Finance Printables

Product Description

You have been home for three days in a row and the kids are driving you crazy. You feel like you simply must get out of the house or you might be forced to do something terrible, but where to go? “The kids might need new swim suits in a couple of months and I’m sure they have some good deals on cleaning supplies at Target going on….” You begin to think, and before you know it, you are justifying this shopping trip all the way into town and all the way back.

It’s so easy to use spending money as an activity to do to get you and the kids out of the house, but this recreational shopping can be detrimental to your family’s finances and marriage. One way to help prevent this kind of spontaneous shopping is by keeping a well-managed budget.

But, you are already overwhelmed with the meal planning, scheduling, cleaning, and caring for the kids that you couldn’t possibly do your family finances too, right? With the following finance pages, I can’t promise they will give you more time or energy, but the will give you an easy to use, simple structure so that you can do a budget and keep track of where your money is going more efficiently.

When you sit down to write out your budget for next month, the first thing you need to do is figure out where your money is going and how much. The Bill Organizer page is a perfect worksheet for the job. There are columns for the bill name, typical due date, and average amount which should be fairly easy to fill out. The “note” section is where you will enter any information such as whether this bill is on auto pay, which bank account you would like the money to come out of, if it’s a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual bill, and the like. The last column is where you can circle whether you expect the bill statement to come via the internet, such as through email, or to your mailbox.

Since you are already looking at what online bills you have to pay, it’s a good time to pull out the Usernames and Passwords page out. With every website needing different credentials to log in, there is no way a busy Mom can remember them! Filling them out on this page lets you take all those passwords that are cluttering your brain out and onto paper. There are also columns for a security question and answer.

Once you understand where your money has to go, take a moment to set up the Bill Checklist. Thankfully this is only a one-time-a-year job. You write down the bill name, due date, and expected amount, and then when you’ve paid it, you give a check mark for the month. This will help you know whether that extra money in your account towards the end of the month can be used for “fun money” or if you still have an important payment to make at some point.

Now that you have your bills figured out, it’s time to take a glance at the Savings Plan included in the Stay At Home Mom Survival Kit. The “Goal” column is for the minimal amount you wish to save for each month. It’s fun to set the total for the year first, like $1200 and then purpose to save $100 each month. Then, in the next column, fill in all the extra you were able to round up. Add the extra with the minimum to get the total and do a happy dance for saving money!

It’s hard to achieve what you dream of if solid, attainable goals are not set down and written out on paper. That is what the Monthly Financial Goals page is for. The first list to fill out is “3 Areas we want to save on” which could be things like cutting back on groceries, not going out to eat, or driving less. Try to make this list varied from month to month. Next is “2 things we get to splurge on”. While saving is important, it’s also important to let yourself enjoy the fruit of your labor every once and a while. Depending on how much extra you have at the end of each month will dictate what sort of things you can fill out here. For Mr. Charming and me, an ice cream trip is about as much as we feel comfortable spending. Be very careful of this section and be sure to be in absolute agreement on what you fill out here. Also, feel free to leave it blank if you can’t afford a splurge.

Below that are the three top financial goals you wish to accomplish this month. This can be anything from “sell the kid’s old clothes” to “pay $100 extra towards our mortgage”. The calendar below this section is for recording when you’ve accomplished these goals.

There is nothing more worrisome and stressful as being in debt, but instead of becoming so overwhelmed by it that you push it from your mind and ignore it, grab the bull from its horns and get a handle on it! Just think of how amazing it will be when you are debt free and begin to put your money towards things you actually enjoy. The Debt Priority page is there to help you get on paper the details of each area of debt and list them in the order which you wish to pay them off. If you listen to Dave Ramsey at all you’ll know he suggests to pay minimum payments on every one but the smallest debt and attack that one with a vengeance.

Also included is the Debt Snowball Tracker which allows you to track your payments for each individual debt. Part of the battle of getting a handle on your finances is simply knowing where your money is going. This page gives you an area for any information associated with that debt such as the company name, website, account number, etc. as well as a balance sheet. Won’t it be amazing when you reach that pay off date?

While we are getting all of this in order, I’m sure you’ve found that there are a lot of papers being shuffled around. It’s crucial that you have a really good File Organization structure in place. Use the color coded guide provided to get your files in order so that no important documents are lost or misplaced.

So far you’ve organized your bills, planned for savings, set up a filing system, and got a handle on your debt. Now it is time to actually fill out that Monthly Budget we’ve been preparing for. The one provided here is about as comprehensive in categories as you will find anywhere else because it’s important that you don’t leave anything out. Start with your expected income amount and write the total in the space provided. This is how much you can spend that month, no exceptions. Next, gather all of your financial information over the last few months and add up the average amount you’ve spent for each area. This will give you a good idea of what to budget for. If you are finding you are going over the amount of income you expect to bring in, look at each category and decide whether you can cut back a little. If this still doesn’t let you break even, you have to add a source of income. If you have extra left over, great! Put that towards your debt or savings.

To fill out the next two columns of your budget, you’ll need to track your income and expenses using the Income Tracker and Expense Tracker. Every time your money moves, write that transaction down here. We like to save our receipts and fill these pages out once a week to stay on top of things. If it works better to do it daily or once a month doesn’t matter as long as you are sure you are not leaving anything out. At the end of the month, find the sum of each category of spending or income and write it down in the appropriate box under the “Actual” column of your budget. Then, find the difference and write that down. If you find that you are falling short or exceeding every month in a certain area of your budget, be sure to adjust the amount for the next time.

The last step to creating your family’s perfect budget is having a meeting with your spouse, to discuss your goals and allowances. If budgets and financial decisions are not made together and with agreement, you will have many battles because of money (which is one of the top reasons for divorce). Being in agreement over money is so important that I’ve added a page to the survival kit called “Financial Commitment” that will help the two of you get on the same track for spending, paying off debt, and saving. Don’t skip this step!

Are you feeling overwhelmed or relieved that you now have a handle on your finances? I’m guessing the latter, because the scariest part of money problems is the “not knowing” and you’ve already conquered that by understanding your bills, planning for savings and debt, cleaning up your filing system, getting on a written budget, tracking your income and expenses, and getting on the same page with your spouse.