Whatever your strategy for bringing income in you need to know how regularly you receive that money. If you re parents send you a check once a month, this is the amount you ll have to work with. If you re counting on Aunt Betty, you re gonna have to make that birthday check stretch all year long. The key is to create a small chart of when you expect to have money come in. This becomes a basic principal of budgeting.
Some expenses happen every month.
For example, if you get together with high school buddies on the last Friday of every month you know that your pizza contribution is going to be eight bucks once a month. This can become a permanent part of your budget. Other expenses which might occur regularly include, car payments, insurance payments, rent, utilities, credit card payments, groceries, laundry. These monthly expenses become the building blocks for your budget. Now you have a simple calculation to perform.