« How to Start a Family Budget | Main | How to Survive Cabin Fever if You are Craft-impaired »
How To Stick to a Family Budget
Published 03.11.2009 | Permanent Link | Comments (5)
By Amanda of The Naked Ledger who is contributing her financial wisdom to the Guide to Everything weekly
Photo by peasap
1. Set a worthy goal.
There is nothing more boring or painful than saving money simply for the sake of saving money. I know this because I’ve tried to do it myself countless number of times. Sure, I simply SHOULD save money for the future because technically I can (ANYONE can), but that goal is too nebulous to ever force me to put my plan into action. But stop buying fast food for a month and put that savings toward a trip to Italy? I AM SO THERE. The future goal has to be important enough to you and your family that you’re willing to make a sacrifice in the short term to get it. Pick a goal now. Ready, set, goal.
2. Start with ten percent.
Assuming you know where you’re money has been disappearing (if not, read last week’s column!) you might already know exactly where you should be cutting back. But if not, it’s good to start with ten percent. For example, if you added everything up last month and spent $600 on groceries, try spending ten percent less this month and put that $60 in your savings account. If you make small changes like this in multiple budget categories, the savings can really add up and the reduction in spending isn’t as noticeable or painful as you might think.
3. Leave the kids at home.
If you have the opportunity to shop WITHOUT YOUR CHILDREN, do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to the store. If you can wait until your spouse can watch the kids or go shopping on your lunch break, you will undoubtedly save money. Not to mention that when you don’t have feisty little ones hanging off you and begging you for every little thing (my kids beg me for candy every time we’re at the store even though I’ve broken down and bought it for them exactly NEVER), you might also find the time to stop and read trashy magazines in the checkout aisle, and therefore save money on that impulse US Weekly buy (score!).
4. Brush yourself off and start again.
Budgeting and dieting share many things in common, the worst of which is how easy it is to fall off the wagon. But just like with a diet, the worst thing you can do is to adopt an all or nothing attitude like, Well, I didn’t stick to my budget this week, so SCREW IT! I’m going to Sephora! We can all agree that attitude doesn’t help. What does help is to admit that sticking to a budget is hard and that your family is a work-in-progress. Brush yourself off and start again the next day. Don’t let bad spending habits snowball out of control, just forgive yourself the indiscretion and get back on track.
5. Shop less often.
I realize you’ve likely heard this before, but the fewer opportunities you take to spend money, the less you’ll spend. I never used to think I had a shopping problem until I noticed that our monthly credit card bill (the one we pay off every month!) varied in direct proportion to how busy I was at home with writing and work. The busier I am, the less we spend. Every day that I put off shopping because I just didn’t have time to get to the store was one less day that I spent money. So now I go out of my way to intentionally shop less often and find it significantly easier to stick to my budget. Simply keeping busy is saving my family over $200 a month. Italy here we come!
I’d love to read your comments about what helps keep your family on a budget.
- Follow Us!
Via RSS Feed- Via Email
- On Twitter
- On Facebook
- Recent Posts
- How to Prepare for Your Newborn's First Pediatrician's Appointment
- How To Care For Your Child's Teeth Like a Pro
- How To Navigate the Supermarket Like a Nutritionist
- How To Plan Parties with Guests who have Allergies
- How to Trick or Treat Safely
- Categories
- Ages
- Animals
- Beauty
- Books
- Caregiving
- College
- Food
- Health
- Holidays
- Home & Garden
- Money Matters
- New Mom
- Offbeat
- Organization
- Parties
- Photography
- Play
- Pregnancy
- Relationships
- Safety
- School
- Shopping
- Travel
- Contributors
- A Girl & A Boy
- Bessie.Viola
- Busy Mom
- Cool Mom Picks
- Chookooloonks
- Desperately Seeking Sanity
- Doobleh-vay
- Dutch Blitz
- Fairly Odd Mother
- Foodmomiac
- Gray Matter Matters
- Green Mom Finds
- Her Bad Mother
- Hola Isabel
- I Pretty Much Hate Everything
- Issas Crazy World
- Jennifer Graf Groneberg
- Justice Fergie
- Looky, Daddy!
- Mamalogues
- Meagan Francis
- Miss Britt
- Miss Zoot
- Motherhood Uncensored
- Notes To Self
- Nothing But Bonfires
- Oh My Stinkin' Heck
- Peppers and Pollywogs
- Rookie Moms
- Sarah Wagner Yost
- Suburban Turmoil
- Table4Five
- The Blythe Spirit
- The Fabulous Miss S
- The Naked Ledger
- Three Out of Seven
- To Think Is To Create
- Today's Moms
- Uppercase Woman
- Woulda Coulda Shoulda
- Write. Edit. Repeat.
- Archives
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
Most Popular
1) How To Fly with a Young Child
2) How To Be A Cool Twilight Mom
3) How to Deal with Your Mother-In-Law Talking Smack
4) How to Introduce Music to Your Child
5) How To Take Great Photos Of Your Kids
About this column
Could there really be a guide to everything? And, in 5 simple steps? Nope. But, there are definitely fun and simple ways to live life with your family.
The Alpha Mom Guide to Everything (in 5 simple steps) is a contribution-based column, reflecting the voices of parents and non-parents who love children. We will cover lots of topics in the initial months and will continue to be introducing more. You will find that our guide is easy to understand.
1- it's in 5 easy steps
2- it's subjective, but accurate
3- it's useful
We are looking for submissions, so if you're interested please contact us first at contact@alphamom.com. We already have a dozens in the queue ready to be launched over the next few months and don't want to duplicate efforts.
Disclaimer
This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (5):
Tina said:
I had to realize how much it frustrated my husband when I went over. Not just annoyed but hurt him and made him feel like I didn't care about our family finances and how we were doing. (He's the money person in the family, and spends so much time working on the budget, the best way to get the debts we have paid off, the best way to invest what we do, etc.--I joke I married him to pay the bills because I hate that and he married me to shop because he hates that.) I realized I was being selfish and for the good of our marriage (not just the bottom line) I HAD to change my attitude. Since then I've tried to stick with just cash, or really keeping track of what I have in my budgeted areas and sticking to it. Also, we don’t use credit cards. The amount I get each pay is it, so I keep track of that and when it’s gone, it’s gone.
Posted on March 12, 2009 00:38
Deb said:
Well, the economy has me pretty freaked out right now, so that is a huge incentive for me. My other incentive-izing goal is a new computer once all our credit card debt is paid off, and then once that is paid off please-oh-please can I have Merry Maids come twice a month? Since scraping other people's dried pee off the toilets is not fulfilling (there. I said it), this is also a huge incentive for me. Plus, one of these years I'd like to just SPEND our tax refund rather than putting toward the credit cards. That is, assuming there are any deductions left by the time that happens...
I agree on the shopping less often. I shop every other week at the grocery store and really stock up, and on the opposite week I shop at Wal-Mart to stock up on those things.
I also do a lot of freezer cooking - that is, I shop the sales (the flyers can be found on the internet), prepare meals and get them in the freezer. I never put anything in the freezer that has not been prepped for meal making (I have converted your super awesome Cashew Chicken and the surprisingly yummy Magic Meatloaf to freezer meals BTW) and that has eliminated a lot of throwing away of mystery meats that are freezer burned. Plus, having a plan helps eliminate the Oh Crap, I Just Spent $200 And We Have No Food thing.
We also get out cash once a week on Fridays, and when it's gone, it's gone. That covers Starbucks, pizza night, and any other small purchases. This one thing alone has saved us several hundred dollars a month.
Posted on March 12, 2009 11:27
Scissorbill said:
Cash works for us. It's impossible to overspend when you use all cash!
Posted on March 12, 2009 11:41
Max said:
We define a weekly and a daily budget (equal to weekly budget divided 7) and do our best not to spend more than we're "allowed" to. This also builds trust because we both know each other's expenses and are mindful of each other. And it takes us not more than a minute a day to remember all expenses and write them down (no need to classify them if you don't exceed the budget).
Posted on March 19, 2009 17:31
Budgeting Mom said:
Thanks for these tips. These are really hard times and it has really taught me how to stick to a budget. I don't usually go to the mall anymore. The more I go there, the more I am inclined to spend. Hope there will be better days ahead.
Posted on March 26, 2009 02:34