Budgeting Calculator – How Much Am I Spending?
Where does all the money go? Savvy Ladies Budgeting clients ask questions on how to build a budget, improve it, and strategize so they can pay their bills, pay off debt, and be more financially secure in their lives.
Top Most Common Budgeting Questions asked by women on the Savvy Ladies Helpline
- Need help learning how to optimize my income into a good budget and paying off debt
- How do I set up a yearly budget? It’s super challenging for me.
- I would like insight on my budget, and advice on how I can improve it
- I was wondering how I can budget for my income and expenses.
- How do I make a budget to enable me to save money and pay off debt at the same time?
- How do I strategize a budget when I get paid bi-weekly?
- How do I budget my finances?
- How do I budget when I do not have enough to pay bills?
To answer How do I budget? it is important to understand where all the money is going.
Creating an itemization of your living & lifestyle expenses may help you budget better and plan for future expenses. Figuring out the cost of maintaining your current monthly/annual expenses and your current standard of living can help you pinpoint where you are spending your money. Then you start to see and ask yourself, do you have the income inflow to cover your expenses?
Use this calculator to help you recall and itemize your living expenses. The calculator lists many variables, and some may be more relevant to you than others. Leave as 0 if not applicable to continue to move through the calculator. If you are inputting your Net Income, you should leave the tax section at 0.
A budget helps you focus on the important things in your life and how to pay for them. A good budget will help you economize and save for these things. Whether helping you build wealth little by little or building more than that, a budget is your roadmap for taking control of your money and making it work for you.
Your expenses are either fixed or variable
Expenses may be fixed or variable. Fixed expenses recur each period (month) and include items such as mortgage or rent payments, automobile payments, utility bills, etc. Variable expenses generally do not recur each period, or their amounts are very different from month to month. Variable expenses include entertainment and vacation costs, purchases of clothing and household items, etc.
Expenses are either discretionary or non-discretionary
Expenses may also be discretionary or non-discretionary, depending on whether one has a choice of incurring the expense or an option of when to incur the expense. For example, paying the utility bill is non-discretionary since if one doesn’t pay it, the utility company can turn off the service. Purchasing a replacement automobile is discretionary (left up to your own judgment) since one can choose to buy a new or used car, a luxury or economy car, or can choose the timing of the purchase—now or in the future.
Use this calculator to help determine what you could accumulate by reducing or eliminating discretionary monthly expenses.
