Mommies Magazine

Your Ultimate Financial Tool: The Budget

Posted on 16. Aug, 2008 by Nanette in Life As A Mom

You certainly wouldn’t have a carpenter build a house for you without a set of blueprints or plans would you? Of course not, no telling what it would look like. Rooms missing, closets too small, etc. What a mess that would be.

Yet that is what many of us do when it comes to our finances. We have no plans laid out or blueprints if you will for the financial aspect of our lives. Not very smart of us, is it?

But a budget or money plan is vital to successfully acheive our financial goals. Without one we’ll drift about the money sea without any direction ending up on some remote island of financial disaster.

Figure out with your spouse what your joint financial goals are for both long term and short term. It’s important that you work towards your goals together so plan a course of action to reach them. Every journey begins with one step, so take that first step now and create a realistic budget you can both live with and work towards those financial goals.

When creating a realistic take in to consideration and make allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment as wll and the occassional luxury item.

Remember Savings Should Always Come First. Even just a small amount saved will help you attain your long term and short term financial goals.

You can do a quick search on the internet for “free budget forms” and that may help you work something out but if you real have struggled with coming up with a bugdet that is workable you may want to give “How to Set-up A Family Budget and Stick To It“ a quick once over. I’ve read it and it’s a tremendous help in setting up a “realistic” budget you can live with.