Quick guide for the new budgeter
If you are new to personal budgeting and feel a little lost with where to start and what to do, here is a quick guide listing the few basic, simple steps you can take to start budgeting like anyone else using the free OOTD web utility.
What you need to have
- A working e-mail account.
- A list of all your monthly amounts of cash coming in to you and all the amounts going out from you (see step 3 below regarding data gathering hints).
What you need to do
- Open a free budgeting account at: Out Of The Dark (OOTD)
- Under the Cash In section in the grey column on the left, enter all the amounts that you have coming to you in a month. Salaries, dividends, financial support, insurance, anything that you get per month.
- Under the Cash Out section in the same column, enter all the amounts you pay out by categories relevant to you. Do not touch the green column yet. You can modify categories for your need by clicking on the small question mark icons and you can read helpful data gathering hints for each category by just placing the mouse over the question mark without clicking.
- Once done with this grey column, click the Save button at the bottom of the column.
- Look at the totals above and where possible make any changes to ensure that you don’t spend more then what you have, then save the changes.
- With your budget set to your satisfaction in the grey column, you are ready to set your green column for your first tracking period. First set all the small icons between the columns
Autocopy icons
to specify which categories are to be copied over from the master budget on the left to the green column on the right, and which should start as zero on the green column. All your categories that are likely to remain stable and unchanged each month like rent, mortgage, insurance, salary would be copied over while all the rest being categories that you do not know how much you will spend on such as restaurants, entertainment, cloths, food, are to start as zeros. Simply click the small icon between the columns to set the arrow for copying and the arrow with red X for zeros (each time you click it, it will change).
Save settings
Once all your categories are set, be sure to click the Save botton at the bottom of the grey column on the left to save your Autocopy setting.
- With the Autocopy set to your specifications, use the Reset link on the right hand side
Reset link
to set the green column for tracking your cash flow during your first budgeting period (normally a month if you get paid monthly), this will take you to the page for closing a period and resetting for the next. Only when you start your very first budgeting period at OOTD, on the page to close the period and reset do not enter a closing date, instead check the option to only reset without closing because you have no period to close yet. The purpose of the green column is for you to record your actual money flow for the current month in order to see how well you are doing by your budgeted amounts, it’s called expense and income tracking and it is the most important part of your budgeting. Log into your OOTD budgeting account daily if you can or every 2 or 3 days and record on the green column all your current spending in the appropriate categories. You can also take advantage the two “Catch All” Transactional categories identified with a small icon to the right of the green column field
, to itemize entries for the “Other Expenses” or “Additional Income” categories. Clicking inside these fields will open the entry window. - One useful part of good budgeting is putting aside some cash every month for annual expenditures like home or car insurance, your OOTD budget system makes this practice easy to implement and manage as part of your budget. Cash put aside management is built into your green column as a component of the Cash Put-Aside Manager. Notice that your new account default category set comes with three categories that show the
icon icon next to them. These categories are set by default for you as items designated for cash put aside, being classic examples of the type of categories that you would normally want to put some cash aside for annual expenditures like car insurance. Whether you customized your categories or just want to change or cancel this default cash put aside setting, simply click the icons next to the green fields on the right hand side to set/unset this designation. Be sure to save your green column via the Save button at the bottom to keep all your changes in the system. Once you are all set with this, you can use the Cash Put-Aside Manager page via the link on the right hand side of your budget columns.
Cash Put-Aside Manager link
- On the last day of the month ensure that your green column is fully up to date reflecting all your monthly cash in and cash out, then click the link to generate the end of month report (just above the Reset link).
- After confirming that your report is in your e-mail, make sure that your main budget grey column is up to date (if for example your salary changed, this is the time to modify it in the master budget grey column) be sure to save your changes in the grey column (always work on one column at a time and save before moving to the other column) and then click the Reset for a new month link again to close your budgeting period and reset the green column again and start tracking your cash flow for the new month as you did in step 7. This time however on the close period and reset page you enter the end of period date to close your budgeting period, do not check the option to only reset without closing. Closing a period always resets the green column as well by default.
- Visit your OOTD budget account daily or every few days to record on the green column all that you paid out as you go through the month, making sure that all your actual cash flow for the month is recorded on the green column.
- Repeat the same cycle for each month saving your monthly reports as you go so that you can go back and review your monthly surpluses and deficits to know exactly where your money goes and to make decisions that will help you live within your means and predict what you can and cannot afford in the near future.
- With a few budgeting periods closed you can start enjoying the My Money Tree feature where pictorial representation of your financial health are available for all your closed periods. Simply click the link on the right hand side to use this feature.
That is basically all you need to do to have the kind of budgeting in your life that can save you from the debt prison and pave the way for your financial health and freedom. Remember to close every month with the report and start a new month as explained above because budgeting is meaningless if you don’t stick with it and live by it. With this you will find amazing power in seeing what you can and cannot afford to spend and how much money you can expect to have or save each month. Be sure to adjust your main budget grey column each time amounts change in your life like your income or rent, mortgages, etc. Remember that every amount in your budget must reflect your financial reality at any given time, so as soon as things change, go to your budget and change the relevant amounts accordingly.
In no time budgeting will become second nature and a way of life that will put significant power in your hands and allow you to be in control of your hard earned money as you direct your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Knowledge is power and tools of the trade are strength. Once you broke the ice so-to-speak with OOTD and are comfortable using it as your private money management tool, you can start taking advantage of all the other features that can further empower you over your money, such as Money Bucket Accounts to manage your loans and savings outside your budget. OOTD was designed with user friendliness in mind making it easy to find all the features and online context sensitive help and guidance right where you would expect them.
Still have questions? You can post your questions to the OOTD users community in the Users Billboard from any page footer, or you may send your inquiries directly to OOTD via the Contact menu (must be logged in). You may also read other OOTD blog pages here and leave your comments on any page.
Happy budgeting.
Shony
