Starting a budget and staying on budget is a common New Year’s resolution, and I think it’s a great one in this economic environment. But just like every year when you decide to get in shape, continuing those gym visits come March is really difficult. The same is true for budgets – how do you stick with your resolution?

The trick to successfully sticking to your budget is simple – have a budget that is reasonable and that you can stick to. Look through your financial statements and group your expenditures into buckets that your spending habits fall into (e.g. dining out, groceries, gym membership, utilities, rent, shopping, and perhaps some miscellaneous expenses). Next, figure out what you’d like to spend in each category and what you think you can reasonably be expected to spend. If you’ve never budgeted before, trying to cut $200 out of your eating out expenses may sound great, but realistically you know you’re not going to be able to pull it off. This will ultimately lead to you not respecting and honoring your budget, and you will soon fall off the wagon.

I use a fairly detailed budget template that I created in Excel. You’ll find a simplified version here for you to download. Plug in your numbers, customize as needed and you’ll be on your way to greater control of your spending in 2010.

Feel free to let me know what you think by commenting below.

P.S. Online financial management tools such as Mint.com help make administrating and tracking your budget more easy.

Download the budget template.