I added some new budgeting info to my website so I thought I would share it here too….

BUDGETING TRICKS AND TIPS:

These are the true and tried techniques that have worked well for me to manage our very tight budget.  I know at all times how much money I have in each category.   It has worked well for me so I thought I would share. 

I keep a sticky note in my checkbook with my weekly household budget categories and amounts.

Such as:

Groceries – 75 –
Church – 25
Gas – 40
Household – 25
Fun – 75.00

This is my budget for one week.   Let’s say I pick up groceries and spend $50.00.  So then I make the notation on the sticky, similar to the following.

Groceries – $75 – $25.00

Now at anytime I know that I only have $25.00 left in my grocery budget, etc.  I subtract each purchase I make at the time I make it so there are no surprises.  Now if when the week is done I have money left in groceries I add it to the next weeks budget.  This way if there is a good sale I can stock up.  I usually have money left over in FUN and continue to save that up to buy things I want of go out to eat, etc.     Each week I make a new sticky note with that weeks budget on it and any carrry over from the previous week.  

I also use my fun money to purchase books from half.com as I read lot.  So when ever I make an online purchase I deduct that money form the fun money line item and transfer to my savings account.  When the credit card bill comes I have the money set aside for the online purchases I have made.    

Another thing I do is I keep a yearly savings budget.  I know how much I have in savings (from my tax return) and I budget out each  big item (braces, car insurance, emergency and mission trip)  that I know we will need to spend the money on over the year.   I do a similar thing to the sticky note as I have the total budgeted for car insurance and when I pay that bill I deduct that from the budget.    I know exactly how much I have left for the year in each category and if I am on target on how much we can spend of it each month.  

Lastly I use a monthly budget worksheet that I devised that helps me to track each weeks bills and division of money.   I find this very helpful.