Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Waid.
And I'm Ryan Geertsma.
Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting.
It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Michael never seems to have any money.
His employer pays him every two weeks.
But, within those two weeks his money always seems to disappear.
Michael does not know where his money goes.
He cannot remember where he spends all of it!
And sometimes he does not even have enough money to buy the things he really needs.
Sometimes Michael cannot even pay his rent!
Michael has a real problem.
Many times people get into trouble when they spend money.
They spend too much! That is why a budget is so important.
Today's Spotlight is on budgeting.
Budgets can help people know how they are spending their money.
Keeping a budget can be difficult.
But in today's program we tell how to create a budget that will work for you!
While we discuss budgets we will give some examples.
Please remember that the dollar amounts are just examples.
They do not represent everyone.
But the ideas are good for any amount of money!
On an earlier program we talked about two different money plans.
One kind of money plan tells people to spend, spend, spend!
Then if there is any money left, people can give or save.
But this is a bad money plan.
Many people already spend too much.
People who follow this plan are often in debt.
But there are other ways to manage money.
One of these plans is the 10-10-80 plan.
Money experts created this simple plan.
In the 10-10-80 plan, people should first give ten percent of their money.
Giving helps people experience great joy.
Then people should save ten percent for the future.
And finally, people can spend the last 80 percent wisely.
So, how do you spend your money wisely?
The best way is to make a budget!
To start a budget, you first need to know how much money you have in a particular amount of time.
Many people keep monthly budgets.
So, they need to know the average amount of money they have each month.
Other people keep weekly budgets.
These people must know how much money they will have in one week.
Today, we will describe a weekly budget.
But the same ideas can be used for a monthly budget.
Second, you need to know what you spend your money on - your costs.
Budgets put all costs into separate groups.
For example, food is one group.
Food is a cost that all people have.
Other groups can include car costs, school costs, or home costs like electricity or water use.
Entertainment costs might include money you spend on eating at a restaurant or seeing films.
These are all costs.
Everyone has different cost groups.
To discover your cost groups, you can start by
writing down everything that you buy for one or two weeks.
And we mean everything!
If you buy fruit at the market, write down the amount you spent.
If you buy a sweet from the store, write it down.
When you pay a bill, write it down.
Keep a list of all your costs for one or two weeks.
Do not miss a cent!
After this time, look at your costs.
Separate them into the correct groups with similar costs in the same group.
You may have only a few cost groups.
Or, you may have many cost groups.
The third step in making a budget involves doing some mathematics!
You must subtract all the costs you collected from the amount of money you have each week.
If the result is less than zero, then you have spent more than you have.
You have spent too much.
If the number is more than zero, then you have stayed within your budget!
You can put the extra money into savings.
Or you can put the extra money into next week's budget.
But what should you do if you have spent too much?
Well, you will have to make some decisions about your costs.
See if there are any costs you can avoid spending money on.
Cut those costs from your list.
Also, see if there are any areas where you can save money.
Do you pay for electricity?
Try turning off the lights after you leave a room.
Or try leaving the lights off until dark.
Finally, the last step it to write out your budget.
The first amounts you should put into your budget
are ten percent for giving and ten percent for saving.
Put these amounts into your budget first, so you do not forget.
Then write out your cost groups.
You must set apart a particular amount of money for each group.
The number represents how much you can spend each week for that group.
When the groups add up, they should not equal more than the money you have in one week.
For example, next to your food group, you could put $30.00.
That means you should try not to spend more than $30.00 each week on food.
Remember to give amounts to the important groups first.
These are your needs like food, housing, and school costs.
After you have decided how much you can spend on the things you need, split up the other groups.
You may find that you do not have a lot of money for some of the groups.
But that is OK!
It will force you to save money to buy the things you want.
For example, after paying for your needs, you may only have $1.00 left for the clothes group.
That just means you will have to wait to buy clothes.
Each week you will add $1.00 to the clothes group.
After a time you will have saved enough money to buy new clothes!
After making a budget it is important to continue writing down all of your costs.
When you spend money, write the cost next to the correct group.
This is how you will know if you are spending too much on one group.
It will also let you know when you have saved enough money to
buy special things for yourself like clothes, coffee, or a film.
Many people do not like keeping budgets.
Budgeting is a skill.
It takes a lot of work.
Sometimes you may forget to write down the costs.
Sometimes you may fail.
Some weeks you may spend too much.
But, you can always try again.
Soon, budgeting will be easy.
And the good results will help you continue budgeting.
They will also help you to avoid debt!
The writer of this program was Rebekah Schipper.
The producer was Liz Waid.
The voices you heard were from the United States.
Computer users can hear this program again on our website at www.radioenglish.net.
This program is called "Budgeting."
If you would like to know more about budgeting you
can visit the script page for this program on our website.
There, we have included links to some simple budgeting work sheets.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.