Family Budget Planner

Using a Budget

Using a budget is as simple as setting goals for income and expenses, keeping track of actual income and expenses, and comparing actual income and expenses with the original goals.

The most important thing to remember when working with a budget is:

• If expenses are more than income this is BAD.
• If expenses are less than income this is GOOD.

It may seem obvious, but one of the biggest secrets with successful money management is: Never spend more than you make.

A budget planner should include target income and planned expenses for different categories, like groceries, mortgage payment, and other items. My wife and I currently do ours on a monthly basis. Depending on our circumstances, our budget time-line has varied in the past. Do whatever works for you.

Having predetermined amounts to spend on different categories helps to focus money spending and does not allow family money management to get out of control.

The hard thing about all this is that you have to track your expenses. Of course, that is one of the reasons that it works. To learn how money is spent may be quite surprising.

Average Expenditures

The following table takes data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and categorizes 2008 expenditures of a "consumer unit". I provide it mostly for informative purposes, but you may consider using some of the data here when making your budget. I would recommend using it as a guideline only. Remember that a consumer unit is based upon 2.5 persons.

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