what is a good way to start a family budget?

Question

I am looking for a easy budget plan to set up for my family. I don't want anything confusing or time consuming.

Answer 1

I agree with Mary... I set up my family budget with a clear list of all our expenses: Mortgage, Car payments, Daycare, Etc. with the days they are due. For the variable expenses, I looked back several months to see what we spent on average on Food, Gas, Cash Withdrawals and Miscellanious. If you see an area that you are overspending, it's easy to see where you need to trim back. Then list your income to see what you have left. I recommend putting Savings under the expense catagory, otherwise people don't do it.

Most people have some debt, but may not truely know how much. Along with the budget, to the side of the item like "Credit cards", put the overall balance. The only way to pay off debt and manage a budget is to have a very clear plan.

List all the debt in another area in order of priority. For example, my husband and I owed a decent amount on credit cards, then a small loan for our wedding rings, one for our golf cart, and student loans. The credit card was the highest interest rate, so we paid the minimum on everything else and paid as much as possible to the credit card. Once that was paid, we compounded what we paid for the credit card along with the next item (student loan) and paid that off like crazy. By the time we got to the last item, we were paying $800 a month off our last debt because we compounded it.

I know you said you didn't want anything time consuming, but if there is anything to spend a few more minutes on a month, it would be your family finances.

Answer 2

The simplest budget I've ever seen was the needs & wants budget.

Everything gets divided into those two categories: needs or wants. I find that there is a huge gray area, so I'd create a third category (nice to have or not imperative). Regardless, you'll find yourself having to make some real difficult financial decisions (which will go a long way to solve you budget issues).

Another method is to find out where you guys tend to overspend (dining out, shopping, etc.) and fill an envelope with a set amount for that category for that month.

Answer 3

First list all the income you are getting.
Then list all the non variable payments like mortgage or rent, insurance, loan payments, phone etc.
Then list the estimates for the variables like hydro, heat, food.
Subtract the payments from the income and work from there. You should save some money for emergencies.
If you have some left you should allocate for entertainment etc.
You have to keep track of your spending so you knwo if you are staying within the budget.

Answer 4

Here's a nice website with a budgeting tool:
http://www.genus.org/scripts/calculators.pl?function=budget

Answer 5

www.daveramsey.com

there are alot of other sites that have budget forms you fill out.
He has a great system, and I think there's a "quickie budget" form on his site. His ipod show is good too.

http://www.daveramsey.com/media/pdf/fpu_qbudget.pdf

Good luck :-)