Important Principles and Lessons on Family Budgeting

What did you learn from this site? Let us take it one-step further. What do you owe? Include credit cards, car financing, mortgage and other debt. Subtract what you owe from what you have. Have you learnt anything by doing this simple exercise? For most of us the answers would be astonishing! This hands-on involvement and knowledge about your finances helps some and not others. For some of us just glancing at our statement now and again,  having no idea as to what is in our wallets, is quite all-right too. (That is, as long as you are not finding ways to spend it without realizing it!)

• In family budgeting, do not be hesitant to set stretch-goals too. Whether you get there by cost cutting, taking a second, part-time or seasonal job or find another source of supplemental income, it helps your raise the bar even higher.
   
• Family budgeting is not just about budgeting to the last cent and flying by the seat of your pants. It offers structure, wisdom, decision making and reward for the serious and tenacious amongst us. Taking it on as a major and regular task and priority will change your quality of life, sometimes without you even realizing it.
   
• You are in it for the long haul! Take responsibility for spending. It this means laying down some ground-rules in your household and cutting back on a couple of luxury items, that needs to be discussed, agreed upon and stuck to, to make your budget work and have an impact over time.
   
• Family budgeting is about minimizing and totally avoiding if possible any unexpected and deemed unnecessary spending. Spell out the realities and consequences of these purchases to others – short on cash, family tension, unnecessary stress and complications,  hardship and more. Openly discussing it builds fiscal responsibilities on all fronts. This does not mean rigidity or inflexibility. Need, merit, means and circumstance will obviously dictate.
   
• Family budgeting is also about shared responsibility. All members can participate – even the kids. Taking responsibility for the grocery bill for example. Mom is responsible mainly for the weekly outing to the store, but when it comes to the staples like milk, bread, eggs and cheese, one of the teenagers can be entrusted with the budget funds and task, help shop for bargain, check flyers and more. Setting house-rules about who gets to pay for what and when is also important when you have young adults still living in the house or have boarders. Family budgeting allows the channel for discussion and eventually mutual agreement on financial goals and priorities.
   
• The most important part of family budgeting is that it helps us all learn where the money actually goes, as opposed to where we think it does or should go. Normally very different things! The initial realization of the amounts (usually larger than we think!), involved on incidental, discretionary and impulse buying is an eye-opener for most and ends up saving families all kinds of money they never knew they had. Just brining that into the awareness and our conscious mind tends to put a stop to unnecessary expenditure.
   
• Mall crawling and hanging out in retail stores to kill time, is counter-productive and part of the reason we spend frivolously. From bookstores, to lottery tickets, gourmet coffee, food-court lunch, and a quick movie, items you do not really need, but think you or your spouse or kids would like leads to hasty, flawed and almost distorted decision making. The thought, actions and actually purchases are not budget-driven and money conscious at all. All these things add up over time. Smoking, daily coffee (or two), buying candy,  chocolates, pop,  magazines and more to ‘kill time’ are all money-guzzlers that should be avoided.
   
• Other examples of incidental money-guzzlers are parking meters, donuts, shoe repair, raffle tickets, fund-raising, car wash, pay phone. Avoid it is probably unrealistic, but family budgeting, logging and tracking at least makes us more aware of these categories and ‘traps’. Have a category in your budget for Miscellaneous and track it for say 3-6-12 months and see how it adds up!
   
• Beware the flyers, advertisements, special discounted sales and other retail or sales tricks of the trade that tempt, entice and lure you in to spend your precious dough!
   
• Keep on tracking spending and income no matter what. A good tip for family budgeting is, at least initially, get a notebook and a pen and write things down as opposed to going to high-tech, spending money to get it done etc. Avoid this being or becoming just another unexpected and unplanned expense! It is supposed to help you, not hurt you. Tools are great, but process and results are better.
   
• Family budgeting help you focus on the different types of expense you and your family and household face. The annual ones are the hardest, we tend to put them on the back burner and they tend to be larger amounts too. Having them in your budget assist us not forgetting there major expenses like school fees, judo or gym memberships, dance classes, Christmas and birthday gifts, babysitting or nanny-salaries and more.
   
• Fiscal restraint, wise decisions, weighing options, informed choice, planned set and formulated goals and projection estimates and steps to get there, all work together in the family budget, to get you back on track and on the road to enjoying your dollar-earnings.
   
• Initially, when setting up your family budget probably for the first time, it is acceptable when estimating some of the expenditures and cost to err on the higher side. This will definitely show you where you would need to cut back if you had to add in budget line items or budget for big purchases like appliances, furnace replacement etc.
   
• Family budgets keep it real, in the moment and us humble, on our toes and accountable.
   
• Some realities we will have to live with. Some fixed costs we are not able to reduce right away or at all. The fact of the matter is, we are on the look-out and actively finding other and  innovative ways to cut spending and costs that we would otherwise not have been motivated enough to do of our own accord. 
   
• Surely, the most interesting effect of the family budget on most people, is revealing our personal spending habits, preferences, weaknesses or “buttons to push” my kids call them. Family budgeting helps us to get to know what they are and improve on them.

Where and why, on what and how much are all factors that impact while our money keeps vanishing. We are most often the biggest culprits here. Shopping excursions should be minimized; they are just a good excuse for buying unnecessary items. 

Overspending while with a group of friends or peers are all too common these days. Grocery bills hide a lot of “sins” or impulse buying (chocolates, chips, magazines, ice cream etc.). Also knowing when during the year you tend to spend more money, is also important – bulk buying might be the answer. Think juice and snacks when the kids are home for summer for example. This also helps people realize that funds should be available almost year-round and that life is unpredictable.