. Even if it's just sushi once a month or having a drink downtown.
   If you have a job that affords you any kind of additional pay on top of your base salary, like overtime or commission or even an annual raise, this additional monies should go straight to your savings account. For example, Ian is a salesman and works on commission. If his average paycheck is X, and that is what we've budgeted ourselves to live on, then anything over X should be saved. It definaetly takes discipline on payday because it's really easy to say "Well, we just got paid so let's go to dinner. And a movie. And Gander Mountain." But what we should do on payday is look at our direct deposit and immediately transfer anything more than X right to the savings account.
   If your income is barely covering your expenses, have no fear! You can still save money this year. There are hundreds of ways to save money. Stay tuned for tips on trimming your monthly expenses.