A basic budget divides funds into categories of expenditures and savings. Beyond that, however, budgets can record all your monetary transactions. They can also provide the foundation for a simple filing system to organize bills, receipts, and financial statements. After you monitor your spending, the process of putting together a budget is quite easy. The simplest budget of all would consist of just adding one more column to the record you made and listing how much you plan to spend on each item the next month. You would then need to continue to track your expenses to see whether they meet your goals.

First rule is pay yourself first. You want at LEAST 10% of your take home pay to go into savings. Preferably 20%. Other than that, don't put anything on a credit card that you can't pay for in cash, pay off your FULL balance on your credit card every month (not just the minimum payment), and pay cash for everything you can, with the exception of maybe cars and a home. Don't get suckered in to the need for immediate gratification. if you can't afford something now, save up for it, don't put it on credit. Everything else goes from there, keep your monthly expenses down to a minimum and try to keep at least three months' worth of expenses in your savings account. And remember that the little things add up. Movies, dinners out, and things like that really eat up your paycheck. Try to keep those to a minimum.