How to Make a Family Budget
December 27, 2008
Whether you want to save some money, get a handle on your family’s spending habits or just become better with your finances overall, setting up a family budget can be a good idea. Setting up a family budget can help you get control and reach your goals, whether long term like getting that new addition on the house or paying off the car, or short term, such as taking that family vacation.
Setting up a family budget doesn’t have to be intimidating. Here are some tips to get you started:
Know What Your Fixed Bills Are and Average Them
There are some bills in your life that are going to be the same every month. Your rent or mortgage, your car payment, the phone bill —these are things that are going to remain mostly the same month in and month out. Add them all up.
Know What Your Variable Bills Are
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Your variable bills are the bills that change on a month to month basis. Your electricity bill, groceries—these are variable bills that can change. Add them up and divide them by however many of them there are and you will have an average. This is where tracking your spending for a couple months can be helpful. Factor these totals into your budget. This is the best area to try to cut expenses in order to reach a goal such as getting out of debt.
Factor In Unexpected Expenses
Factor in unexpected expenses as well; those are things that you don’t expect to happen, like the emergency Vet bill for Rover or car repairs. Look in your checkbook for the last year and try to come up with a figure that represents how much you spent on these types of expenses, and divide by 12 to get the monthly amount.
Adding up all of these things and factoring them can help you figure out where your money is going and how to spend it better, more wisely. Do you really need cable? Could a family sharing plan could keep your cell phone minutes down? Could you buy your clothes used at thrift stores? Figure out ways of lowering your grocery spending?
Setting up a family budget can help you set some goals for your family and get a handle on what you spend, so in the end you will be in control of your money.
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