How to Budget for a Newly Divorced Woman

When newly divorced, you may feel slightly intimidated by the idea of handling personal household finances on your own. Creating a personal budget is a positive step toward taking full financial control of your new life. Budgeting isn't difficult -- it's simply a process of planning your spending on paper. When you plan for income and expenditures before they happen you are able to make reasonable decisions about the best use of the available funds.

Instructions

1

Write down your total monthly income. For budgeting purposes, only include income that is fully available to you each time you receive it. If you have a job for example, your take home pay is income that you can use for budgeting.

2

Create a list of all your fixed expenses. Fixed expenses are bills that stay the same from one payment to the next, such as your house payment or rent, a car payment and health insurance. If you save a set amount of money each month, list savings as a fixed expense. Also, write down irregular bills you have throughout the year such as car registration fees or a post office box rental.

3

Create a list of your variable expenses. Variable expenses tend to be more flexible from one paycheck to another and often include utility bills, groceries, entertainment and clothing.

4

Add special expenses as part of your variable expense list. Make sure you include a general fun money item in your list, along with any special items for which you want to set money aside.

5

Add up all of your fixed expenses and the estimated amounts for your variable expenses, and then compare the expense total to your income total. If your expenses are higher than your take home income, adjust the variable spending categories until everything comes into balance.

6

Track all of your spending and associate each item with a specific budget category. Tracking your spending helps you see where you may be spending extra without realizing it, and associating each expenditure with a budget category helps you determine when you need to cut back or make adjustments. If your grocery budget is $300 per month then you may need to adjust your shopping list if you see you've spent $280 and still have a full week left in the month.