Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

Budgeting Tricks for Every Income

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Creating a budget may seem daunting and sticking to it can seem rather limiting. While budgeting may have a bad connotation, a budget is really just a plan for your money. Budgeting can teach you financial responsibility by forcing you to spend your money with purpose. Having a financial plan in place can help you take back control of your money through organization.

How Does Budgeting Help Me?

Your budget is simply your visual financial plan–whether weekly, monthly, or yearly. Your budget can help you reach certain monetary goals you may have thought impossible before. Whether your goals include getting out of debt or saving for a house, a budget can help you achieve whatever financial milestone you want.

Budgeting Tips to Get Started

  1. Budget to $0 Each Month: This tip doesn’t mean that you spend all your income throughout the month. Rather, this means that you assign all of your income throughout the month. Your funds should have a specific allotment, whether it is your savings account or a monthly loan payment such as a title loan. Earmark every dollar towards something, so you can stop the endless cycle of “where did all my money go?” You know where. Look at the budget sheet. Knowing exactly where all of my money goes every month may reduce your stress because it takes out the guesswork.
  2. Remember Every Month is Different: Another important trick to remember is that every month will be different, so your budget plan may need to be adjusted. Some months you will need to budget for unexpected expenses like car maintenance or hospital bills.
  3. Make Your Debt a Priority: The longer you wait to pay off your debt, the more you will be paying in the long run. Making your debt a priority can help you save money in the long run and increase your appeal as a candidate for loans.
  4. Track Your Progress: It’s important for you to keep track of how you are measuring up to your budget. From time to time, check your budget plan and see how much you are saving throughout the month. Reward yourself for the small victories and stay motivated!
  5. Track Your Budget: Throughout the month, you should be evaluating your budget for flaws and inconsistencies. At the end of the month, be sure to look over your spending throughout the month. If you are overspending in any one category, it may be wise to readjust your budget to maximize your savings.
  6. Stay within Your Means: While you may be making your ends meet every month, it is important to make sure that you are not spending outside of your means. Overspending can mean a high car payment or a costly mortgage. Downsizing can mean refinancing your mortgage or trading in your car for something more affordable.
  7. Have Financial Goals: Whether your goal is paying off your student debt, or saving for a house, having financial goals can put your finances and your budget in a better position. Setting small financial goals for yourself can help increase your motivation for staying on track of your budget. Focus on your reasons for budgeting and keep yourself accountable.

Image source: 401(k) calculator, via Flickr.

Why Your Family Budget Should Go Beyond the Month

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Your family budget should be made beyond a one month time span. Forecasting six months worth of expenses can be a much smarter move. Here's how to do it.Most people I know budget monthly. I don’t do this. I like to have a forecasted budget at least six months in advance. With a family to care for, I feel it is especially important to budget beyond the standard one month window.

Forecasting a Family Budget

Kids have various needs. For example, I already know at the end of the summer we will be enrolling our daughter into dance class, if I waited until July to figure these how we’ll pay for this we might not be able to do it, I wouldn’t know until the time came. With a forecasted budget, I can input the classes into the budget and start making arrangements, months in advance.

You don’t have to have a set income to budget beyond a month. Both mine and my husband’s income varies each month but that doesn’t matter because regardless of how we budget we always budget worst case in terms of income and opt to use any overage for savings goals or debt repayment.

For us our daycare costs are also variable. We only pay for the days that she is actually there rather than a flat monthly rate. I know this is more unusual than most, but given the variability I need to be able to see how the difference in days affects us month to month. When our babysitter takes two weeks off in the summer, I need to figure out how to best allocate those funds. Our daycare costs can vary as much as $300 a month and I like to know before the month actually happens how the monies will be dispersed.

While some people may choose to budget these variable expenses differently, maybe but putting a set amount into an account each month for said random events, I prefer to budget the exact amount within our given monthly funds.

I also like that if I budget one amount but it ends up being more or less how that affects the line, months in advance. While spending $50 extra here and there might even out for the month, six months of doing so may leave you a few hundred short. With this in mind I can either decide to keep expenses the same or it gives me time to make more money.

When I input our family trip into our budget, along with other savings targets we set, I could see we were short a little but not until August. This gives me six months of budgeting to make up this difference and balance it. It also gives me time to look more closely at our current budget, maybe I should cut down the budgeted amount for Mother’s day and Father’s day to make up the difference or maybe I should pick up a few more shifts at work.

Financial security is so important when you have a family to care for and having a family to care for usually means your budget has the potential to be more erratic and you’ll need some flexibility. Budgeting in the future gives you much more flexibility than month-to-month.

How do you budget for your family?