No Fret Family Budget

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.

Ways to Make Cents at Home

Ways to Make Cents at Home

In the midst of all these skyrocketing prices, come the how’s, ways and means to save money and earn extra.

There are creative but practical ways you can engage in to help the family save and at the same time earn extra. The things that have been sitting in your attic for sometime and those that become all too familiar and useless might mean extra bucks. This way, it saves you space, cleaning materials and containers. This reduces maintenance expenses. 

Garage sale at home is a save-and-earn endeavor for starters. Look at the success of flea markets where people can buy almost anything at a lower price but large amount of income for vendors.

How to maximize the potential of flea markets and bargain sales to help you save? Primarily, a flea market is a place where almost all who have something to sell can sell for tremendously lower costs but good quality items. If you have the right tools and enough preparation for a day’s trip to a flea market, then you are ready to go with some handy tips:

1.    Ready your tools, maps, measurements and cash:
•    easy-to-carry tool kit with screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure, pencil, ropes, set of swatches, paper and plastic bags and boxes;
•    floorplan measurements;
•    maps, directions and phone numbers;
•    bring enough cash and checks for high-priced items;
•    dress yourself appropriately for bargain hunting.
2.    Early birds usually get the best selections.
3.    Keep a critical eye during shopping.
•    Be ready to negotiate and haggle on the prices of items.
•    Items sold here have greater possibilities, either you can redecorate or repaint them to make it look unique and attractive.

How to make this activity an earning endeavor? After your hands-on training in an established flea market, hope you took note of your observations and ideas; it is time to try out on your own.

Bear in mind five things crucial to garage sale success: location, date and time, variety of goods, organization/presentation, advertisements and prices.

•    Spot a strategic location where people can access and drop by easily. Your house is the perfect venue for this. Weekends are the best to schedule your sale.
•    During your cleaning session, take note of candidate items for the sale, label them (keep, for repair, must go) and give them a brand new look.
•    Organize them well according to prices, use arrangement styles, decide on the tables, baskets and boxes for the items and decorate your venue with fabrics and other helpful materials.
•    Lower your prices. The idea here is to dispose of the things but earn from them reasonably.