Your guide to creating a family budget
Follow these five tips for a quick and effective family budget.
Personal budgeting can be tough, but family budgeting can be even more difficult. While balancing work and family time, most parents struggle to find the time to create an effective family budget. Yet, family budgeting is essential for a family's financial wellbeing. Here's our guide to creating a quick and effective family budget, so you can achieve your wealth goals without a complicated budgeting process.
#1 Choose a financial goal for your family budget
The first step to creating a family budget is to choose a financial goal. These goals are typically long-term aims, such as paying off your car loan or saving up for your child's university fund. A great way to come up with a financial goal is to think about what made you want to make a budget in the first place. Whatever it is, your financial goal will motivate you to stick to your family budget.
#2 Pick a smart budgeting tool
It may be difficult to find the time to manually create a budget, so try a smart money management tool. The Finder app, for example, is a great tool to manage your money. It allows you to connect your bank accounts, loans, investments and credit cards into a single dashboard. This gives you an accurate overview of your finances, which makes it much easier to create and monitor your family budget. You can also track your transactions, monitor your credit score and receive alerts regarding the best savings deals – all for free. Budgeting tools offer convenience and security while bringing you closer to your financial goals.
#3 Get a full overview of your family finances
First, you need to gather details about your expenses and your income.
Next, focus on separating your expenses into their appropriate subcategories. Your family budget may include subcategories such as housing expenses, loans, credit bills and discretionary spending. This will help you understand your spending habits and help you cut down on unnecessary spending. It will also make it easier to add the information into your chosen smart budgeting tool.
#4 Use your family budget to control your spending
While it may be difficult to reduce housing expenses or pay off all your loans immediately, you can definitely reduce how much you spend going out. When evaluating your discretionary spending, ask yourself if that expenditure is really a necessity. Cut down on unnecessary costs, such as those daily morning coffees, and you will see your discretionary spending fall.
#5 Focus on repaying debt
Most financial experts agree that the longer you hold off on your debt, the bigger the problem becomes. Try paying off your existing debt or refinancing your debt with a cheaper loan provider. This way, you'll see yourself paying less interest every year. That's an easy and cost-effective way to drastically lower your spending. Ultimately, such measures will help you stick to your family budget.
Free family budget template
Here's a free budgeting template for you to use right away.
More guides on Finder
-
Dollar Saver tips index
Find all the weekly tips from our Dollar Saver newsletter and see how you could save.
-
Leave a Review competition
We're giving away a $200 Mastercard gift card to a Finder member who leaves a verified review on reviews.io in November.
-
We’re saying goodbye to Net Wealth and Spend Analytics in the Finder app
We've made the hard decision to remove both the Net Wealth and Spend Analytics features from the Finder app.
-
Are you super savvy? | Savings with Sarah #5
Being smart about your super today means a better retirement for Future You.
-
The simplest way to save on interest | Savings with Sarah #4
A 0% interest credit card is a simple way to avoid onerous credit card interest charges.
-
Is it time to strip back on streaming? | Savings with Sarah #3
Bingeing on streaming won't hurt your waistline, but it can be unhealthy for your wallet.
-
The best supermarket saving strategy | Savings with Sarah #2
Shopping around at different supermarkets can be a great way to save money, especially on the essentials.
-
Better budgeting for grocery shopping
These 10 tips are a great step towards better grocery shopping budgeting.
-
Three incredible new features now in the Finder app
Connect your super and investments and see your chance of approval.
-
Finder app
The Finder app can help find you new ways to save. Download today.
Ask an Expert