If you are finding yourself short of money come the end of the month, the chances are, your budget has something to do with it.

You may be spending too much money on your food shopping, or you may simply not be keeping track of your money in general.

Whatever the problem, creating a budget could help you save money. What’s more, creating a budget can be a great way to make sure you remain in control of your finances and stay out of debt.

First of all, how do you create a budget?

Creating a budget is quite simple, and it shouldn’t really take you too long to get the basic details down.

To create your own budget, you should start by writing down all the money you earn or receive in a month, followed by all the money you spend in a month (on your essential costs - such as mortgage/rent payments, utility bills, food, etc.).

When you have these two totals, you should subtract your expenditure from your income. This will leave you with what’s known as your disposable income. Your disposable income is basically the money you have each month to spend on unsecured debt repayments and - if there’s money left over - to spend on non-essential items or invest in a savings account.

What you have now is a budget that reflects your spending habits and gives you a clear overview of your financial situation.

How can doing this save you money?

Budgeting can help you save money each month. Once you have worked out your budget and written everything down, you should take a look at what you’ve got.

Look at your disposable income, and have a think about what you’re actually spending this money on each month. If you don’t have debts, are you saving any of it? Could you cut back on your spending and start saving more? If you do have debts, are you using all of it to make payments to your debts? Or could you be using some more? Overpaying your debts could help you clear them faster, which means you’d be paying less interest in total.

By asking yourself simple questions such as these, you can establish whether you are using your disposable income in the best way possible. If you notice that you are simply spending it on things you don’t need, cut back on these and save yourself money!

There’s every chance that you have already heard of debt management plans. In the current economic climate and in our generation of credit consumers, such plans are becoming increasingly popular with families and individuals struggling to meet their monthly financial commitments. Most often, debt management plans are aimed at individuals with debts of between £2000 and £12000. The plans are not legally binding, unlike an IVA, which is often targeted at those with higher amounts of debt. They are, instead, an informal agreement between yourself and your creditors, often through a third part debt advice company. The debt advice company will often contact your creditors to try and negotiate a freeze on interest or charges and, in some cases, to even reduce the overall amount that you owe. You then make one monthly payment to the debt advice company, who split that as agreed between your creditors. They will often also take a small fee for doing so.

The major advantage of this type of agreement is simply its convenience. It makes meeting your monthly financial debt repayments much more manageable and affordable. It will, however, invariably show up on your credit record that you are enrolled in such a plan and this could potentially adversely affect your credit prospects.

However, before making a decision either way, it would be advisable to seek out professional advice either from financial advisors in the case of individuals, or from a business debtline in the case of small businesses. Many debt management plan providers will offer free and confidential advice from trained financial professionals.