Budgeting family finances can feel like a big chore, but it doesn’t have to! It’s also a great way to keep track of your finances and to work towards a goal for you and your family. Use this budgeting template to help out with your family financing.
Establish Clear Goals
Whether you’re a single parent or have a partner, it’s important to sit down and establish some goals for you and your family. This might be buying a property, funding education, or saving up a rainy day fund. Whatever it is, it’s important to establish some goals to help you know how much you want to be saving each month.
Keep Track of Your Expenditure and Income
Once you have established your goals, you’ll need to identify how much money you are spending on different outgoings each month, and how much regular income you can expect. It’s useful at this stage to categorize your spending into essentials and non-essentials, so you can see which parts of your budget are non-negotiable. Once you have this information, you can start to draw up a budget that enables you to work towards your goals without having to sacrifice your essentials.
Try Out Some Practical Methods
There are clever ways to scrimp and save a bit extra, which will help you along the way. Take the envelope system, for example, which works by putting any spare cash in envelopes marked for different activities. This way, when you come to pay for an event or item, it won’t be as much of a hit to your finances. There are also apps that allow you to round up each transaction you make and deposit the extra into a savings account. Little tips such as these are helpful if you don’t have the instincts of a natural saver.