Comments on: Family Budget For The New Year

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:39:59 +0000

What a great article, and so refreshing to see someone else who has established the need for businesslike structured discipline in working the families income and finances into a budget. I recently commented on another post in which there was some mixed feeling and “argument” that a family is based on emotions and not strict business procedures, but I maintain that a system and a plan has to be set up and a “CFO” appointed who is going to control the whole thing. Your clearly set out spreadsheets are indicative of the kind of structure and discipline required to bring about family financial management success.
Thanks again for a great article.
Barabara

By: Antonia Quinton

Antonia Quinton — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:40:01 +0000

Oooh that’s funny – I’m in England and the time is 2:39am on 11th! I couldn’t sleep. Just noticed your time bar and realised the time difference!

By: Antonia Quinton

Antonia Quinton — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:38:42 +0000

Wow I’m impressed guys and I’ve already downloaded the planner and budget guide. I love the idea of it being available from google docs as well. One of the things that my fiance and I have struggled with is how to organise ourselves in terms of what we’re doing. Having sort of just got the hang of it, it’s good to know about the budget option as I can start to implement that and hopefully in the future if and when we go to one income he can help too.

By: Half Yearly Review - Family Goals For 2009 | Planning With Kids

Half Yearly Review - Family Goals For 2009 | Planning With Kids — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:00:54 +0000

[...] Adhere to the family budget. [...]

By: Kiera

Kiera — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:01:56 +0000

Interesting post, and a great spreadsheet!

We track our expenses using a family budget planner.
Getting in control of your finances is a great start to the new year! And SO empowering!

By: PlanningQueen

PlanningQueen — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:50:02 +0000

Ickle Kids – Happy New Year to you as well!
Kathy – Your mortgage spreadsheet sounds very motivating!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:38:44 +0000

We do this kind of budgeting too, albeit on a slightly more macro level than tracking each coffee. Our spreadsheet tracks regular weekly, monthly & annual outgoings (mortgage, insurance, car loan, car maintenance, school, kinder & activity fees, rates, utilities) and sets an amount for recurrents (groceries, petrol, clothing, entertainment, a small weekly personal discretionary fund of $30 apiece - which I tend to spend on books and chocolate, and G on coffee and lunch with colleagues once a week). What helps us a lot is that G, my partner, has another spreadsheet that tracks the progress on our mortgage (payments made, interest charged, and how far ahead we are of the bank's "scheduled" total). The second motivates a keen adherence to the first, because money we preserve by keeping to our budget goes straight off the mortgage in almost all cases and we can SEE the benefit of that very clearly (5 years in to the mortgage, we are about $40,000 ahead of where the minimum repayments would put us, so we consider that a success). This year, instead of overpaying the mortgage, we are saving our income surplus (should be in the region of $12k) to replace the flooring in the dining room and the tatty old curtains with blinds. The fact that we can do this in a year when I'm on half-pay maternity leave from my part-time work (so only getting paid for the equivalent of 8 hrs a week!), is only possible because we budget, and I am thus a big fan of it. Kathys last blog post..No Menu Plan this week

By: ickle Kids

ickle Kids — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:36:58 +0000

Happy New Year! Thanks for sharing your ideas on how you manage your family budget. I think you've hit the nail on the head - recording down all the expenses even as little as $3 coffees. Its a great way of highlighting where we have to cut back on i.e. cafe trips in our case!! ickle Kidss last blog post..New ickle Website!!