One of the most important aspects of living a provident life is to know where your money is going. Having a budget is often looked at a having restrictions on your life. Having a budget will actually provide you with more freedom than you would have thought possible.

If you take care of the cents, the dollars will take care of themselves.

Start by listing your bills. housing, food, utilities, cars, gas, insurance, and any regular occurring expense. Remember to look at the full year and any bill that is yearly or every six months need to be divided into a monthly expense. So if your insurance is due every six months divide the bill by 6 and keep that much money aside till the bill is due.

After you add up your bills, compare it to your income. Hopefully your income is greater than your bills. If it is not, you will need to review your expenses and see where you can make some cuts to have your bills less than your pay check.

If you have money left at the end of the month be sure to put at least 10% aside. This is the savings fund. If you have debt apply as mush as you can to get your debt paid off early.

If your bills are more than your income, take a look at what you are spending your income on. Frequent budget destroyers are: eating out, more Internet, phone or gadgets than you need or use. If you only text a few times a day see if you can lower your plan. if you have full streaming internet on your phone determine how much you use it and are you able to decrease the cost. Look at your home. Is it really in your income level. Can you get an apartment in a good neighborhood for less than the one you have now?  Evaluate your food expense, can you save money by having more home made meals instead of takeout and boxed prepared foods. Make a list, of each expense and keep cutting until you are living within your means.

If you are still over budget, you should consider how you can increase your income in a legal and honest way. This is the perfect reason to keep looking for a job that is better even if you already have a job.

So how will having a budget give you more freedom? The money you save will begin to grow. Even in a simple savings account our money grows. The interest is only a small part of how your money grows. When you have a cash reserve you can take advantage of good deals as they happen. You will be free to buy things you need without debt.  If you have cash on hand you can purchase things when they are on sale, when the sweet deal happens and when opportunity knocks you can answer the door. You do not have to pay interest when you can pay up front for what you need. Money not paid in interest is the same as money earned.

Never go into debt for something you just want.