Learning household budget planning techniques for the main benefit to your family means staying as debt-free as possible. There will always be some debt but keeping it to a minimum is the key to a healthy financial future. You can’t just go to the money tree out back and pluck off a couple of extra hundred-dollar bills whenever you need it, so you must learn to live within your means.
Most people struggle with being able to stay within their means because of the credit card companies. The credit card companies want you to use your cards and stay in debt up to your neck. By not giving in to this and not living beyond your means, you can and will achieve the financial freedom you have always dreamed of.
Household budget planning is only the easy part. Writing it all down or entering all your info into a computer software program is important, but it is easy. To get a spreadsheet designed to assist you in the budgeting process, visit https://kgmeyerpc.com/product/braving-budgets-and-printable-budget-book/. The hard part is stopping all unnecessary spending and learning to retrain yourself for your and your family’s good.
You need to sit down with your spouse or partner and figure out what you need for your day-to-day household operation and where you can and must make cuts. Things like making your coffee in the morning instead of stopping off at the big coffee house chains that charge you upwards of $5 for a cup of coffee that isn’t that good, to begin with. You can probably make a better cup of coffee at home.
The two of you should sit down and decide together what is most important and what is not. Eating out at lunch is another one that can probably go by the wayside. Between the coffee and the lunches, you could probably save at least $75 a week. If not more! Put that in a savings account or even just a jar on the dresser to see how quickly it adds up. But cutting out a daily coffee or a lunch at work will be the smaller things you consider cutting from your daily routine. To achieve the really big savings that matter and make a significant difference, look at the larger recurring expenses to save some serious money.
It is time to make some tough decisions then stick by them. What is important here is getting out of debt and being financially free. That is your bottom-line goal. Keep the car you have for one more year and that older cell phone. Do not fall for all the hype about the new one coming out. Yours has been just fine until now, and it will do for another year. New cell phones and cars are two good examples of where you can achieve significant savings. But as a family, you need to look at all expenses and see where you can make cuts. Consider your car insurance by looking at your deductibles. If you have a low deductible, consider raising it to a higher, yet still manageable, one saving you some money. Also, if you have multiple insurance policies, consider using a single company to get a multi-policy discount, which can save you a few hundred dollars a year. Another area where costs are rising, and there are abundant options, is cable or satellite TV. Consider some of the numerous streaming services to get your television contact and do what many Millennials are doing and cut the cord, as they say.
These, along with numerous smaller changes, can add to significant savings applied towards any debt you may have. And if you have no debt left, you will be able to save these dollars in an IRA for your retirement, place them in a 529 savings plan for a child’s education expenses, build up a comfortable emergency fund to avoid future debts, or save the extra money for some specific purchase that you may need or desire.
Stick to your plan. It won’t be easy at first, but the more you do it, the better you will be and the easier it will get. Do not forget to treat yourself every once in a while. You deserve it. Just do not go overboard and get yourself into trouble again. Your diligence will pay off someday, and you will get it, so you understand how important household budget planning is.
While I have used this particular spreadsheet in the past, and it is still an active website, there have not been any updates since about 2017. The affiliate is Simple Planning, and while some of the spreadsheets offered are outdated, the budget and savings ones still work and function just fine. With that said, what you get is still worth the one-time fee charged though I would recommend avoiding the package that offers the annual updates as those are not occurring any longer. To see this collection of savings and planning tools, visit https://bit.ly/2HR3QeE.
If you have questions or need assistance, please reach out to me directly or contact any other Registered Financial Consultant (RFC) or an Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC) today. Though I am based in Nashville, Tennessee I am eligible as a fee-only fiduciary RFC at any location.
