Children and Money - The Family Budget

A family budget is a vital planning tool, especially when the state of the economy has many families watching their pennies. It helps all family members, including children, understand where cutbacks are necessary and what areas the family income is most needed. When a family uses a budget it makes paying back debt and saving for the future much easier.
While you may not necessarily want to inform your children about your credit-card debt, honesty and transparency are the best plan when creating a family budget. It is important that all family members are included in the process and at least let them know the general outlines of the family budget. Help to make your children money-aware early on by being money-smart yourselves. Children will develop these characteristics naturally by observation.

7 Tips for Creating a Family Budget

For many people creating a family budget is an exercise in frustration. Where to start, how to set it up, should I use budgeting software? Are all questions that nearly everyone asks? And then when they do get it set up and start tracking the money coming in and the money going out something happens. An emergency or an impulse buy that screws the whole thing up.
Unfortunately the majority of people give up on their family budget before they ever give it a chance to do what it is supposed to do. One thing everyone needs to understand is that a budget is not a rigid thing. It is flexible and needs to allow for those unintended purchases or emergencies that life is full of. And if you stick with it before long it will be a cash flow planning device you cannot live without.

Priorities Bring Focus to the Family Budget

For many families the household budget can be an intense source of familial conflict. Not everyone always agrees with how the money should be spent or how it should be managed. More often then not the rest of the family reluctantly defers to whoever brings home the most pay when it comes to financial decision making, but many times this can cause resentment towards that person.
Money is an important part of any family's life and many times family peace and cohesiveness are threatened by the lack of a sound financial plan that has little or no direction. By including everyone in the decision making process and setting a list of priorities and goals that everyone agrees on you can bring peace and harmony to the family money situation.

Building a Family Budget

The first step to any kind of family financial peace is the creation of the family budget. With today's go-go-go lifestyle keeping track of income and expenses is a necessity. Too many families get into financial messes simply because they do not have any idea where their money is going until it is gone.
When you first build your family's budget plan you may be met with a certain amount of resistance simply because a lot of people have an aversion to the word "budget". The thing to remember as the builder of the budget that you need to pass along is that this new way of dealing with money is not a set in stone law. A budget is simply a tool that allows you to see where your money is going and how you can better manage it. There is a certain amount of give and take, or fluidity, to a budget because it is constantly changing with the needs of your family.

A Family Budget to Help Organize Finances

What is a family budget?
A family budget is a set of instructions or laid-out-in-advance procedures which act as a guide to paying your bills, buying things members of the family need, putting aside some money as savings, and so on and so forth. Nobody in your household should spend any money, outside of an absolute emergency, whenever doing so would cause the household to go over the family budget.
The family budget tells you your financial spending and consumption limits for a given period of time, usually for one month that based upon the following:

Types of Family Budgets

Once you know how to initially set up a family budget, figuring out what kind of budget you need is the next step. A common mistake is thinking there is only one kind, but in reality there are budgets that can help your monthly family spending, help create financial safety or help you and your family achieve your financial goals.
As I'm sure you've already read our article on how to set up a family budget, the next step is here- figuring out if you need a comprehensive, problem solving or planning budget.

How to Start Creating an Effective Family Budget?

Creating a budget for the whole family seems so simple to say and hear. Yet if you focus your attention on working on your budget closely, you will notice the great value of setting an effective family budget that works best for all of you through good and bad times.
On the other hand, if you will not set an effective family budget, you will notice that you always seem to run out of funds each month and it seems harder to settle for any fixed amount regarding monthly expenses. Well, this is simply because of the fact that your expenses grows in direct proportion to your income. As you earn more, your mind settles for more things to buy and more money to spend since you don't set a reasonable budget that you're bound to follow strictly. So why not start creating an effective family budget that will justify your monthly financial issues and help you live an even better family all the time.

Balancing the Family Budget

Steps to Establishing a Budget
To successfully manage your money and establish a budget that you and your family can follow, you need to know the answers to the following:
1. What your total income is;
2. How your money is spent;
2. Where your money is spent;
3. Why your money is spent.
What you will want to focus on are weekly, monthly, and yearly expenses. Based on these expenses, you will then need to determine how to budget your money based on your family's present and future financial obligations and needs. Basically, you will want to budget your money in such as way as to meet the family's needs, save money, and avoid long-term debt.

Out of Budget? Here Are the Family Budget Basics

Recent economic circumstances can teach us a thing or two about the importance of being on a family budget. We take a look at some family budgeting basics.
Some people don't budget because they don't realize the purpose of family budgeting. The best reason to be on a family budget is to keep track of your family's income and expenses. It's much easier to see what's coming in and going out when you put it in a family budget plan, rather than keep track of it in your mind. Budgeting helps ensure you're not overspending and that you're making the best use of the money that comes into your home.

No Fret Family Budget

For some, the idea of a budget is often a blur.  It is frustrating to see how hard it is to do a budget and realizing that with one wrong purchase, you can actually ruin the entire thing. And this has been a perennial headache for most homemakers. 

It is about time to overhaul the way people look at budgeting.  It can actually be a great way to keep track of your family's expenditures and help you evaluate the things that you spend the lion's share of the family's earnings on.

What is a budget?  A budget is a tool for handling your finances by controlling the family's expenditures in a way that money is enough for paying up bills, and still ensuring that savings are set aside for future expenses - vacations, or children's education, or even for retirement.

Try these simple steps in preparing a no fret family budget, and see the benefits of intelligent spending.

1.  Gather three months of your pay stubs and get your average monthly earnings.

2.  Get out three months of your monthly bills.  Do this for the fixed expenses like the rent, phone bill, car payments and other loans that come monthly.   Add them up and get the average. Do the same for other expenses like groceries, and credit card bills.

3.  Evaluate the results of your computations.  Looking at your average monthly earnings against your monthly fixed expenses and other monthly expenses, think of some ways to economize.  Cut back on some items that are somehow unnecessary.

4.  Knowing the facts of your income and expenses, develop a family budget and try to stick to this monthly budget.

5.  Now that you have a monthly budget, set up a savings account.  Save up by making regular deposits to this account.

6.  Keep track of this monthly family budget just to see if it is working for you.  Try to fine-tune the "rough edges" of this budget as you go along.

7.  If you can get hold of a personal budgeting software or spreadsheet application to keep record of your budget, the better.  This will make organizing your expenses very easy.

These are the basic steps in developing and implementing a no fret, easy to stick to monthly family budget. Of course each family has diverse needs and wants.  You have the freedom to develop your own monthly family budget, depending on your family’s financial background and needs.  No matter how you do it, just focus on the end result, which is building a savings that leads to a bright and financially stable future for your family.

Tips on how to Save Effectively in Banks

Many of us think that putting our money in the bank is a secure and wise way of saving. Yes, this is true if we are wise in dealing with banks. Banks are not charitable institutions, these are profit-driven entities which charge different kinds of fees and do all sorts of schemes to take away some of your money. The savings that you can get in being wise in making bank transactions can add up after some time and let you use your money where you want to.

Here are some tips on how to effectively save money in the bank:

Mind the Opportunity Cost

Think about the factors that are affecting your money in the bank. Are there fees that the bank is asking you to pay for keeping and using your own money? How much? Are they requiring a minimum balance for holding an account? You might be interested in other alternatives that are available out there, waiting for your investment. You should always factor in the opportunities that you are deprived of because you are putting your money in the bank. You might also be interested in taking a look into the terms of other banks. Probably the bank that can best suit your needs is out there waiting for you.

Book Balancing

Always bear in mind to have your checkbooks balanced at the end of every month. Issuing bounced checks can cost you a lot. The average fee for issuing checks with insufficient funds is $20. If you are not aware of the problem, you can easily issue several bounced checks in a certain period of time and this is very costly indeed.

Tame the ATM Machines

The best practice in using ATM machines is to avoid using ATM machines of other banks. This way, you will save on ATM fees. However, it wouldn't hurt if you also knew the ATM machines of other banks which do not charge fees.

E-banking

With the advent of globalization, everything is becoming electronic. This is also true in the banking world and technology is quickly becoming a benchmark of competition. E-banking can save you some money from transportation costs and more importantly, it will save you time. The time you spend waiting at the bank can be used for some other productive activities.

Truly, putting your money in the bank is a wise way of saving money, but only if you are wise enough to prevent the bank from chipping away your wealth. In saving, it is not only the benefits such as annual returns which you should consider, you should always think about the costs involved in the process.

High-low Numbers: Tips on Saving Money on Clothes

Are you craving for the newest designer clothes, a pretty tank top, and that pretty dress? All this fashion comes at a price — you choose.

Buying clothes these days is always a choice between the designer-made outfit or those cheap but quality items that you could pull together and express your personality in many different ways.

Most experts contend that clothes can definitely make or break a person. They say that your personality is usually reflected on how you dress up. But it does not necessarily mean that good fashion would absolutely mean expensive clothes.

Hence, you can still make a remarkable fashion statement without having to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars just for your clothes.

Here is a list of some money-saving tips when buying clothes that would turn other people’s heads to you but would not definitely break your wallet.

1. Do the math

Choosing fashionable clothes can be really tricky, not unless you know how to do the math! So before you buy three sets of clothes that would cost you hundreds of dollars, try to go for the budget-friendly dozen of items that you can even match alternatively.

The number of expensive items that your money can buy is definitely doubled or even tripled when you buy cheaper ones but can still make a good fashion statement.

2. Know what you want

Saving money is definitely based on knowing what you want whenever you spend your money on something. If you know what you want, this means that you have researched the item, have compared them with the other items, you will be able to come up with the lowest price of the product.

3. Drive your way to a “thrift store”

Usually, these “thrift stores” are non-profit organizations. This means that they are usually operating for charity. They give their proceeds to some charitable institutions.

Hence, the prices of the clothes being sold in the thrift store are absolutely cheaper than the ones being sold in the department store. So that would mean many savings for you.

Best of all, you do not only get to save more money, you get to do some charity work as well.

The bottom line here is that when shopping for clothes, do not shop for the brand name, shop for the quality.

Nowadays, you just have to be practical. Better spend your money on more important things than those designer clothes.

Shop and Save

You have long known the credit card. It is said to be your ultimate gear when you go shopping. The plastic can even be a best friend to a happy shopper.

Considering the times nowadays, this plastic seems to be the least practical option out there. It is actually the most convenient tool used for consumption when you are out of cash. It lures you to spend.

Is there anyway for your credit card to be useful for your saving endeavors?

Yes, actually there are ways that the plastic can be helpful. You CAN actually save money with that credit card.

0% Balance Transfers

If your present credit card has high interests, you can transfer your balance to one with a low-interest or no-interest at all. It can offer you a 0% interest for a certain period and then a lower regular rate later on. A 19% interest rate can be transferred to one with 16.1%. The 2.9% difference means a lot, especially in the long run.

Lower Interest Rates

Look for one with the lowest rate among others to further maximize having a credit card. This definitely spells savings. If you do not have a balance yet, it is best to look for a card without annual fees.

Take extra precautions, too, in assuming that the lowest interest rate is the best for you. Factor in your buying habits. You may be attracted to the low rates, but the end result may not be desirable if combined with the annual fees and the like.

Rewards Program

Reward points system and cash back programs are offered now. This can save you money. Maintaining a low balance despite your frequent buys will give you at most 5% off on purchases.

There are even cash rebates up to 5% when you use the credit card at certain gas stations, convenience stores and groceries. This can be automatically applied to your bill, the more you can feel the savings you are making.

Maximizing the Experience

To reap the rewards, you must avoid the drawbacks. A prudent person will definitely look for the best deals and grab it right away but with some caution.

Thus it is necessary that you read the details. Check the fees that may be charged and the penalty rates in case you delay. This may be the downside of the deal offered to you. For example, be careful of cash advance features of credit cards. Some of them can be very expensive. They can come with numerous fees and higher rates.

Be wary! Spending cannot be avoided at times. Just don’t forget your goal, getting a good deal to save.

How to Save Money on Utilities

Expenses on utilities contribute to most of your household bills. Did you know that you could save a lot of money through your utilities? Here are some pointers to help you do this:

1.    Identify which appliances consume much electricity and contribute the most in making the electric bill cost that much. You can save hundreds of dollars annually by enrolling in a home management load program that offer a 100-dollar savings in a year on electric utility hour rate programs. This will help you lower your electric payments and will teach you on home energy conservation.

2.    It is recommended that you have improved appliance efficiency. The heating system appliances are the ones that consume too much electricity. The refrigerator and the water heater consume that much energy as well. Make sure to check these items regularly to ensure their efficiency. A well-maintained appliance will sustain its performance and will give you it's accurate use of electricity.

3.    Always remember to give your furnace a tune up at least twice a year. You have to cover the water heater to insulate it and give your refrigerator coils a cleaning at least twice a year as well. You may also set a timer for the heater to have regular flow of electricity whenever it is in use. You may call your utility service to check if there is a low rate offered during any specific time of the day.

4.    You may also save money by lowering your heating bills. You may set your thermostat down three degrees to make you save 3 percent on your bills. You may even save more by not using it while you are at work or you can even turn it lower during nighttime when you are asleep. This can help you conserve electricity and save more money.

5.    You may want to lessen your long distance telephone calls to lower your telephone bills. If it is a need to call a very important person, you may call during weekends and night hours. Telephone companies offer a lower rate for long distance calls during those times of the day. The best alternative to save money is by using the Internet to communicate with your friends and relatives instead of the telephone.

6.    You may want to consider lowering your water bills in order to save money. Check if there are leaks so that you may fix them immediately. You may put a water saving showerhead to lessen the use of water when taking a shower. You can use a big container to stock water in the bathroom as an alternative rather than using the shower in the bathroom.     

Ten Practical Tips That Save Money

Saving money is not as hard as it seems.  Here are ten practical tips that you can do to begin saving money, without changing your lifestyle. 

1. Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs.  CFL bulbs consume 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs, but give the same illumination.  Make sure to buy only lamps and bulbs that have the Energy Star rating to ensure quality compliance. 

2. Make a list when going to the grocery and stick to it! Anything that is not on the list is not a “need”, but merely a “want” so avoid busting your pockets for unnecessary items. Buy non-perishable consumables in bulk to benefit from bulk discounts. 

3. Use coupons when available.  Take the time and have the patience to clip and organize grocery coupons.  When added together, savings from using all coupons in one grocery trip can be as much as $20-$30.  Purchase dining and shopping coupons online and print them at home.  Doing so can save you at least 50% on the face value of the coupons. 

4. Buy online, whenever possible.  Online stores pass their savings from rental costs and warehousing to the online consumer, thus they can afford as much as 70% off their rack price.  When buying items online, Google it first together with the word, “discount code”.  This can give you further reductions on the item you want to purchase.  Try also online bidding:  they offer at least 75% off the original purchase price, for practically new (slightly used!) items. 

5. Take lunch to work.  Buy potato chips and soda from the grocery and make a homemade sandwich and pack them in a brown bag. 

6. Eat homemade dinners as often as possible.  Plan menus that are practical and easy-to-cook to encourage eating at home.  Save money by dining out only on special occasions. 

7. Use everyday pantry items for skin and body care.  Cucumbers, honey, milk, lemon, salt and baking soda are some items in your home that can also be used to take care of your skin. 

8. Avoid shopping to de-stress.  Try walking around the park or watching a movie instead. 

9. Bring your own sodas and snacks when watching a movie. The cost of sodas and snacks are at least 25% higher in movie houses.  Plus, homemade popcorn tastes much better: you can put on all the salt and butter you want!

10. Pay off your credit card balances each month and avoid finance charges.  Better yet, use cash as much as possible, unless using plastic will give you a better deal (0% interest on appliance purchases, or cash rebates).

The Advantages of Using Money Budgeting Software

The problem with most people these days is that they get so comfortable with their expenses through the aid of credit cards. They become so indulged with cashless shopping that more and more people are spending more than what they can afford.

For this reason, experts contend that budgeting can definitely alleviate the consumers from “financial strain” by managing their expenses and income instead of falling into the pit of liabilities.

However, some people just contend that they cannot simply do budgeting alone. They insist that they need some help in order to come up with a reliable and workable budget.

That’s why some financial experts have created some money budgeting software that will facilitate the creation of a good budget in order to promote wise money-saving strategies.

Basically, money budgeting software assists an individual in his or her expenditures and uses the money sensibly. These new technologies will help distribute the money into various aspects and areas and will also help add to savings.

So, if you still don’t know what the money budgeting software can do for you, here is a list of its advantages:

1. It helps you keep track of your expenses

Money budgeting software can definitely allow you to keep track of your expenses. With this kind of technology, you get to understand your cash flow and allow you to be aware of how much money you spend and earn.

2. It helps you to create some probable projections of the future

While some people are comfortable with the usual type of budgeting on paper, utilizing a money budgeting software can give you more than what you expect.  You can even make some possible projections using your integrated money budgeting software. And if you are really into hard copies, you can even print them out for record keeping.

3. It gives you control

The problem with most people who do not have a budget to guide them is that they tend to overspend with what they have.

With this kind of help, you can gain control of your expenditures. You will be able to know when you are already overspending or not. Plus, you become attentive of the blow of every money decision that you make.

The bottom line is that money budgeting software can definitely give you the kind of assurance and control that you need to keep track of your expenses. In this way, you can be surer that all of your spending activities are based on reason and plan and not just sheer indulgences.

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR FINANCES: TIPS ON BUDGETING

With prices of commodities increasing day by day it is proper to make your very own strategic plan on maximizing your financial resources and making sure that every penny earned is well spent.

Make your move on coordinating your finances and list of expenditures that may affect the way you use your income and empower you on your economic stability as a working individual.

Your source of income, lifestyle, spending habits, current job and house location, cost of living, payables and loans determines your level of budgeting needs. Starting to take charge of your finances is one sure way of becoming successful in a field of self-fulfillment and success.

The following tips and recommendations will provide you details on how you can help yourself manage your finances and assume a new outlook to become responsible in your spending.

Ø    Treat Math As Your Lifetime Partner – Do the entire math in your purchasing needs. Try to compare prices across your current location for the price of a range of grocery and household items you need in a day-to-day basis.

Save as much as you can in an item you are trying to buy. Chinese businessmen exercise effective buying techniques. They save as much as they can and usually purchase in bulk to increase their revenue index on the item they plan on selling as well.

Ø    Gambling – Gambling tops the chart in making your life as chaotic as it could get. Gambling strips you off your finances and keeps you vulnerable from the threats of bankruptcy.

Ø    Know Your Wants and Needs – Limit your spending on something which you are not in dire need of. According to a recent study, luxuries are second to gambling in terms of the degree of money-stripping capability.

Ø    “Do Not Spend More Than you Earn” – Rags-To-Riches stories do not fail to mention this famous cliché. There is always truth to this phrase for you cannot live in a world where you consume more than what you can produce.

Ø    Keeping A List – Making your own budget list is vital to your success to becoming prudent. A wise buyer needs to consider the amount of a certain commodity and how will it impact his life as an individual.

An unconscientious consumer would not care about what is being purchased as long as he or she has money to buy for them. Unless you are someone who has a considerable amount of wealth and income resources, you can not afford to disregard this recommendation and go ahead with your practice.

Why Banking Works

When it comes to financial management, even business professionals reach a consensus as to what is the most effective, reliable, and secure means to manage your money, and that is through the bank. Your bank is an effective means to manage your bills payments, keep track of your transactions, receive your income and whatever extraneous cash inflow, and help you save effectively.

The last one is perhaps the most obvious feature of the bank that people do not take advantage of. A bank, being a financial intermediary, can actually help you save money efficiently. Here’s how.

First, you are required to keep what is called a maintaining balance in your bank account. This means that even if you make deductions in your account, the bank requires you to save a bare minimum in order to continue enjoying their services. And yes, that translates to a forced saving on your part.

Another feature of bank saving is the fact that you are free to continuously add to your account whenever you can. Otherwise, your money will remain safe in your bank. Moreover, while it’s staying in the bank, you are actually earning interest rates on your money.

What are savings interest rates? These are payments made by the bank to you for leaving your money in the bank. By depositing your money in the bank, your bank utilizes a portion of it in its loan operations where it subsequently earns through interest and loan charges. In effect, the income they receive trickles down to you, their source of money. This savings interest rate is actually an effective incentive system. Why so? If you save more money in your bank account through your deposits and savings, you end up receiving a higher return on the savings interest rate than other people would.

Banks have a threshold amount for you to be able to participate in the bank’s long-term, higher yield savings schemes. Time-deposit accounts, mutual funds and the like require you to leave your money untouched for a longer period of time. In exchange for the bank’s use of your money for a longer period of time, the percentages of interest return are double those that you would get in a regular savings account. You can add increments of a certain amount in order to increase the capital you invest in your time-deposit account or mutual fund. An increased account obviously translates to bigger interest gains.

Talk to your local bank about their savings schemes. They offer various mechanisms to encourage us consumers to entrust their money to them. In a bank, your money is in a safe place, and it is growing while it stays there.

Methods Of Saving Money

Saving is basically putting aside money or a way to utilize your present income for future use.

One saves for several reasons such as for a college education, buying a new car, for a new TV set you wish to acquire in three to four months time, for down payment on a home, or to provide for yourself when retirement comes.

As much as there are several reasons for saving, there are likewise many methods in which one can save. In most instances, the best method can be determined by whatever plans you have for the future.

1.    Savings accounts. When saving for just a short period or for emergency purposes, consider opening a savings account passbook, as it is in this method that you can easily gain access to your funds.

Great for both long and short term savings, you can deposit and withdraw money to your account and earn interest, based on your average daily balance. A minimum balance is required to be maintained though, and you are charged with a penalty should you fail to maintain it.

2.    Checking account with interest.  Here one can benefit from checking account conveniences, while your deposits gain interests. Generally these types of accounts grants privileges such as limitless withdrawal and check writing, access to ATM and bill payments that can be done online.

This method typically requires a daily maintaining balance of at least $2,000.

3.    Money market insured accounts. For long-termed goals, this method is ideal, as it generally offers a much higher rate of interest compared to a regular or standard savings account.

The interest rate usually is dependent on the amount of money in your bank account; larger balance means higher interest.

4.    “CD” or Certificates of Deposit.  This is a savings method requiring you to “loan” your money to your financial agency for a certain time frame, usually ranging from thirty days up to five years. Here, the longer the time span again, means higher interest.

Keep in mind that usually insurance companies offer better deals on interests compared to banks, so before you invest, compare rates first!

At certain times, when your goal is many years away, it can be a wiser decision to save money in a certain way that you are not drawn on using it other than the main reason for saving it. Deciding on the right financial agency such as a bank, credit union or insurance firm can bring about a lot of benefit in your finances.