April 15, 2009
In this article from Suite101.com, Judith Zwolak talks about how families should track their spending and develop a budget.
"Start with dining out and groceries Take budgeting baby steps and start by tracking your grocery and food budget for a month, including restaurant meals, coffee shop treats and vending machine snacking. Keep all receipts and write down what you spent for an entire month. You may be surprised how quickly the Chinese restaurant deliveries and extra bag of potato chips add up. When the month is over, you have already tracked a major category of your household budget—congratulations!
Now set up more categories Some expenditures vary little from month to month, such as housing (mortgage or rent), utility bills, insurance, daycare. Others can fluctuate—entertainment, travel, home improvement, auto repair. Devise some basic categories, adding or combining categories after you have a few months of budgeting under your belt. Get your partner involved in the process. If he or she doesn’t want to take part in the recording or analyzing, at least make sure you get receipts for any purchases your partner makes."
To read more of Zwolaks tips, Click Here.
"Start with dining out and groceries Take budgeting baby steps and start by tracking your grocery and food budget for a month, including restaurant meals, coffee shop treats and vending machine snacking. Keep all receipts and write down what you spent for an entire month. You may be surprised how quickly the Chinese restaurant deliveries and extra bag of potato chips add up. When the month is over, you have already tracked a major category of your household budget—congratulations!
Now set up more categories Some expenditures vary little from month to month, such as housing (mortgage or rent), utility bills, insurance, daycare. Others can fluctuate—entertainment, travel, home improvement, auto repair. Devise some basic categories, adding or combining categories after you have a few months of budgeting under your belt. Get your partner involved in the process. If he or she doesn’t want to take part in the recording or analyzing, at least make sure you get receipts for any purchases your partner makes."
To read more of Zwolaks tips, Click Here.
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