In 2017, I stepped away from a pretty high paying job for the age of 26. Leaving that income meant selling our house and living what you would say minimally. But it was what we needed.
We had completely reset the family budget. This meant we actually had to use one. I resisted the thought of a budget until casually my husband said “If we had a budget – you would probably stop working full time.” It was my motivation at the time and we went all in.
Family Budget Tips
I am a total believer now – and I will tell you why. When I left my job we also left $4,000 of income a month. That is a lot of money. We cut out childcare for one and did move since it was a drastic amount of money and we worked on paying off debt – the smallest to largest.
Name Your Priorities
We planned on the things we knew were important to us and we knew were going to happen:
- a sitter for the small group every week so we could attend our church connection group
- monthly allowance for doing activities with the kids – zoo, pool a movie.
- we ate at home. A lot. We buy our meat from a farmer which directly reduces our grocery budget
- “fun money” was a category that came later but now we can use it for house projects, dates nights, etc.
Things we eliminated
- subscriptions – whether it was soap delivered monthly or makeup. We just took it out
- cable TV
- A salon haircut or color, we found someone who cuts hair in their home, and I cut my boys’ hair
A few budget-saving tips
- find an app, like Every Dollar to budget monthly, different months call for different categories – such as haircuts, sports registrations, family trips etc.
- Kids clothing is expensive, sell back your kids clothes and keep a credit or use that money to buy for the next season for your kids
- If you have kids in diapers or pulls ups, you can save up to 50% buying those items at Aldi. We’re under budget every month now – leaving flex room for “life”
Budget example
Total Month Net: $5,000 –
Mortgage = Many sources state your house should not be more than 30% of your overall budget) If you have not looked into refinancing this year – it may be time and you could save a few hundred on your mortgage
Charitable/church
Water/Trash
Electric
Internet
Phone
Gas/Oil Changes
Car Payment
Groceries
Restaurants
Play Money
Childcare for work
Preschool
Diapers
Car Insurance
Life Insurance
Does your family keep a budget?
