Need Help with Creating a Household Budget for the New Year

Hi K.,

I'm a professional financial advisor. You can look at my response to Teri B earlier this week for ways to save money and get on track. There is a really good spreadsheet for free at: http://www.suzeorman.com/ It is on the left side of the page, called Suze's expense sheet. I would highly recommend you start there.

If you have specific questions/concerns, feel free to email me directly. I provide education as a service to the community, no charge.

Good luck! C.

google search (or yahoo or whatever) Dave Ramsey, or "Financial Peace University". He has a website and sells books as well as a radio program that just makes sense!

I do use a professional planner.....he also helps with investments.....I found this very helpful after my husband passed away 2 months ago. He has really helped me immensely. He also recommended software called YNAB....you need a budget, which is also online. I've just started using it, but it is helpful just to see where the money is going each month!

I'll give you the name of my financial planner if you write to me....and Dave Ramsey's site also has recommended local people I think you have to click on Endorsed Local Providers.Please respond to me if I can give you any more info!

dave ramsey a total money makeover

I recomend this ebook:
http://www.heyyougetreal.com/ebookforfamily.htm

Dave Ramseys Financial University!

Hi K.,
Get the book, "Secrets of the Millionaire mind," by T. Harv Eker. It has a great idea for budgeting your money with money jars. I works wonders!
S.

There is an online home budgeting system that helps you manage your spending called Mvelopes. My family will be using this in the coming year too.

Their website address is http://www.mvelopes.com/

Happy Budgeting!

R.

A lot of the moms talked about what you can do from here forward, but you may want to do a quick look at where your money went in the last year. I have a spreadsheet that has the following columns: income, house, car, food, clothes, kids, gas, drugstore, miscellaneous. I went through my checkbook for the last year and just put the amounts in the proper columns. Of course, in the beginning, a lot went in the misc. column, and that helped me decide what other categories I'd like to add to track. But this gave me at least some idea of where things had gone, and what I need to work on both on finding ways to budget those as well as to determine where I need to improve on tracking.

BTW, the rows on my spreadsheet are also separated by month so I can see what a each month looks like.

Hope this is helpful

the best advice I EVER got was cheap. Buy a spiral notebook and for one month write down every cent you spend and what it was for. This includes bills, a newspaper, lunch out, etc... account for every cent. You will have an overview of where it went, be able to catagorize how much you need for expenses and decide how much to budget for all the other stuff. It seems like kind of a pain, but it will be 100% accurate and tailored to you. This advice was given to my parents by a financial planner 30 years ago and helped them get their finances in line. When I got married we did the same thing and learned how to budget in no time. Good luck

The other advice all sounds fantastic. I am a fan of Dave Ramsey's ideas also. I try to implement them, but my hubby isn't as enthusiastic and it can get touchy from time to time. The easiest "saver" I have found is very simple:
Make a plan for the week and shop once for it. Just once. No extraneous trips to the grocery store/Target, etc. Include on your list not just your food items (make a meal plan), but takeout nights, dog food, personal hygiene items, EVERYTHING you will need to bring into your house for the entire week. Then, estimate what it will all cost. Take out cash enough to cover it and go buy it in one trip, using your list (and stick to the list). You will have included in the cash you took out, the amount you plan to spend on drive-thru etc, so only pay cash for anything you buy out. Only use checks/debit for bills paid through the mail (electric, water, mortgage, insurance, etc).

I think we ALL (I KNOW I do) spend about 20-30% EXTRA every time we step foot into a store. If we shop 5 days per week, we spend an AWFUL lot more than we should, because each time, it is "just a couple of dollars... no big deal" mentality. But it adds up bigtime by the end of the month.
Try it, and you'll see what I mean.

The best way to help you get your budget on track is to, (1) Keep a record of all the spending you do in one month. It should be any and everything you buy. Gas in car, coffee from the store, lunch for you and lunch money for the kids, snacks and so on. I try to not buy too many snacks at the store, I will buy crackers on sale, buy one get one free and make cheese and crackers or peanutbutter and crackers, you can also keep lots of fruit and veggie cleaned and cut-up in the fridge. Try not to go out to eat or stop by the fast food resurant, in stead buy food that is easy to make at home; make hamburger patties up and freeze them, for that quick meal anytime. I like to take 4 - 6 hamburger patties, fry them in a skillet, just until browned, then put them in a cassorole dish, mix 1 can of cream of mushroom soup,1 8 oz. sour cream, 1 small can of mushroom steams and end, drained, and 1/2 cup water and pour over hamburgers bake until sauce is bubbly, Serve with rice or pasta and your favorate veggie. What this dish vanish right before your eyes. I hope this will help you. If you would more quick and simple recipes, you can contact me at ____@____.com L. P.

Money Express is a wonderful program that gives you pie charts to show how much of your budget is going to what, helps you create a budget, track your spending, etc.

It is time consuming to use any program because you have to treat it like your check book and enter every transaction in/out of your bank account(s) so that it can accurately track you and your spending in order to help you learn where you can cut back.

Hi K.,

Dave Ramsey's Total Money Make Over is incredible. My company required all it's Marketing Executives to read it and offered training and bonuses for saving money. He writes a column in our monthly magazine as well.

I worked 15 years in the credit card industry and finally left because there is no integrity whatsoever left in that world. I have saved a lot of money since going back to using only cash. I shop online with a debit card but I keep cash in my Wallet and the shear thought of it dwindling makes me think twice about buying something I don't need....even at the grocery store.

Regards,
M.

As a side note to all the Moms, remember to budget in money for tips when appropriate. There are a lot of people struggling right now and so many folks are doing business as usual and the ones that survive off of tips are the ones that are suffering. The State of GA has just sent down an edict that when a state employee uses their state credit card they are not allowed to put the tips on the card anymore. So instead of tipping out of pocket, they're not tipping at all. I have a friend in downtown Atlanta that works near GA Tech and yesterday her income was half of what it normally is on Tuesdays. She was stiffed consistently and on a $3.00 an hour wage, she won't be able to survive.

I am recommending it because it works and I am practicing it now. There is a gentleman called Dave Ramsey. The program is called Financial Peace University. He teaches about the "emergency fund" and the envelope system. A few baby steps he teaches.
Prelude - "NO CREDIT CARDS"
1. $1000 "emergency fund"
2.Pay off debt...using the snowball effect
3. 3-6 mths in expenses etc
Simply you plan your budget and do not walk around with your ATM cards or checks because you are always tempted to swipe or use. Great biblical based principles and proven to not just me but several of my friends. My Pastor introduced it to the congregation and has classes about it, he practices it and lives by it too.
Dave Ramsey talks about college funding, paying off your home early, retirement accounts among other things. Learning is fun too and easy to understand. His website is www.daveramsey.com or you can call 1-888-22-PEACE (73223). Good Luck

Hello K.!
This will be my first post for this site. For a while now I've been receiving the daily emails from Mamasource and rarely do I read any of them. I believe it's not by accident that I read your request in particular.
My in-laws bought my husband and I a book for our 1st Anniversary. It took us a while, but we recently decided to take action and get serious about reading this book as well as taking action on our steps to financial freedom. The book is called "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. I've read story after story and heard families call in to share their testimonies. People getting out of $50,000+ debt in less than 2 years. Young couples in their early 20's ready to pay off their first home in the next 5 years.
I know that my husband and I look forward to having our financial freedom. Not only for us, but for our unborn child that is soon on the way.
I pray this helps you like I know it's helping us already!!

Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover -- really sound, practical financial advice designed to eliminate debt, create an emergency savings fund, and develop a balanced monthly budget that includes money set aside monthly for occasional, "unexpected" expenses like car repairs, home repairs, etc. He advocates "the envelope system" to help you live by this budget -- putting variable expenses money, like groceries, clothing, entertainment in an envelope (actual cash!) and spending directly out of the envelope, so you can see your cash dwindling and stop spending when it's gone. Also, you can get on a "budget plan" with your utilities, like FPL, where they average your annual power usage and charge you the same amount each month. That helps even out your power bills so you don't have some months that are really high that catch you by surprise. Good luck!

My husband and I have successfully gone from a dual income to a single income home. I cannot believe how much extra money we were spending on things that were not necessary. The only "luxuries" we gave up was cable TV and cell phones, and honestly, we could probably afford to keep one of them and choose not to. We do still have high speed internet, so don't think we gave up everything ;-)

How did we start? Go to the library and look at books by the author "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." (I know, not an encouraging title for moms, but chocked full of goodies). Also, I liked "Cheapskate's Guide to Living Cheaper and Better." Another good book is "Shattering the Two Income Myth," which I loved so much I bought a used copy off of Amazon for less than $10 (and most of that was shipping). This book is nice because it starts with how to get ready, obstacles, and first steps BUT then it has one tip a day. So, you can literally read one (or at the most two) pages a day. Some of the tips are dated and some of the tips didn't work for us, but enough tips worked into our lifestyle that we were able to make a significant difference.

I am currently expecting our second child (due any day now), and even though that has caused us to relax some of our spend thrift ways -- there is no way I am hanging loads of laundry out to dry at 9 months pregnant -- we are still living within a budget. It is hard at first, but it is so rewarding to know that you are living better for yourself and setting a good example for your children.

Good Luck!

Hi K.,

Something that works for us is to buy EVERYTHING with a credit card (this will of course only work if you are good about controlling your card spending -- we pay ours off in full every month). That way I can log into the website for the card at any time and see exactly how much we're spending and on what. Between that and logging into my bank account on the web, I can track our budget pretty easily without having to actually make a budget.

If I notice a lot of extra expenses, I try to keep that in mind and slow down the discretionary spending. It's like dieting -- instead of actually trying to conform to a specific diet, I just think about eating less and try to stop eating before I get full.

Good luck!

I am a tax accountant and CPA. I personally use Quickbooks but it's probably a bit more than you need. I think Quicken would be a good program for you to understand where your money goes, but in terms of actual budgeting you might just find it easier to go to cash. Take out your money and divide it into what you need to spend it on - when it's gone, it's gone. I saw on NBC this morning a cool website - I think it's mint.com to help you budget and save. Anyway, feel free to send me a message if you ever need any help. Good luck!

Just one more vote to look into Dave Ramsey's books and wanted to mention there's a free budget tool on his website. Plug in your monthly income and it'll generate a basic guideline for you to start with. Adjust it to suit your needs.

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/cms/gazelle_budget_8773.htmlc

Here's another guideline chart you can follow from Carmen Ulrich's show on cnbc http://www.cnbc.com/id/26641187

First, before you "budget" take 30 days and keep very single receipt and get a cheap journal and write down every single expense. Make a Key of categories. Even if you have to separate your walmart cart into wants and needs, household and groceries. It will be time consuming, but it will really help you see where money goes. My husband oftne eats out and often just takes us out after church, or if we go anywhere and it drives me nuts. He is always stressed about the bills not being paid on time, but then he spends and average of $400 on eating out, one $30 restaurant at a time. We also were spending way too much on cable and other useless items. It feels SO much better to know I only have $8 per week to spend on what every I want, than to buy a $20 item and be stressing out about the cell phones beign shut off, or the internet not working one morning. www.thechurchgroup.com has an AWESOME finance series. We're in the middle of another one right now and the testimonies have been awesome. Even if you're not religious, the financial priciples set up by God are the exact ones that ALL successful, proserous people use. You will be amazed. Also journaling will help you look back and see the difference little baby steps will make without feeling like you're broke all the time.

Hey,

Someone else had an issue with budgeting, so I am going to just copy and paste what I posted and post the link so you can see what other moms are doing/suggesting. I hope this helps and wish you the best! This is mostly about food except for stretcher.com, but sometimes food is the biggest budget-killer...

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http://www.mamasource.com/request/15349068428283478017

I actually have a few sites in mind with regards to this subject...

I'm sure this has been put up by others, but this has helped my grandmother who is on food stamps. You don't have to be on food stamps to use this service.
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

This site has given me so many great ideas to cut back. There are menu ideas too.
http://www.stretcher.com/index.cfm

This is the food stamp website. You don't have to be on food stamps to use it, but you can look up recipes based on cost per meal or even dietary restrictions.
http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov/

One more, I made this little online cookbook. Alot of them I use and love. Enjoy!
http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=224820

Here is a forum that can help you put a menu for the week together. I am such a big advocate of putting a menu together.. it reduces stress (sounds silly, but really works) and helps with budgeting.
http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewforum.zsp?f=7

I think this is a great post during this harsh economy. Good luck to everyone budgeting!!!