For years I have worked on effective ways to achieve some stability with my family management. One of the most difficult parts for me was the financial budgeting.

My mom never really had the time or money to teach me these skills as a child and it wasn’t something learned in school. I have so many years behind my belt with the day to day struggles of living pay check to pay check.

After the birth of my 4th child the reality of our home finances took on a whole new meaning. I knew it had to be done. I went online and search and found a lot of great information, for accountants! It was hard stuff. I have never been great with numbers and everything I tried was not working.

A year or two into trying different methods to gain control of my family budgeting I got smart. I took little from this method and some from that method and I came up with my own family budget planner. I am a simple person and I created a basic budget plan to fit.

I follow the basic 60–30 -10 principle for balancing the money. Yep I’m that simple. OK it is a bit more complex but I am going to make it simple.

• 60% of NET earnings go toward Housing and bills (30% housing and 30% bills) – you know the roof over our head and the power to run our computers.
• 30% of NET earnings go toward Household Living – food in our bellies, the occasional 12 pack of coke, and soap to wash off the dirt my kids collect
• 10% of NET earnings go toward Savings (5% short term and 5% long term) – this really doesn’t apply to me because I can’t save a dime, if money is there and the bills have been paid my philosophy is spend it!! On occasion I have been known to spend it even when the bills have not been paid just to irritate my husband and comfort myself.

Now that’s simple! Let me show you:

Example of  Financial Budgeting With A Total Monthly Net Income $2,000:

60% = $1200 towards housing and bills

30% = $600 towards household living

10% = $200 towards savings

Now let me break it down a bit more by category:

Housing and Bills (60% of NET income):

• 30% would go towards mortgage/rent payment and home insurance and taxes.
• 30% would go towards all the other bills like car payment, utilities, phone, credit card, loans, health insurance etc.

Household Living (30% of NET income):

• food
• toiletries
• kids allowance
• auto-fuel
• clothes
• entertainment
• And anything else we feel is a necessity in our life (trips to Vegas to gamble do not fall into this category).

Savings (10% of NET income): 5% would go towards short term expenses

• Things such as car breakdowns, an unexpected trip to the ER twice in 1 week, new couch because the red punch stain just won’t come out or a small shopping spree on chocolate and beef jerky because mom has had a real bad day! (This expense pops up a lot in my household).

5% would go towards long term expenses –

• Things like the 5 weddings we really should be saving for,
• College education that my older children refuse to use just to spite me
• The purchase of a bus as our van isn’t big enough to car-pull my children and all their friends
• One of those save mom’s sanity vacations

This really is the most basic form of financial budgeting. Once you start the process it gets easier and easier. I know each paycheck what needs to go where. I can decide whether or not we can plan a family trip in advance. I know if I need to wait 6 months to save for my son’s braces.

I have some control over the little surprises that pop up out of the blue. Looking for more help with your family management? Here is a great article on Parenting Kids With Household Rules – it’s show you a new method for using time out.

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