Having a rent payment due can be pretty stressful for people, especially considering the economy these days. But even if you have the money for rent, it can be a massive problem as you pay the rent and deal with the issue of a massive hit to your wallet. In order to make paying for the rent much easier on your wallet and your psyche, you need to ensure that you have a good budget to work with.

However, making a budget for your rent and all the other things that you spend money on can be much easier said than done. So how do you make sure that your budget ticks all the boxes that will keep your wallet in the green? Here’s what you need to know!

Write Down Everything You Spend Money On

First and foremost, one of the first things you need to do is write down everything you spend your money on. Whether you’ve moved in and you know exactly how much money you are spending on your apartment, or you are just looking at the average cost for some studio apartments in downtown san Francisco , you need to write down your rent.

Then write down other essentials, subscriptions, monthly bills and more. Before you delve into any one off purchases you might have made. Finally, you should focus on figuring out how much money you actually make from your job and any other income sources. Once you have all of this information, put it all in a spreadsheet.

Now, compare what you make each month with the costs of your living expenses. Hopefully you should have a cushion of a few extra hundred dollars in order to cover emergencies or a tight month. Otherwise, that extra money should go into your savings account.

If you don’t have that extra cushion, or your cushion of disposable income is much smaller than you might like, you need to move on to step two of this article.

See Where You Can Make More Or Spend Less

Until you get your budget under control, you will need to make some sacrifices in one department or the other. You will either need to spend less with money or you will need to make more at your job.

So you can either increase your income streams or you can focus on decreasing your spending. But whatever you do, you will need to make some changes in your life in order to get yourself onto the budget you want. It will be hard and something that you will need to get used too, but after a few months, you should have enough money to get back on track with getting the things you really want.