Posted in Frugal Friday
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Play Happy - Formally The Special Needs Homeschool Family
We have always had a budget. Before we were married I can remember sitting down with our wedding budget, narrowing down our expenses. Since then we've managed to always keep a budget one way or another. We've done the envelope method, a stint using Microsoft Money, a full-size ledger notebook, an excel spreadsheet, and a written budget in Word. No matter what method we try, we keep coming back to the simple one-page sheet in Word. Our budget lists every category of expense in a home, plus additional line items for birthdays, Christmas, vacations, fun money, car expenses and clothing. I'm sure there are more than that but those are the ones that I can think of at this moment. The top half of our budget sheet lists the actual bills that must be paid. After that is all the extras which get cut back to $0 more often than I'd wish. For variable expenses we simply figure our weekly amount and multiply by the number of weeks within that month. For groceries, I have a note next to the line item of my weekly allowance. We copy this budget off and keep it in our checkbook. This is the real reason I like it. I always have my budget with me so I can always see if I have funds for an item when I am shopping. It helps us to not go outside of our budget and has served us well over the years. If you are new to budgetting I wouldn't recommend this method. Its just too easy to overspend. I think for newbies the envelope method is best. Anyhow my Frugal Friday tip is keeping a budget! It has helped me to stay home all these years and I hope it will continue to keep me home where I love. Janelle |
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Posted by Annette