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Some examples would be car payments, rent or mortgage, utilities (such as water, electricity, etc), and insurance (medical, dental, etc). Installation payments, such as student loans and credit cards, also go in here. Make a separate row for each expense. Put in estimates as placeholders until the actual bills come. Some bills, such as your rent or mortgage, usually stay the same every month, while others are more variable (like utilities). Put in an estimate of your recurring bills (perhaps what you paid the previous year for that specific expense) but once the bill comes and you pay it, put the actual amount into your ledger. Try to either round up or down to the nearest $10 for an average estimate on how much you spend for each item. Some utility companies will allow you to pay average amounts all year, instead of having your bill fluctuate each month. You may want to investigate this option if regularity is important to you. Brainstorm what you regularly spend money on and how much. How much per week do you spend on gas? What is the usual amount that you spend on groceries? Think of other essential things that you need, not want. After you have made rows for each of these expenses, put in an estimate of what you spend on it. Once you have the actual amounts you spend, input them immediately. You should spend as normal, but take a receipt or note down every time you get your wallet or purse out. At the end of the day, tally this up, either on paper, your computer, or your phone. Make sure you note exactly what you spent it on and don't use a generic term such as food or transport. Software such as mint.com help by categorizing your spending into things like Groceries, Utilities, and Miscellaneous Shopping. This can help you see what you usually spend per month on each category. These include big-ticket items that you can cut out or do not provide you with the level of enjoyment worthy of the price. These could range from anything such as expensive nights out to take-away lunches and coffee. Remember that each separate expense should have a separate row. This may make your spreadsheet or ledger pretty long by month's end, but if you have it separated into types of expenses you should be able to keep it manageable. While not everyone can afford to save money on a regular basis, everyone should have it as a goal and do it if they possibly can. A great target is 10% of your paycheck. This is enough to make your savings grow fairly quickly while not so much that it will crimp other areas of your life. We all are too familiar with arriving at the end of the month and having nothing left over. That's why you have to save first. Don't wait for there to be money left at the end of the month. Adjust the savings amount as necessary, or, better yet, adjust your spending if possible! Money you save can later be used to invest or you can save with some other purpose in mind, like buying a home, college tuition, vacations, or anything else. Some banks have free savings programs you can enroll in, such as Bank of America's "Keep the Change" program. This program rounds up each transaction you make with your debit card and transfers the difference into your savings account. It will also match a certain percentage of this savings. This type of program can be an easy, painless way to save a little bit each month. Add up each section of rows individually and then add them all together. This way you can see what percentage of your income you spend in each category of expenditure in addition to your total expenses. Include all earnings, whether it's tips, "under the table" jobs (money you take home, without taxes being taken out), money you find on the ground, and your salary (or monthly balance if you're paid every other week). This is the amount on your paycheck, not your total earnings for the time period. Record all income from all sources with the same level of detail as you do for your expenses. Sum these weekly or monthly, as appropriate. If the amount of your total expenses is greater than your income, then you need to think about cutting back on your spending or think of ways to cut down your bills. Having the detailed information on hand about how much you spent on what specific items, as well as the priority that each represents for you, will help you to target areas where you can cut back or eliminate spending. If your monthly income is higher than your total expenses, you should be able to put some away in savings. This money can be used towards a second mortgage, college tuition, or anything else big. Or, you can stash some away for something small like a trip to the spa.
Put your biggest regular expenses into the spreadsheet or ledger. Calculate your regular essentials. Input your discretionary expenses as well. Insert an expense row for savings. Add up all your expenditures each month. Record all of your earnings and then add them together. Put the totals of your monthly income and your total expenses side-by-side.