How to make budgeting work for you

Different families have different circumstances, budgets and priorities. While my husband works full time, my main job right now is to makes our household run smoothly, take care of our 4 children and stay on budget. In the past 10+ years since working full time, I have helped bring income in by working part time as a preschool teacher, babysat my old coworker and friend’s children and neighbor’s child and tutored Spanish. With a 18 month old, my focus has been to get him on a schedule and I will probably return to tutoring in the evenings this fall.

While the following tips and ideas are not by any means new, these are the steps I have taken to allow our family of 6 to live comfortably and save more big and small vacations.

Have a goal

What are you saving for? Do you like to travel? Would you like to move to a larger house, buy a new car? Would you like to save for your children’s college funds or for your own retirement fund?

Right now, our focus on saving is to build our personal savings and to save for vacations. These vacations are special to us because everyone is unplugged, we spend time together and have fun together and we visit new places and discover new worlds.

Know your budget/monthly expenses

• Expenses : In order to save, you need to know where you are spending your money. Find a budget sheet or program that works for you. The one that I use I found on pinterest. Some months, I right down every item diligently while others I just revisit what comes in and out. You should revisit our budget at least once a year and when your circumstances change.
• Make cuts or track spending: while your mortgage will be the same each month, they are some categories where you might be able to make cuts. You can adjust your thermostat by a degree or 2 (or more than that like I am tempted to do this summer: our AC bill in summertime makes me want to cry!). You can make sure your cellphone or tv plan is the best for you. I really need to be more diligent with my kids closing doors and windows and probably should revisit our tv plan this summer.
• Groceries and eating out: limit eating out or go out just for appetizers or dessert. I try to go on a monthly date with my husband and change up what we do. As for groceries, visit my post from March 22.
• Miscellaneous expenses such as a quick Target run are things that affect my budget and saving plan to lately I have been cutting those out unless I have a giftcard.

Use pinterest and revisit our pins! Here is one very helpful website with printables: Savoryandsavvy.com

Save

It is always easier to save when you have a specific goal and amount in mind. Write that goal down and diligently put money aside towards that goal. I find that the best way to do that is to have a specific savings account where I put money towards that goal every week and anytime I get unexpected money that is not needed to pay bills or montly expenses. I also add a part of our refund tax to that savings account. Make the goal realistic. You may not be able to put aside $50 a week but even $10 each week add up.

Try not to impulse buy

This is where my weakness is! I will be chugging along, staying on budget and then will go window shopping with my sis in law and spend money on myself! While I think that it is important to enjoy the fruits of our labour and it is ok to treat myself, I need to make sure it works in my budget! So make sure you have some funds allowed in your budget to spend on yourself but try to stick to your alloted amount.

Increase your income

If your montly income does not have much wiggle room for savings even after making cuts where you can, find different ways to increase your income. If you cannot work full or part time, it might be pet sitting, house sitting or baby sitting. It might be tutoring, working at a boutique downtown, or finding a income source by working online. I hope that one day this blog will bring some income in but right now I am content with learning my way around, creating relationships with other bloggers and enjoying the journey.

Now I am going to take some time and look at my budget for the next few months and see where I can improve! While we did not spend large amounts at Christmas, I do feel like I have been offtrack since then and I want to get back on track. We have our summer trip to France coming up, some roadtrips planned and hopefully a weekend to New Orleans and a trip to the beach this fall. You can search my travel posts for tips for traveling with a budget!

A bientôt!

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