Personal Budget
Important information please read before filling in your personal budget (also known as a financial statement).
A personal budget sheet is important because it will help you see how much money you have coming in as well as how much is going out. It is a good idea to do a rough copy first. You can then do a copy for all the people you owe money to.
Firstly get all the paper work you have about your household's income and outgoings then fill in your name (and your partner's) on the form. Give details of the people living in your home.
Decide if you want to use weekly or monthly figures to work out your budget and circle the one you are using on your sheet. Don't mix weekly and monthly.
Write in your household's income. If you work, put down your usual take home pay (wages after deductions, don't include overtime if this is not regular), all benefits and any other money you receive on a regular basis. Add up these amounts.
Then write down all your basic living expenses in the outgoings section. Don't include any debts at this stage. Be as honest as you can when filling this part in and make sure you don't miss anything. Food and household items will include papers, toiletries, sweets, cigarettes and a small amount for entertainment. Remember to include something under "other" for unexpected expenses and for birthdays, Christmas and other special occasions. Now add up these amounts.
The next section of the personal budget involves prioritising your debts. It is important to get this right. STEP 4 tells you which debts should be treated as a priority and how to deal with them. Once you have decided your priority debts and you are sure how much you owe then you can complete the priority debts section of your personal budget. When you know the amount you are repaying for your priority debts you can enter this on to your personal budget. You should also put down the total owing for each priority debt in the "amount owed" section if you know this. Add up the amounts you are paying for these priority debts.
The last part of your personal budget is for your other debts. STEP 5 helps you work out what these are. List the people you owe money to (your creditors), the amount you owe them and any repayment you are offering to make. Add up the amount you owe and the repayments.
Once you (and your partner) have signed and dated the form your personal budget is complete. If you are sending copies out to people remember to keep a copy for yourself.
If the amount of money you have goes up or down fill in a new personal budget and send this to your creditors.
