These 5 forms will help start a budget. The process of creating a successful budget requires some time and self control. These 5 forms will be a basis to guide the process. Along with these forms you will need to know all of the income and bills/expenses.
Percentage Guideline for a family of 4
This is the first form to use when developing a budget. The guideline chart will help you by suggesting a percentage of income to designate in each category. These should be considered rough guidelines. Your individual numbers may vary depending on your circumstances. In other words, consider this a starting point and adjust based on your real expenses.
For example, if you are living at home with your parents, your housing cost will be dramatically different. The flip side of that story is that you own a high end property with house payments in the thousands of dollars. Each budget will be unique which means there are no cookie cutter solutions.
Income Allocations
After you have all your numbers figured out, you will want to record the specific amounts for each category. Recording these numbers here does two things. First, it will be helpful when you reintroduce numbers during the next month. Second, you will have a new basis to work from based on your real numbers.