How To

How to Set up a Family Budget for Everyday living

Member
By jenstewart
User-Submitted Article
(0 Ratings)
setting up a family budget
setting up a family budget

Setting up a family budget means creating a plan to help you understand your family income and spending patterns to set up better ways to budget every day living costs and achieve financial goals.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Income
  • Expenses
  • goals
  • paper
  • pencil
  • computer
  • printer
  1. Step 1

    Setting up your Household Budget Income. When setting up your budget you must first accurately estimate and record your income. This can include salaries, bonuses, commissions, family business profit, or other means of income to list in your budget.

  2. Step 2

    Setting up your Household Expenses. This includes recording everything you spend and setting up a schedule to spend them on. This can mean monthly bills, annual expenses, or day to day living expenses.

  3. Step 3

    Setting up your Budget Goals. Next it is important to write down your short, medium, and long term goals. Make sure you set up smart goals with explanations of a plan of how to achieve them. Make them realistic and prioritize them when setting them up in your budget.

  4. Step 4

    Setting up your Budget Savings Plans. Next you need to prioritize how you want to save money in your budget. What savings categories to budget for and how much to fund them and on what schedule.

  5. Step 5

    Set up your Budget Expense Categories. Now you need to organize all your expenses into categories of necessities, needs, and wants. This is also an important step to setting up a good budget because it tells us what must be payed and when and what cuts can be made.

  6. Step 6

    Create an Emergency Budget Fund. This budget fund should be established to pay for those unexpected expenses and because most of us underestimate what we spend and it allows for a cushion so adjustments can be made and some money can be saved.

  7. Step 7

    Set up your Family Budget Allowance. This is based on the amount you have left over after all your necessities are paid and your needs are cut to an agreeable term amounts. This tells you what you have left over for savings and everyday wants.

  8. Step 8

    Set up your Personal Spending Allowance Budget. This step is the most vital because it takes discipline and can undermine your whole budget plan if not followed. Setting up a budget allowance means everyone in your family understanding what the need for every day living and a plan on how to commit to it.

  9. Step 9

    Balance and Re-Balance your Budget. This is an important part of setting up a budget because this amount is never consistent and must be reworked and balanced again until we achieve our budget goals.

  10. Step 10

    Set up Budget Adjustment Strategies. This a necessary last step because a budget is ongoing and always changing so we must have a budget adjustment strategy. It's great to have a budget set up but it is more important to track what you actually spend and make the necessary adjustments to help stay on course.

Tips & Warnings
  • Keep expenses written down or recorded where they are easily accessible.
  • Look at personal budget allowances and family spending as a way to make cuts before sacrificing savings or emergency funds.
  • Agree to a personal spending allowance budget every week and pay it in cash.
  • Don't underestimate your spending and likewise don't overestimate your income.
  • Avoid credit cards except for emergencies or business travel where they can easily be payed off and are to your advantage.
  • Using check cards can cloud our everyday spending habits.

Post a Comment

Post a Comment
  • Have you done this? Click here to let us know.
I Did This

Related Ads

Personal Finance
Mark P Cussen, CFP, CMFC,

Meet Mark P Cussen, CFP, CMFC eHow's Personal Finance Expert.

Get Free Personal Finance Newsletters

Copyright © 1999-2009 eHow, Inc. Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the eHow Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.   en-US

eHow Personal Finance
eHow_eHow Business and Finance