After tracking your expenses for one month, you should have a good idea of where your money is going. Here are some resources that are helpful in creating a budget for planning your expenses.

Dave Ramsey’s Gazelle Budget Lite – This is an online calculator that helps create a budget based on net monthly income.

Crown Financial offers free Percentage Guides that gives you an idea of what categories to budget for and approximately what percentage of your income should be assigned to each category. Use the one that fits your context the closest:

• Singles
• Single Parent
• Married Couple (no kids)
• Family of Four
• Family of Six

They also offer a Budget Analysis Form to help compare the difference between what you’re currently spending and the new monthly guideline budget you chose from the above resources.