If you know me at all, you know that I am a firm believer in making a monthly budget. What is budgeting? A budget is a spending plan, and a spending plan is exactly what it sounds like: a proactive plan YOU make about how YOU plan to spend YOUR monthly income. To go a step further, I believe zero-based budgeting is the best way to create your monthly spending plan.

How Do You Create A Zero-based Budget?

To create a zero-based monthly budget, put your take-home pay at the top of the page. Next, list your saving and spending goals for the month. Next, calculate your take-home pay minus your planned spending. If that number isn’t zero, adjust your spending. A zero-based budget gives every dollar of your take-home pay a job – in advance. That way, when you actually get paid, you already have a plan of action for managing your money.

You can find my free monthly budgeting template here. If you want more one-on-one help with your budget, you can submit your monthly budget to stacy@profstacythemoneyteacher.com to be featured in my Show A Budget series on Instagram and Tiktok. I also provide one-on-one financial coaching and you can sign up for a complimentary consultation at profstacy.com. 

Track Your Expenses

While all that I have just said is true, a budget cannot work unless you ALSO track your spending. You can make the best budget in the world, but if you don’t track your spending, the budget is just a list of numbers. Matching your actual expenses to your planned spending is where the magic happens! So how can you track your spending? You can go high-tech with an expense tracker app. Go low-tech with a pencil and paper. You can really geek it out with a budgeting Excel template. The “how” doesn’t matter. What matters is that you track your actual spending against your planned spending. That’s where you can see if you are executing to your plan! If you aren’t meeting your plan, you can either change the plan or change your spending. You have the control to change the budget or change your behavior.

I hope that helps you get your money off to a good start in 2023. If you want more help managing your money in 2023, follow my blog and Prof. Stacy, the Money Teacher on any social media platform you prefer.