3 Budget Basics
Strengthen Your Financial Foundation with the Household Budget Basics

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Strengthen your financial foundation with the Household Budget Basics.

Basics

Basic #1 - Take Control

Take Control with a Flexible Budget:

We need a flexible budget so that we will take ownership over our money in order to make our plan work. There is no perfect, generic budget for everyone. There is no predictable, monthly budget. Ever.

Budgets are flexible because life changes on us.

Your home budget is simply your spending plan for your money.

Make a plan. Stick to it. But allow it to adjust to your needs. A family budget is not a straitjacket.

Take control of your money by telling your money what to do.

Basic #2 - Plan on Payday

Budget Planning Only Works When We Have Money:

Money is best spent when we have some. And we get some every payday. The best time to plan our home budget is when we have money to spend and before we spend it.

Our expenses are constantly changing, so our budget must change to keep up.

Budget your money whenever you get income.

Basic #3 - Simplify Categories

Creating a Household Budget the Simple Way:

The only way we'll use our home budget is if we keep it simple.

Have you seen some of the free budget spreadsheets available? They are horribly complicated. Forget that.

Pare your expenses down to as few categories as possible. Then cluster your expenses together within those categories according to what makes sense to you.

Keep your home budget short and sweet.