Show me the money!

Last week at our playgroup, we had a very interesting conversation on budgeting. Okay, put away that thought "Oh how boring!"

I personally feel very successful with our budget and I wanted to share this with you. Now I do want to say that my form of budgeting is tailored for my family and may not work for you. I believe budgets come with a lot of trial and error and to be honest, I didn't discover this one until 5 years into our marriage. It still isn't perfect and gets tweaked whenever something changes. So keep that in mind that you must do what is right for your family and make changes as needed.

The first thing that you need to do is write down all of your bills and expenses (Including due dates. No late payments here!). Even write down those things that you wish that you could include in your budget but don't currently. Like Christmas (You know that it happens the same time every year, why not save up for it and not charge it!), Vacations, College funds for the kids, and savings.

Then write down how much you make. For me, you will see that I have a section for each child that I care for.

Now weed out what items will not work into your budget. Can only fit $300 a month for vacation verses the $500 you would like, then fine. Are you able to put extra money towards debts? Perfect, if not, see what else you can cut back on.

Next I break up the month into 4 to 5 weeks, depending on the month. For each week I put down what the income is, what bills need to be paid that week (so they all arrive on time), and what expenses need to come out (like food). Everything on the expense column is taken out in cash except for the "float" money. Need to have something in the account at all times.

I am going to post the form that I use. Please note that I have changed the names of children, income amounts (no one needs to know that!), bill and expense amounts (again, too much info), etc. This is just so you can get an idea of what works for me. (Click on the forms to see close up)