Learn how to create a simple written budget for your family. Easily organize and manage your family finances with my free budget template.
The act of creating and living by a budget seems to be a dying art within our culture. Consumerism has taken over and most families are living from paycheck to paycheck, often way beyond their means. Many monthly purchases are being made on credit.
This type of lifestyle puts stress on a homemaker, and the family as a whole. A better and much simpler way to live is on a budget, where you are in control of your money and expenses.
Our Personal Budget Strategy
Our family started getting serious about our finances about five years ago. We decided that we were going to pay off all of our debt and that we were going to create and stick to a monthly budget. (we learned a lot of what we now implement concerning our finances, from Dave Ramsey)
My husband and I have a organized budget that we tweak each month depending on income for that particular month and expenses. It has become a habit and a natural part of our lifestyle.
We create a zero based budget each month. This means that we take our total income for the month and then give every dollar a designation. As an example, if we made $5000 dollars for the month, we would put every dollar in a category so that when all of our categories/expenses are added together they will equal $5000 for the month.
Is Creating a Budget Complicated?
Creating a budget for your household really isn’t that complicated. You don’t have to take a class or be a genius in finance. You just have to be willing to live within your means and use common sense when planning how you will spend your money each month. It does take some time to initially organize and create your budget but will require less time each month following.
My desire is for wives, mothers and homemakers to take control of their finances and to make creating a budget a simple part of their lifestyles. I have created a simple budget template to help make it easy for you. I am going to walk you through each budget category below. You can access the complete budget template download for FREE at the end of this post.
Income
In this section you will write your income for the month. It could be income from your jobs, items you’ve sold, or money that was gifted to you. Any money that you have coming in for the month belongs in this category.
Giving
We personally believe that generosity should be a key part of our lives. This doesn’t have to be a certain amount or percentage, but should be designated and given with a joyful spirit. This section of the written budget allows you to write in who you choose to give to for the month and the amounts. Some ideas of places you can give to include ministries, a non profit organization or maybe buy a meal or a gift for a friend.
Saving
This is such an important category in your budget. These are categories you assign your money to that help you get ahead in life and to plan for your future. You can do this by organizing money into categories such as savings and investments. I included some other categories below that we utilize in our own written budget every month.
We save money each month for travel, auto repairs that might come up and we pay extra money toward our mortgage. A goal that is important to us is that we pay our mortgage off early. It might only be $50 bucks extra a month but a small amount can make a big difference.
Housing
In this category you can write out any expenses that keep your home functioning monthly. This includes items such as your mortgage, electric bill, etc. I have filled in some of the most common but feel free to add other categories that apply specifically to your household.
Transportation & Food
This is the category that often effects the household budget the most. When families sit down to create their first budget and realize how much money they are spending on food they are usually shocked. We always separate our groceries from our eating out or restaurant category. This helps us manage and control how much money is going toward eating at restaurants because we want to keep it minimal.
Lifestyle Budget
I usually call this the “everything else” category but “lifestyle” sounds a little bit more organized. This is where you add in all of those extra expenses that are unique to you and your home. In the picture above are some examples from our personal budget. I suggest always having a miscellaneous category with a little bit of money assigned to it. This is the category you can assign one off items you ordered from Amazon that you don’t feel like fits into your other budget categories.
Insurance & Taxes
This is the boring, grown up category. None of these expenses are fun and exciting but they are necessary. This is where you assign money toward health insurance if it does not come out of your paycheck, life insurance and other insurance needs. I included a space for taxes for those who are self employed as well.
Budget for Additional Expenses
I added this category for anything extra you might need to add on your written budget. Everyone’s budget looks different but the important thing is that you write everything down and make sure you calculate a zero based budget. Being organized and making an every dollar type of budget makes all of the difference.
I hope this simple written budget tracker helps you as the homemaker of your home. When your finances are in order you have more peace and simplicity in your life. If you would like to start budgeting with my simple monthly budget you can access it HERE. Happy budgeting!
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