Easy Budgeting Tips for Moms

Written by Nicole Dean

Budgeting Made Easy

I am a strong believer in budgeting because even with the smallest of incomes, it can help you make your money go farther. Budgeting is not hard and you do not need a degree in mathematics to be able to do it. You also do not need expensive software or online programs to write an effective budget.

The first thing you need to do is make a list of all your bills and expenses – monthly, weekly, quarterly, etc. I do my budget by the week because we get a weekly paycheck. Some people would do a monthly or bi-weekly budget. For example, I will do a weekly budget.

So here is an example of a list of expenses:

Mortgage $250
Groceries $300
Heat $50
Phone $75
Electric $80
Internet $20
Cable $50
Insurance $60
Car Payment $200
Credit Cards $25, $75 and $100
Gas for car $100

Now to start your budget, you would put each bill a week or two before it is due. For example, if your mortgage is due on the 10th of the month, you would either have it paid the last week of the month
before or the first week of the month.

Example budget using example bills listed above with an income of $450 a week.

March 5
Internet $20
Groceries $75
Gas $25
Credit Cards $125
Insurance $60
———————–
Total $305

March 12
Car Payment $200
Cable $50
Groceries $75
Gas $25
———————
Total $350

March 19
Mortgage $250
Groceries $75
Gas $25
——————–
Total $350

March 26
Groceries $75
Gas $25
Credit Card $75
Heat $50
Phone $75
Electric $80
———————-
Total $380

Now, this is your very basic and simple budget. You would want to add in things like Christmas, birthdays, taxes, etc. when appropriate. With a tight budget, you would try to add those in when you have an extra payday. These come every third month, I do believe.

What you have left is for whatever you choose to so with it. I would recommend that you add a weekly amount for savings/investments to help with the future.

Also, if you want to do a budget for your business, I would suggest doing that separately.

I simply write my budget in a notebook and go over it every week when I write out the bills. I also then write out my grocery list for the weekly shopping.

I keep my budget, bills, monthly statements and such in a folder type binder. Each month when I pay a bill,
I throw out the old statement and keep the new. This helps me keep track of things also.

Yes, sometimes it is hard to stick to a budget, but if you don’t things could get much harder and the bills could start stacking up.

Budgeting might sound complicated, but when you use a simple method, it gets easy very quickly. You do
not need to be an accountant or to have an expensive software program to help you do your budgeting. A simple notebook of paper and an ink pen or pencil is all you need. Oh, and a calculator to speed things up
a bit. 😉 Happy Budgeting!!!

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