Saturday, August 15, 2009

Why Have a Family Budget?

The quick answer is, of course, to know where your money goes so that you can answer these questions:
  • How much do I spend on groceries?
  • What percentage of my money goes for clothing or entertainment?
  • How much per year is going to my church or is designated for other charitable giving?
  • What could be set aside for an emergency fund?

Your answers will help you decide where to cut corners in your family budget.

When I was doing a family budgeting workshop at my church, one lady admitted that her husband always budgeted until he married her. She felt guilty, and wanting to be part of the budgeting solution, not the problem.

If you have the luxury of simply cutting corners rather than worrying about becoming homeless, consider these suggestions:

1. Look at your clothing allowance. If you don't have an allowance, make one and stick to it.

2. Look at your dining habits, especially how much you spend on eating out. Eat more often at home, and make family dining something special. Avoid fast food.

3. Look at how you choose your entertainment. Do you spend money on TV programming that might be better spent elsewhere? Do you spend money on toys like electronics, games, gadgets or cars?

4. KNOW the difference between need and want. Maybe you don't NEED that next pair of shoes, no matter how cute.

If you believe all attempts at any kind of planning a family budget is useless, you may need to simply watch where you're spending your money first. Track your spending for a couple of months. Many people don't know they're overspending until they start paying attention. When you're ready, there are a number of family budgeting worksheets availble, both online and in a number of stores. Start making your money work for you rather than letting overspending control you.

Eventually you'll get to the point that following your budget will come naturally.

The other day my daughter's youngest came up to her and said he wanted cookies. Could they make some? She laughed when when she realized what he had said. Her buy-it-now son had changed his question, and she knew that her efforts at teaching the family how to budget was finally working.

Your plan will work too. Why not start one now?

1 comment:

  1. Tracking my spending helped me to see that I was going the the store about every other day just to pick up a missed item from the regular shopping trip and "only spending $20 at a time." These frequent trips showed me what I was really spending on groceries!!

    ReplyDelete