When balancing chemical equations you must make sure that the formulas are correct. If they aren't correct, you'll have a difficult time balancing the equation(usually) and the most obvious, you'll be wrong. . ...
Example
Balance the following equation:
Na + Cl
You need to remember that chloride is one of the diatomic molecules. Therefore the equation turns into: Na + Cl2
The product of this equation will be: Na2Cl
This equals: Na + Cl2 --> Na2Cl
But this isn't balanced! So in order to balance this equation, whatever is on one side, the other side has to have.
For instance there is only 1 sodium in the first part and 2 in the other part. In order to balance this you need to have 2 sodiums in the first part, etc.
So the final equation will look like this:
4Na+ Cl2 --> 2Na2Cl
When balancing alcohols you always balance in this order: C->H->O
Example
CH3OH + O2 --> CO2 + H2O
1 C 1
4 H 2
3 O 3
If you're confused, you can always do the little chart above ^ to show how many of each element there is.
The end result would be:
2CH3OH + 3O2 --> 2CO2 + 4H2O