Personal Budgeting Basics

About this course

Most budgets fail because they are built for a version of you that does not exist. This course takes the opposite approach: you start from what you already spend, then set limits you can genuinely live with. You will pull one month of real transactions, sort them into a handful of categories, and find the two or three that quietly decide whether your month works. From there you build a simple plan and a ten-minute monthly review that keeps it alive. No spreadsheets are required. No apps to buy. Bring one bank or card statement and about an hour.

What you will learn

• Sort a real month of spending into categories that actually tell you something
• Identify the two or three categories that decide whether your month works
• Set spending limits you can live with instead of ones you will abandon
• Run a ten-minute monthly review that keeps the budget current

Before you begin

• One month of bank or card statements
• About an hour, ideally in one sitting
• No prior finance knowledge