Your household budget sheet should contain multiple spending categories.
As a stay at home mom, use this template for personal budget to go through what your family uses.
While you probably learned quite a bit in high school and college, one of the skills that is often overlooked is how to keep a household budget sheet.
As a stay at home mom financial independence is no doubt an important goal for you and your family, but achieving it can be difficult.
Sure, you may know how to balance a checkbook, but can you design a budget that ensures you aren’t living beyond your means?
No matter how much money you make, it’s important that you set up a budget in your home, and a good template for personal budget or household budget tips can help.
If you’re ready to design your own template for a household budget sheet, check out the following information for household budget tips.
How to Set Up a Budget
First, you may be wondering how to set up a budget.
There are two main things you need to do if you are going to get started and design your own household budget sheet.
The first thing to do is to tally up how much income is coming into your home.
Add up all the income that you actually see and come up with the total.
This way you know how much money you are working with. The second step is to tally up all your bills.
You need to list every bill that you pay in your template for a personal budget.
Now you know how much is coming in and how much is going out.
Once all the bills are covered, you can allot for other expenses, such as entertainment, personal items, clothing, and more.
Categories in Typical Personal Budgets
As you’re trying to set up your own household budget sheet, you may be wondering what categories are used in typical personal budgets.
While you probably have an idea of some of the general categories, such as housing, taxes, and transportation, sometimes you need to look at some of the subcategories for your spending as well.
Here is a look at some of the common categories and subcategories that you may want to work into your template for a personal budget.
INCOME
Wages
Interest
Investments
Miscellaneous
| SAVINGS Short Term Savings Retirement Funds Investments Other Savings TAXES Federal taxes State taxes Social security and medicare HOUSING Rent or mortgage Insurance (renters or homeowners) Repairs and maintenance Property taxes Home improvement UTILITIES Telephone Water and sewer Trash disposal Electricity Natural gas or oil FOOD Eating out Groceries | TRANSPORTATION Car payment Auto insurance Gas expenses Maintenance and repairs Fees (tags etc.) MEDICAL Insurance coverage Fitness costs Medical expenses paid out of pocket DEBT PAYMENTS Student loans Credit cards Other loans ENTERTAINMENT Computer costs Vacations Movies, cable, videos Subscriptions Hobbies MISCELLANEOUS Grooming and personal care items Donations and gifts Household products and toiletries Other |
Pay Yourself First – What Does it Mean?
When you’re developing your household budget sheet, you need to pay yourself first. In fact, this is one of the most important financial tips and household budget tips you need to remember. What does this mean?
Paying yourself is referring to setting aside some of your income for savings before you do anything else. The first thing you should pay is the money to yourself. Simply following this advice can help you prepare for the future and build up wealth as a stay at home mom.
Why should you pay yourself first?
When you’re paying bills, such as the rent, electricity, loans, car payments, and more, often there is no money available at the end of the month.
Saving what is leftover is a big problem – it means you’ll never save. Paying yourself first allows you to make saving money a priority.
It also encourages you to develop financial habits that are responsible and sound. Last, contributing to savings on a regular basis can help you to build up some extra money.
This money can help you deal with financial emergencies. It can help you out if you want to buy a home. It also can help you deal with retirement, opening a huge amount of opportunity for you in the future.
Where Do Most Americans Overspend?
As you are designing your own template for personal budget, you want to avoid overspending. Taking a look at where most American’s overspend can help.
One of the main areas where American’s overspend is on debt. Too many American’s have many debts to pay off, which means a large amount of their income is going towards debt on their household budget sheet.
As a stay at home mom try to avoid this pitfall by avoiding debt if at all possible. If you are in debt, focus on paying it off as quickly as possible so you can begin to use that money elsewhere in your budget.
Common Expenses Americans Forget to Include in a Budget
When developing your own household budget sheet, sometimes it’s easy to forget some expenses. One of the most common expenses that American’s forget is saving. Saving is imperative to financial security, now and in the future.
Don’t make the mistake of forgetting to budget in savings when creating your budget.
What expenses have you forgotten in your budget? Do you pay yourself first? Why or why not?
