Are you interested in setting up a budget or learning more about the budgeting process?

I’ve written about budgeting several times on this site. Here are the links.

• 6 Steps to a Working Budget
• Sample Household Budget (to view or print)
• Budgeting for Gifts
• Gifts Budget (spreadsheet)

Here are some more budgeting articles you might find useful.

• Personal Budgeting: How to Create a Budget
• Budgeting for Your Peace of Mind
• Household Budgeting: Secrets to Marital and Money Bliss
• Household Budget: 10 Sneaky Saving Strategies
• Home Budget: Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Post from: Home Management Tips

Getting Started with a Budget

You see, I had always used a pen. Once I began using a pencil, and only a pencil, I found that I actually quite liked using a calendar. Nothing is permanent, nothing requires Liquid Paper. All I need is my pencil with eraser and I have everything I need to keep a useful, working calendar.

These days I use a calendar software program. Because I want my entire family to have access to the calendar, I prefer a stand-alone program, independent of my email or other personal communications.

I use Sunbird now, but I’ve only recently converted from Windows Calendar, and before that Google Calendar. If you have a very internet savvy household, Google Calendar is a great option. Your kids can have their own calendars and share events or tasks with your household calendar.

Since my children are too young to keep up with their own calendars right now, and my husband still doesn’t see the need for a family calendar, I keep up with everything, and I enjoy using Sunbird as my calendar.

Unless you’re around your computer a lot, I suggest you go with the printed calendar. My personal preference has always been a weekly view.

How to make a calendar work for your household

Let’s start with the paper calendar. If you don’t have a calendar, but would like to be able to print calendar pages, I have a template you can print from. This monthly calendar template doesn’t have the dates, so you’ll need to write them in, but it prints nicely on an regular 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.

Here’s how you can make a calender work for you. Not only will it help you stay ahead of household tasks, it will help you keep up with household events and family members’ appointments.

What you should put in your household calendar

• Add timed events
• Add scheduled recurring tasks and any other tasks you need reminders for

Add dated and timed events

These events have set dates and times that are usually out of your control, be it your child’s sports events and practices, or appointments for your household members. These events can’t be easily shuffled around, unlike your tasks.

Add scheduled recurring tasks and any other tasks for which you need reminders

Some organizational gurus suggest you never include tasks on a calendar because the tasks can be moved around and shouldn’t be assigned to specific dates. However, for a household calendar to effectively guide you as you try to get your household tasks done, your schedule is the perfect place to keep them.

Precede each task with empty check boxes or circles, so you can mark the task as complete. Using a pencil overcomes the issues of moving things around, as does using arrows –> instead of check marks to indicate that a task has been rescheduled instead of completed. Of course, reschedule as soon as you place an arrow through the box so you don’t forget!

Adding your tasks to your calendar also allows you to assign certain tasks to family members and then remember who did it last. This heads off arguments between your kids and can motivate them to get their chores done because they’ll quickly learn it’s no use arguing with Mom’s calendar!

Things to include on your calendar

• Family members’ appointments
• Doctor appointments
• School events & school holidays
• Work events
• Laundry days (see my article Staying Ahead of Dirty Laundry: 5 days to an empty laundry room for suggestions)
• Auto maintenance schedule
• Household maintenance schedule

This might seem like a lot to keep in one calendar, but having it all in one place really does make things easier to keep up with.

If you choose to use a calendar on your computer, you can segregate your tasks and events into groupings and create separate calendar views for each group. I do this. I keep calendars for household, personal, work, auto, and school. I keep all the calendars “on” most of the time so I see everything, but I can turn off any that I want, to eliminate distractions when I need to concentrate on getting tasks done for one particular group, such as household or work.

Give it a try and see if this doesn’t help you keep your household running more efficiently.

Calendars to try

• Mom’s Plan-It 2009 Softcover Engagement Calendar
• Mom’s Plan-It 2009 Desk Calendar
• Mom Organizer 2009 Pocket Wall Calendar
• Little Helper 2009 Planner
• Family Organizer 2009 Pocket Wall Calendar

If you have any tips for keeping your household calendar organized and up to date, consider sharing them in the comments.

Post from: Home Management Tips

How to use a calendar to keep your household organized

Budgets are an essential element of well-managed household finances. It’s easy to forget that budgeting isn’t about depriving yourself. Budgeting is about setting limits and sticking to them. Just as you know that if you overeat too often, you’re going to gain weight, you should know that if you don’t set limits with your spending, you’re going to end up in debt.

Your financial health depends on your ability to set a realistic budget and then to maintain that budget. There are some specific steps you can take to get your budget off the ground.

1. Set up budget categories

Set up categories for your budget, such as automobile maintenance, home maintenance, groceries, dining out, cleaning supplies, income taxes, toys for the kids, toys for the adults, and any other expenses you think you might have. Fill these categories with genuine and true estimates. If you know you’ve spent $500. on groceries in the past month, it’s a sure bet you’ll spend that much or more next month. See the sample household budget for examples.

2. Know your income

Calculate your income from previous months. In this category, it’s better to underestimate than overestimate, but don’t be afraid to be as accurate as possible. Fake numbers aren’t fooling anyone. Fake numbers also make a budget worthless.

3. Don’t panic, yet

Don’t try to trim your expenses until after you’ve completed your first budget. You want to see if you’re overspending or underspending BEFORE you decide what you need to do about it.

4. Know your bottom line

After you’ve subtracted your expenses from your income, you can begin to panic. Give yourself no more than 5 minutes for this, because in truth, panic won’t help you. And if you’re lucky enough to discover that you have money left over every month, decide how you want to celebrate. For the rest of us, this is the time to see where we can realistically expect to be successful at cutting back our expenditures.

5. Trim your expenses

It’s easy to chop away at the grocery and gas categories, but it’s unrealistic. Most of us aren’t overspending in these categories. Look hard at the leisure categories, the toy categories—for both children and adults, the dining out and the cell phone bills. These are the categories that will have the least impact on your household in the long run. You can’t cut back home maintenance—in fact, most people don’t set aside enough in this category, or in the auto maintenance category.

6. Put aside excess, and if there’s no excess, create some

When you do have money to spare, save it. If you budget for a splurge, you’re much more likely to enjoy it without feeling guilty! If there’s no money left for saving, then you haven’t cut enough flab from your budget. Saving should be your number one goal.

Now you have a working budget. You know how much money you have coming in and you know what you’re going to spend. Stick to it. Don’t think of it as a review, think of it as a spending plan. Look at it tomorrow and every day after, and spend your money where you said you would.

The purpose of your budget is not to show you where you spent yesterday’s money, but to guide you as you spend today’s.

Here’s a sample household budget of income and expenses with sample categories already set up.

Post from: Home Management Tips

6 Steps to a Working Budget