Create a family budget!

Welcome to my family budget page! You've come to the right place regardless of what brings you here.

Budgeting is the foundation for all of the following:

• Debt Management Plan
• Debt Reduction
• Debt Elimination
• Debt Help
• Being Debt Free
• Living Debt Free
• Getting out of debt

... And more!

Regardless of the reason you came here, I'm glad you're here. Let's get right to it.

A family budget is a plan, a family money plan. One of my favorite quotes on this topic has been claimed by many people, and has many variations, so I'll quote it without saying who it's from, because I can't prove who really first said it.

"If you fail to plan, you're planning to fail."

You might think that is a little harsh, but really think about it. If you don't have a plan, a goal, where will you end up? No one knows, that's the problem, you are blown around in the wind, going wherever it takes you. Do you know who the wind is in this case? Marketers. They want your money, and they make everything seem like a must have, a need.

If you are the type that wants to read a real book, until someone contacts me to write one, check out my other recommended reading:

If you are following this plan through, you already know the difference between a need and a want. If you haven't read that yet, and have any question, please see my need vs. want page.

The marketers get most people’s money, because they make it so "easy" to get. No money down, free interest, no payments. How can you pass that up? Well if you have your priorities straight, you'll know. In the next section we'll talk about controlling yourself and your spending.

First step to creating a family budget is writing down all of your known expenses. Some will be monthly, some weekly, and some yearly, so be sure to get them all. Grab a paper and pencil for right now, just jot them down, if you don't know the exact amount off the top of your head, just write down what you know, we can get the details later.

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• Mortgage / Rent
• Property tax if not escrowed
• Home Owners Association Dues
• Electricity bill
• Gas bill
• Water bill
• Sewer bill
• Phone bill
• Cable / Satellite TV bill
• Internet access bill
• Car payments
• Car insurance
• Mortgage / rental insurance
• Life insurance
• Gas
• Repairs
• Tires
• Car washes
• Oil changes
• Car registrations / licensing / property tax

• Medical expenses
• Prescriptions
• Over the counter medications

• Entertainment
• Food
• School

The always forgotten ones are the most important:

• Charitable contributions / tithing / church
• Savings
• Retirement

I'm sure there are more, so you can either detail them out, or list them all as "other."

Remember this is a family budget, so make sure you think through all the members of your family. (For some people that's their pets too, so don't forget them)

If you have Microsoft Excel on your computer, click below to download the Excel budget spreadsheet. (Save it to a place you'll remember, if you don't have Excel I'll show you what to do below) >

Here are some step by step directions, if you are not a computer guru:

• 1-Click the Google link
• 2-Click the Don't have a Google account button - get started link
• 3-Follow registration
• 4-Sign in
• 5-click the upload button (upper left side)
• 6-It asks for a URL of a file on the web, copy and paste this: http://www.MYDebtManagementPlan.com/monthly-budget.xls
• 7-click upload file button

OK, now you have the family budget spreadsheet in an editable format. If you don't want to keep in on the computer, download the budget spreadsheet in Adobe Reader (.pdf) format. You can then print it out, and use a good old fashioned pencil.

For some expenses that are yearly, it's best to divide it by the number of months to keep your budget monthly. What I do is figure out all my non-monthly bills, and have that amount direct deposited into my savings account, with my savings. That way I always have that money when I need it.

Alright, let's start filling in that spreadsheet.

• Fill in your income in the 2 monthly income sections. I only give you the ability for 2 incomes, for simplicity sake, if you have other income sources, I'd include them together, unless you want to break out who is paying for what expenses to that level of detail, then add a column by copying one and pasting it. Anywhere I say add a row, you can also copy and paste to save yourself time with formulas.
• First, you should pay your church/tithing first. If you are religious, if not, delete that row.

• Second you should pay yourself. This comes in the form of 401K or retirement savings, and regular savings. I recommend you pay to both. I also suggest you pay yourself a minimum of 10% of your paycheck to savings.

• I realize if you haven't been doing this, it may not be possible to do it immediately due to lack of funds, but it's a goal. And you don't want to pay 10% to savings if you have debt. You should use that pay your debt down with. Although some emergency reserves are always handy.

• Don't forget, this is a family budget, so it has to work for the whole family, not just you. Get your spouse involved!

• Next any other charitable contributions you plan to make.

• Put your Mortgage or Rent in the next line. This can include escrowed taxes and insurance if a mortgage, if you rent, you can skip the next two lines.

• If you have a 2nd mortgage or equity line of credit payment enter it. If you don't, delete the line.

• Next is your Property tax, if not escrowed (paid with your mortgage), if it is escrowed, or if you rent, you can delete this line.

• Next mortgage insurance / rental insurance this may also be escrowed, so delete it if it is. If you rent, you should have rental insurance to protect your possessions in the case of a fire.

• Next we have credit card payments, and car payments. If you don't have them, just delete the rows. If you have more than that, you can add rows.

• To highlight debt, I bold the row; our goal is to eliminate bolded items. Also if you add rows the calculations won't be there, just copy it from the line above or below.

• Next are auto expenses, you can do these as one common expense if you want; I've broken them out to make sure you think of all the details.

• If you have student loans, that's a debt, put it in there bold.

• Gas, if you have cars, or motorcycles, or anything that uses gas.

• Car insurance, if you have the need.

• Food, this is groceries, but not eating out. I put that in entertainment, because that's optional.

• Entertainment, because we all need some.

• Now come all the utility bills; use the ones you need, get rid of the rest.

• If you are in school, there's an adult school row, otherwise, there's kids school, and kids expenses in general.

• Clothing, you need it, so budget it. I attempt to make this family budget realistic for the whole family. I realize this may be more for the fashion conscious of the family (in my family that's my wife).
• Life insurance, good for your spouse & family's protection.
• If you live in a city or neighborhood that has Home Owners Association Dues.
• Car registrations / licensing / taxes. Annual where I live.
• Medical expenses, we all have these too, hard to plan for, but they happen, so put it in there.
• Prescriptions, and over the counter medications go here, again, things happen, and you should plan for it.
• Other, if there is anything else you can think of put it in!
• If it's highlighted in Green it's because those are usually non-monthly expenses. So figure out how much it's going to cost you monthly for budgeting purposes.

OK, so now you have documented all of your income and expenses, make sure it includes the whole family, if you have other income earners that participate in the family budget. Are you ready to see how you are doing? Scroll down just a little on the spread sheet, if you haven't already discovered it, you'll notice a total's section. It will show you if you are spending more or less than you make. In our example, this family budget is going negative every month. Better find a way to come out positive!

For more help on this aspect, let's go to the next section, Control your spending!

Now what you should do is monthly fill out this spread sheet in the actual section.

This is where you track how you did compared to your budget. You'll be surprised at where you spend money, you'll find new categories, new expenses, and you'll find ways to improve your family budget. By filling this out every month, as it happens, you are able to make changes on the fly. If you only fill it out every 6 months, and you find out you are over spending on entertainment, you've lost 6 months of time to correct it.

So fill it out monthly!

Remember you need to do some planning. Don't let your finances run you; you need to run your finances. Your family budget depends on you. I highly recommend that you and your spouse go through this together; it really helps both parties stay on track when they understand the financial situation of the family. This family budget is the perfect way to keep everyone in sync!

Move on to Step 3 Control your spending!

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