I’m a waitress at a sportsbar. I don’t get tipped as good as people who work at regular restuarants. An average night I might make $70. I work thur-sun 8 hour shifts. How can I budget my money to make it last?? And do you all think I can afford an apt for $500 a month?

Lol, generic groceries, ramen and no fun. My apartment was $425 and a real slum. It really also depends on where you’re living. In Texas, the cost of living is much lower than other states. Minimize dining out and buying things that are not necessary for living. You can also get a roommate. That always helps.

I find that writing everything out is beneficial for me. How much you make each month, minus bills (rent, utilities, car payment, insurance, groceries, necessities for your child- maybe formula, diapers, etc) and I use half of whatever is left for savings. Then the remaining you can use towards yourself or whatever you like. To cut down on extra spending, don’t eat fast food, eat things at home- much cheaper. You can make meal plans to cut down on what you spend for groceries. Take public transportation whenever you can. Turn off lights in your house when not being used. Change the fuel filter of your car periodically- that increases gas mileage. Make a list of what is needed and what is wanted. Cut out or limit things wanted… Can’t think of anything else right now, but I hope this helped. Good luck!

I might be getting a job more of an internship soon I’m not quite sure how to budget money very well

The first step in budgetting is saving.
Set up a savings account. Try to save 15% of each paycheck (or more).
Have a goal in mind such as a vacation or a car in cash and don’t touch that money.

Google "free budgetting calculator".
Also, I imainge you have a checking account – of course – sorry.
Try mint.com
It will show you where your money is going.
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Consume more goods with lower prices, and less goods with higher prices. Pay more attention on substitute goods, and goods with higher share in income.Go back to inferior goods.

what techniques do you use to save and budget your money? or do you spend your money?

I figure out an estimate of what i make a month, then subtract an estimate of every bill for that month. From whatever’s left I give myself an allotted amount for what I can spend on personal stuff, what I will put away in savings, and what I will spend on groceries. If I want to buy something that costs alot of money then I will save the money that I put aside for personal stuff until I have enough, I don’t overspend unless I have to. For emergencies I use my saved money. Works out pretty well.

Quite often the first thing on people’s minds when deciding wedding entertainment is how much is this going to cost. They often wait to select the entertainment until everything else is planned; leaving whatever money is left to spend on the entertainment. The ironic thing is almost everyone agrees that the entertainment will usually make or break the event. So you’ll want to make this decision wisely. If you can prioritize your budget accordingly, a professional quality band is quite often always a better value, as proven by simple math. If you are seeking a professional DJ for $800 (one person), then a 6-piece band (multiply $800 by 6) should logically be $4,800. But most professional bands quote a range of $500-$800 per musician, which can make the band as low as $3000 for a 6-piece group – less expensive per person than your average disc jockey.

There’s also another bonus! The band you hire will be providing live music whereas the DJ will be replaying pre-recorded music. Some may argue that pre-recorded music is never as good as the live performance. If you could have been a fly on the wall when songs such as Sweet Home Alabama, Respect, and Brown Eyed Girl were recorded you would have heard what the recording equipment could not capture – especially with the lower technology of the 60’s and 70’s. A great wedding band can re-create this missing sound of each of those artists right in front of you and your guests.

Now keep in mind not all wedding bands are the best. Your event is often a one-shot deal for you. You can’t afford to take a chance on a budget band or DJ (not on the biggest event of your life). If your budget has you looking at the bargain basement bands, consider a DJ for sure. If the focus of your reception is more of a party atmosphere, then budget accordingly. Saving a few hundred dollars might cost you in the end when your guests decide to leave early from boredom. When your guests enter the room and see and hear a live band, the food, decorations, and even flowers, will become secondary. Put your money where your return will be its highest. Imagine in twenty years as you reflect back on your wedding festivities, imagine what you and your guests will remember the most. Nine times out of 10 you’ll remember the entertainment most. With this in mind budget enough to get the very best.

Most couples pay from $60 to $150 per guest for food and yet they try to hire a band for around $7.50 per guest (based upon 200 guests). This is not very wise since the food doesn’t hold everyone’s attention for 3 or 4 hours like a band or DJ will. Ask yourself this: The entertainment has to pay for thousands of dollars of musical instruments, P.A., lighting, formal wear, office expenses, technical personnel, and the musicians themselves, right? How professional can an entertainer be if they are willing to play at your reception for one-tenth of what the food is costing you? I’m often amazed at how low a client’s entertainment budget is in comparison to food and the photographer. Let’s face it, the guests will eat three more meals the next day. In 6 months, they won’t have a clue what kind of food you served them at the reception. But they will remember whether or not your reception was a ton of fun. And what kind of photos will the $6,000 photographer snap at the reception? Will they be pictures of guests eating chicken fingers or having a blast on the dance floor? The irony is that the chicken fingers cost you much more. Who creates the party? Will the reception end when the food is eaten and the photos are taken? Let’s face it! The ultimate success of your reception is riding on the “low-bidder”, the entertainer. So get the BEST!

Stevie Dee
http://www.articlesbase.com/weddings-articles/budgeting-for-wedding-entertainment-738761.html

Let us consider the situation of a fellow we’ll call Bob. He is 27 years old, works for an insurance company, drives a new car, lives in a nice apartment close to downtown, and likes to go out with friends for drinks and dancing. He is also up to his ears in debt. He has no savings. Many months he runs out of money before he can pay all his bills, and he’s been making up the shortfall by running up charges on his credit card. His cards, however, are now near their upper limit and his bank is not allowing any more charges. Bob is struggling to even make the minimum monthly payment, so he is having trouble imagining how he can ever pay off his credit card account.

Bob undoubtedly needs help with his finances. He seems to be incapable of drawing up and sticking to a budget, and he doesn’t realize the perils of running up high interest long-term debt. He is living way beyond his means, and he is on a sure path to bankruptcy unless he seeks help soon.

Does Bob’s situation describe your life as well? No, hopefully, but you may be a good candidate for financial help as well. Anyone who has tried to place their spending on a budget and repeatedly failed, causing them to fall farther and farther behind in their bills, should consider trying to find some help.

What sort of help should you seek? That largely depends on the type of help you need. If it is just assistance in figuring out your budget and getting some basic advice you may consider hiring a bookkeeper or accountant to sort out your finances. If you need a loan consolidation to rid yourself of multiple high interest loans your bank might be able to help. If you need more complex help, such as negotiating with your creditors, you might seek the services of a debt relief organisation. In severe cases, you should seek professional legal advice.

If all you need is information, the world is at your fingertips. Just look on any good search engine for help on budgeting or debt management and you will be swamped with information. Much of it is good, much of it is redundant (good advice tends to be the same, no matter the source). But be careful for scams and do not give out any personal financial information until you are sure the organisation can be trusted.

Payday Online wants you to be informed, and so we have an extensive library of articles on finances. For additional help, visit www.paydayonline.com.au.

Greg Ellis

A home budget is based on your income and expenses. It is the best step towards building sound money management. It helps you to keep a track on your expenses and adjust your outgoings in a way that they do not exceed your income. Creating a personal budget will give you an idea of your current financial status.

Listed below are a few essentials in budgeting:

- It is essential to create a suitable budget and stay well within its confines. Decide and note down the goal of your budget. Refer to it whenever you are tempted to spend.

- The first step in creating a budget is to track your expenses of the last three months or more, to get an idea of regular outgoings. Gather all the receipts and write down the individual amounts. Create a budget that you can live with and follow easily. Once you have your budget, study it carefully and try to reduce unnecessary expenses. This will ensure that your finances get back on track. You may be spending on articles that are of no real importance and are unnecessarily draining your income. Identify these expenses and eliminate them. This will surely help you succeed in your money saving endeavors.

- The next important step is to determine the amount you need to set aside for monthly bills. Remember to set aside some money for the savings account as well. Make payments on a priority basis, paying off all the essential monthly bills and only then using the remaining amount for household expenses, like groceries and toiletries.

- Creditors keep the home budgeting guidelines in mind, while approving or reviewing a credit application. In case you need to deal with debt, if your budget is beyond the recommended guidelines of the financial communities, you could be denied credit. Even if your credit application is approved of, you may have to pay a high interest rate.

- If you are facing problems in maintaining your budget manually, you can use the budgeting software products available in the market. These softwares will track your spending automatically and are also equipped to help you in creating and maintaining a personal budget.

Try to update your financial record every few days instead of waiting for the end of the month. Increase your spendable income, if possible. This can be done in the following manner:

- Take a look at your tax returns and consider raising the exemption.

- Make wise investments or savings that earn you dividends. In this way, you will not have to work extra to earn the money but the invested money will provide for you.

- You can acquire a new skill or a GED or General Educational Development diploma. This can help you in getting a better job or a promotion at work.

- You can also start a home-based business. There are not only several deductions in taxes for home business owners, but it will also provide you with some extra income.

Making a home budget is easier than sticking to it. Identify a good motivating reason to follow your budget. Try to spend less and save more, so that you can meet all your financial requirements easily.

Joseph Kenny
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/the-secret-of-home-budgeting-76813.html

In establishing your home based business opportunity, budgeting is parallel in importance to planning. Very simply, proper budgeting of both our time and our money is of the utmost importance in developing your home based business. Bottom line, we need to ensure our business expenses do not exceed income. However, what if you have very little or no income to get started? There are still ways you can get established with your home business.

Operating a home based business, you will not have many of the expenses incurred by small business owners working outside the home. For instance, there is no overhead in terms of business property, very little if any personnel costs except for your own labor, very little if any inventory costs, and no business property maintenance cost. You will find the major expense to be advertising and marketing your home business.

When you are starting out in a new home business and no one knows who you are, one of the greatest challenges you will face is how to drum up new business.

If there were not people in your community or marketplace that you knew who needed your products or services, you probably would not have started your business to begin with. But, once you have talked to those who you personally knew who needed your what you offer, then your next task is to find others who will help keep your doors open.

Many people know that they must turn to advertising at some point in the future, but they hope that day will be long down the road. The reality for us in the real world is that we must come up with creative solutions for meeting our home business advertising needs while working within our budget.

Most people have a misconception about having to spend lots of money in order to advertise their home business. When you start out, you honestly will not have much money available for advertising, and if you do, you should still spend it wisely.

Before you jump headfirst into the world of advertising, here are some of the key points listed by professionals in the field.

* Plan your advertising strategy and test it periodically. There are both free and for pay websites that can help you with both of these key requirements.
* Utilize free and or low cost advertising sources before paying expending large amounts in a marketing campaign. One of the largest mistakes in this field is entering pay for click advertisements. This can really add up if you do not know what you are doing. Set a pre-determined amount if you insist on doing pay for click. Better yet, take a course in the use of this medium first.
*Establish a monthly budget for advertising and do not exceed it.
* Prepare and implement off line advertising materials such as flyers, postcards, business cards, and word of mouth campaigns. These are both often more economical and personal than many on-line marketing methods. When first starting out, you need to get people thinking about your business and then spreading the word.

IN CONCLUSION

When it comes down to it, there is a lot to understand about budgeting your home based business, but when you have the basic knowledge down pat, everything will fall into place and you will ultimately begin to show a profit. Don’t think that it will happen overnight – contrary to what a lot of the on line advertisement of home business scams would have you believe. It may take you as long as six months to a year to begin to have significant resul

Robert Carson