Welcome to the Complete Budget and Bill Organizer. This organizer contains a simple and effective way to manage your finances and offers all of the budget forms and worksheets you need to make it work for you. Budgeting doesn t have to be a chore. With the help of just a few standard office supplies that probably won t cost you over about $15 you can have your budget information and files in one convenient location. Some of these items you may already have. The biggest advantage The Complete Budget Organizers gives you is simplicity. Once you have your organizer set up then maintaining it will only take you a few minutes on payday. At the top of the page you will find Tabs to all of the forms mentioned. These forms are printable. In fact this entire Organizer is printable by clicking on the "Printable Organizer" tab at the top of the page. Also, each form can be printed by clicking the "Print This Page" tab at the top of this page. Now let s get started with setting up your Budget. STEP 1 Basic Instructions Your first step in setting up your budget is to find out what you have coming in and what you have going out. There are a few points that you will need to know before you start. Only consider your take home pay as income. Your budget is setup to only have four categories: Housing, Other Bills, Household and Savings. Your budget targets are: 30% of your income each going to housing, other bills and household with the other 10% going to savings. Your savings is split into two categories: Long term savings and crisis fund. Long term savings being for things like a home or car purchase or college money. The crisis fund is for unexpected expenses. A sample list of items for each category is listed at the bottom of the Budget Form You will need to average income and expenses that vary from month to month. In order to do this get your check stubs or receipts out for as long as you have records. Then add their totals together and divide them by the number of months that they cover. Example: You have 6 months receipts for your electric bill which total $1200. Divide $1200 by six equaling $200 per month. If you get paid every week only consider having 4 paydays per month. If you get paid every two weeks, only consider having 2 paydays per month. About every 3 or 4 months you will have an extra payday. Use this paycheck to have some fun. After 3 or 4 months of sticking to a budget, you deserve it. This budget considers that your housing and other bills will be deposited into your checking account and paid by check. Your household money will be cash and your savings will be deposited in a savings account or an investment account. Your crisis fund will be deposited in a simple savings account for quick withdrawal if needed. Before starting step 2 please take a few minutes to view the forms you will be using to set up your budget. The forms listed below are links to a single form you can print and fill in. There is also a fill in and print version of each form and samples and instructions for each form. You can find these at http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/subbbo/forms.html Budget Worksheet Budget Form Bill Summary Budget Ledger Bill Summary 2 You can also find Calculating Budget Forms you can order to take the place of the above forms by visiting: Budget Stretcher's Calculating Budget and Credit Card Forms