Step 2Define your income and expenses
Once you’ve set your savings goals, it’s important to get a clear picture of where and on what are you spending your current money. Again, it is important to put it all in writing, for which you might want to use the MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD BUDGET charts.
Download the MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD BUDGET charts (print version) »
Download the MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD BUDGET charts (fill-in version) »
Try to keep written track all your incomes and expenses for at least one month (even when you buy something small, like a breakfast bagel, a bottle of water, bubblegum or a lighter at the newsstand) and at the end of the month enter the sum amount of your expenses into this chart. For now, don’t fill out the final chart with the additional yearly seasonal expenses, nor the column titled “After revision”, which can be found in the living expenses chart, since we’ll be dealing with those in later chapters.