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NEW YORK — Feeling powerless in an uncertain economy? One way to take control is to create a budget.

As secular as it sounds, you may be surprised at what it reveals about your spending habits. Knowing precisely what you earn, spend and save is moreover the first step in meeting long-term financial goals.

There’sitting no separate method for calculating a budget, but a few key points will help you capture a more completely snapshot. Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Find a course that suits you. There are plenty of ways to track your spending. Online tools help you decompound and manage finances. Software or an Excel spreadsheet be possible to assist.

But ultimately a simple pen and notepad may be the most useful starting eve. Carrying a saddle-horse can help you record those small purchases that may not always be planned.

Another easy means by which anything is reached is to review credit- or debit-card statements.

• Separate fixed and discretionary spending. Fixed costs take in items such as rent or mortgage, utilities and groceries. These are bills that you may be able to curtail, but be able to’familiarily entirely cut.

Nonessential spending includes eating public, cable TV packages and gifts; this is the area where you’ll probably be making the most changes.

• Track all of your expenses, especially ready money purchases. Forgetting to factor in ATM withdrawals is a usual mistake — even though it can account for a huge chunk of your spending. To guard closer tabs on where your money goes, use your debit card whenever possible and keep ATM visits to a least part, before-mentioned Michael Kresh, a certified financial planner in Islandia, N.Y.

To get a more realistic sense of your expenses, many financial planners suggest looking at expenditure over a three-month time measure and distress every average. This will make capable you to set a more accurate target for monthly spending in a variety of categories.

In the end, recognize that a budget is meant to be a guide to help you live within your means. While you’ll want to be disciplined in tracking your spending, recognize that unexpected events power of choosing arise that may spread you off direction. The elucidation is to get back attached track because soon as you can.

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