“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”- President Bush Jr.

Budgets do not have to be these complicated excel spreadsheet nightmares.  As a matter of fact, your budget should be as simple as it possibly can be.  There are, however, some essential ingredients to a good, sound budget:

1) Realism.  Don’t estimate.  Use real numbers to categorize the amounts you spend in each category.

2) A Savings Mechanism.  Treat your savings like any other bill.  Start off small and gradually increase the amount you put away to make sure that you don’ t have to pull it out every time you put it away.

3) Allowance.  You cannot be on the “grapefruit only” diet of a budget.  Throw some guilt-free chocolate in there to help give you the mental elbow room to stay on task.

4) Goal Oriented.  We always remember to include our bills, but sometimes we forget to include our goals.  Make sure they are part of the plan, otherwise we are just running in circles.

5)  Accountability.  Every dollar needs to be accounted for.  Cash and Big Box Store (Wal-Mart) transactions need to itemized to a certain degree so you can effectively track what that money was spent on.

6) Inclusivity.  If there are multiple people in the household, one person alone cannot make the budget.  Each person has their own opinion- their own priority- and their own ideas.  To not include them- or at least the opportunity to openly share them to be included will inhibit their willingness to adopt your opinions, priorities, and ideas.

Make the Choice.  Make the Change.  Delta.