This post is by Craig Ford.  Craig, a freelance writer and missionary, blogs at Money Help For Christians.  Today is the last day that you can get a copy Craig’s eBook, The Secret to a Successful Budget for 30% off.

Married couples don’t always see eye to eye.  If you’re married, you didn’t need me to tell you that .

When I started writing about making a budget and answering budgeting related questions, I found that people often struggle with a spouse who won’t get on board with the finances.

The usual response is a full frontal attack.  One partner digs his or her heals in and pushes, and pushes, and pushes until they get their desired results – the spouse to start budgeting.  Not only is this approach extremely damaging for a marriage, it is also highly ineffective.  You might get your spouse on board, but they may mentally distance themselves from you.

Instead, a better approach is to subtly try and come alongside your spouse and gently lead them in the right direction.

4 Effective Steps for Getting Your Spouse to Start Budgeting

1.  Dream together.

Dreaming about your future is the best way to motivate a spouse to start budgeting.  Block off an evening and have a nice dinner together.  After dinner, take time to walk and ask each other – where do you picture us in 10 years?  What will we be doing?

Most dreams have financial implications.  Leave those implications for another time.  Enjoy the evening.

Later, follow up with your spouse by proceeding to step two.

2.  Introduce the benefits.

Nagging and critiquing never helps improve someone’s willingness or attitude, but kind affirmative words always provide the right structure for having a financial discussion.

Don’t say – I’ve asked you a hundred times to keep your receipts and track your spending.

The problem: It is accusatory and will automatically make the other person feel defensive.

Try: I think I’ve found a way for us to afford that Europe vacation we talked about the other night.  It’s going to require us to change our spending, but I really think we can do it.

3.  Search for middle ground.

Most married couples consist of one free spirit and one geek.  The geek typically takes the lead when it comes to budgeting.  The geek then sets up an elaborate budgeting system with 457 budget categories.  As the geek explains the new budgeting process, the free spirit feels more and more overwhelmed.  Nothing in this plan sounds like any fun.  Can geeks and free spirits ever find middle ground?

Don’t say – I’ve already set up the budget on the computer so you need to enter your expenses.

The problem: There is no discussion about budgeting preferences and systems that work.  One party has made a decision without including the other, and they expect the other to follow ‘their’ pattern.

Try: I’ve done a little research and found that there are five good ways that we could budget.  Perhaps we could find some time this week to choose the budgeting system that works best for our personalities?

4.  Share victories.

This is similar to introducing the benefits, but now you’ll actually share positive results.  Let’s say that your spouse is still hesitant about budgeting.  Implement some of the changes yourself and share those positive results.

Say: Guess what, sweetie?  I started to keep a grocery budget this month and I was able to save $50 on groceries.  I’ve opened up a new bank account and we now have $50 towards our Europe vacation.

Remember, direct confrontation in marriage is rarely effective.  Instead, try and come alongside your spouse and gently lead them in the right direction.

What suggestions do you have for getting a spouse on board?  Have any of you ever experienced this struggle?

This article was written by Craig Ford. Craig is a fulltime missionary in Papua New Guinea who writes Money Help For Christians and Help Me Travel Cheap, a frugal family travel blog. He is the author of Money Wisdom From Proverbs, has a Masters of Divinity degree, and (most importantly) eats homemade pizza with his family every Friday night.

Related Posts

• Should Married Couples Divide Their Money?
• Would You Give Up Your Favorite Financial Sin To Achieve Financial Freedom?
• Do You Share Equal Financial Responsibility With Your Spouse?
• Family Finance: Top Mistakes Young Families Make
• There Are Times When Your Finances Take A Back Seat. Be Prepared With A Contingency Plan
• 3 Ways To Trick Yourself Into Saving Money

Singles finance and family finance differ quite a bit. I’ve learned that well over the past 5 1/2 years (our oldest child is now 5 1/2). My personal experience has shown there are more spending pressures and overall expenses when you have a young family. Examples include birthday parties, swim lessons, dance lessons, clothes, toys, doctor’s visits for runny noses and coughs, camps and trips to the ice cream shop.

As our children get older the needs and expenses are certain to change even more. My advice for singles who want to someday have a family (as well as for married couples without kids) is to take advantage of a less complicated situation and use this time wisely to set your finances in order.

Whether you’re single and want to prepare for the future, or have a young family, Smart Money recently mentioned 6 mistakes young families make with their finances. I think if you can insure you have a plan around each of these areas, you’re sure to be heading in the right direction.

Carrying Too Much Debt

Smart Money says it’s okay to have some debt, but to avoid carrying too much debt. I actually disagree with this approach. While most people have debt, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to have it lingering around limiting your ability to achieve other goals such as saving for retirement. Work to get out of debt and make a solid commitment to stop going into car debt or carrying over credit card balances from month to month. Strive to avoid debt rather than avoid carrying too much debt.

Poor Budgeting

Budgeting always gets such a negative response, but it’s just a matter of smart planning. Without a plan or budget people will tend to freely or impulsively spend and lose sight of saving, investing, giving and other important things to do with money each month. A budget helps stop impulse buying.

Could the absence of a budget be as a bad as debt? Well maybe not, but it definitely has an impact on spending and might result in using a credit card to make up the difference month to month.

A close cousin to the debt problem is poor budgeting. Young couples tend to underestimate their expenses by 20%

Not Saving For Retirement

Getting an employer match on your 401(k) is free money and should be the minimum you invest for retirement. However, you should only invest if you’re able to make progress on getting out of debt and saving money for emergencies. Not having the ability to save for retirement is just another solid reason to get out of debt.

Many young couples just can’t get their heads around the importance of saving for retirement. While they focus on short-term goals, such as saving for a new minivan, they fail to max out their 401(k), or even contribute enough to qualify for their employer’s match

Not Having Enough Insurance

Life insurance can be tricky, especially if you’re good buddy is trying to sell you a policy. Most families simply need term life insurance. The savings whole life suggests is typically at low interest rates that don’t make it worth it.

There’s a lot of bad advice out there on insurance. Perhaps that’s why so many young couples are under insured. The most common error people make is that they buy expensive products, like whole life insurance, for too little coverage.

Not Saving For Children’s Education

It scares me to think about the price of college in the future. This is an area we’ve personally lagged behind in as we’ve been wrestling with savings and getting out of car debt. But it’s definitely an important savings step to get started as soon as you can. This goal should come after you have a well established emergency fund, are out of debt and maxing out your retirement.

SmartMoney.com projects that, in 18 years, a four-year private university education will cost more than $300,000.

Not Enough Emergency Savings

I can completely relate to to trying to build up an emergency savings while supporting a young family. It’s hard sometimes with all the expenses I mentioned in the introduction. But, we’re making progress. As I said, singles, get your savings established now as there will be more expenses to consider later in life.

You’ve heard it before: Everyone should set aside three to six months of salary for a rainy day. That way, there should be enough to live on in case of an unexpected job loss or medical emergency. Unfortunately, this can feel like an impossible goal for folks with small kids. Who has that kind of cash saved up after buying a new home or car or paying for childcare? Don’t let the difficulty of the task dissuade you from trying. In a weak job market, it’s more important than ever to create an emergency account. Remember, every little bit counts.

So, what do you think about these financial mistakes young families make? If you have a plan around each of them, would you feel more confident around your financial situation?

This article was written by Jason Price. Jason Price is a personal finance writer at One Money Design and a Money Map Coach. His mission is helping people achieve true financial freedom. He provides practical tips for managing money wisely and shares Biblical financial principles. Beyond personal finance, Jason enjoys spending time with his family and playing soccer. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• There Are Times When Your Finances Take A Back Seat. Be Prepared With A Contingency Plan
• Should Your Finances Be In Order Before Having Children?
• 5 Things About Money I Wish I Would Have Known When I Was Younger
• How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting
• How To Get Free Financial Help Online
• Would You Give Up Your Favorite Financial Sin To Achieve Financial Freedom?

If you have a small business, the last thing you want to do is focus on accounting. Instead, you probably would rather focus on your work – what you love to do for a living! Accounting has been one of those business tasks that usually gets put on the back-burner.

For those of us who dread accounting on our small business financials, OutRight.com aims to ease the pain. I’ve been trying out this free service for a few months, and I can tell you that it is truly remarkable for the price. Their trademark is “free yourself from accounting,” and that it does.

From their website:

Outright records your income and expenses automatically, categorizes the transactions to maximize deductions, and prepares your estimated and end of year taxes, so you can get back to the work you love.

Yep. It does that. And so much more.

The focus of their marketing is that the average entrepreneur doesn’t have time to track every single transaction they make – let alone calculate estimated taxes and all possible deductions. It’s true. I remember when I was first starting my work at TheChristianDollar.com there was an overwhelming amount of info on how to conduct the business end of things.

You can truly automate your income and expense tracking by syncing your credit cards and PayPal accounts – perfect for bloggers and online business people. You can also manually enter transactions the old-fashioned way if you like.

Income and Outgo Automagically

When you enter the main window of OutRight.com, you are presented with a beautiful graph of your income vs. your expenses. Your profit is clearly shown and any notices (such as upcoming estimated tax submission deadlines) are displayed in the “Upcoming Events” section.

Reports are important, and OutRight gives you several ways to review how your business has been doing. First, you can view profit and loss by month, quarter, or by year. Second, you can view who your most valuable customers are. This will allow you to prioritize your pursuits as you do business.

One great advantage of this website is that it allows you to have your bookkeeper or accountant to have access. Simply invite them by email, and you’ll have everything nice and tidy when tax time rolls around.

Accuracy and Security All-In-One

You may be concerned that OutRight might not properly estimate your taxes owed. To this, OutRight responds:

Because every person’s tax situation is different, we cannot provide an estimated tax calculation that is guaranteed to be accurate. Instead, we provide a conservative guidance based on the following:

• We calculate your businesses profit through the end of the IRS quarter (or through today’s date if the quarter hasn’t ended.) For example, if you were to look at the taxes page on June 10, you would see profit – or loss – through May 31, which is the end of the second quarter for IRS purposes.
• We then calculate the self employment tax (which consists of social security and medicare contributions) using the latest IRS rates.
• To the self-employment tax, we add your business income tax. For this, we simply use the marginal tax rate based on the profit to date. For businesses earning higher income, this may result in a higher tax payment than using the average rate, but we figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, and most importantly, your business info is secure at OutRight. Your information is secured by encryption and backed up hourly just in case the site goes down.

These advantages have made OutRight.com a true help for me and my business. I recommend any small business owner to head over to OutRight.com right now and check out the services they have to offer. You’ll be glad you did!

What’s your favorite accounting program? Do you have any tips and tricks for automating your small business finances?

This article was written by John Frainee. John Frainee is a personal finance writer at TheChristianDollar.com. His goal is to provide biblical financial principles that encourage people to live healthier lives. Beyond personal finance, John enjoys spending time with his wife and two crazy cats, playing a competitive game of Monopoly, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• Ally Bank Online Savings Account: Signing Up For An Account And Review
• How Many Bank Of America Customer Service Reps Does It Take To Close An Account?
• My Blog Just Crashed. Lessons Learned From A Recent Experience
• Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog: Advice From Successful Bloggers
• Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog: Money Making Ideas, Optimizing Your Site And Helpful Site Tools
• Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog: Creating Content, Optimizing SEO And Promoting Your Site

Just over one week ago we had our first child, little Carter John.  Ever since the day he was born, we have been focusing only on the baby – feeding him, changing his diapers, getting used to his schedule – and trying to stay sane.

One thing we’ve learned in the past week is just how un-important things like money and finances can feel at a time like this.  They seem to fade into the background along with everything else, and you begin to forget that bills will even need to be paid.  It can be easy to let things slide.

Be Prepared For Big Life Events

Thankfully we’ve been preparing for having a baby for the last nine months, and now that we’ve had him and things are all crazy, we’re not too worried about letting things slide because we’ve planned for this day.

Some of the things we’ve done.

• Saved An Emergency Fund:  We’ve saved up an emergency fund, and put money away to pay for hospital expenses/etc.  Now we don’t need to worry as much about all the extraneous expenses that will be coming our way.
• Auto-Pay Our Expenses:  All of our regular monthly expenses that can be paid automatically have been set to do that.  I may not keep them all that way indefinitely, but for now we at least know our bills will be paid. For the other ones I have reminders set to help me remember to pay them.
• We Have A Budget: We’ve done a family budget at our house.  This means we know all the money that is coming in and going out, and we don’t have to worry about not having enough for all the new baby expenses.
• Things We Can Get Help On, We Have:  We’ve made a plan for when we’re busy with the baby, and have set up people we know who can dog-sit, water our landscaping, or help us with preparing meals.   It takes a huge load off.

Having a plan has made things so much easier for us, and we’re better able to just enjoy our newborn son.

Unplanned And Planned Events Need To Be Planned For

While not everyone is having a baby as we are, almost everyone should have their own contingency plan in place in case of an emergency of large life event.

For example, we also were glad of having a plan a couple of years back when my wife was in the hospital for a month with an unexpected blood clot.  We had no idea it was on the way – she was 27 and healthy before it happened!  Because we had a contingency plan, we were able make do while she was in the hospital.

The point is, you may not know when something could happen that could cause you to let your finances take a back seat.  When it does happen, you’ll be glad you planned ahead.

Have you set a contingency plan in place at your household? What steps have you taken?  What would you suggest that other folks do?  Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

This article was written by Peter Anderson. Peter Anderson is a Christian, husband to his beautiful wife Maria, and father to his baby boy, Carter. He loves reading and writing about personal finance, and also loves a brisk game of tennis every now and again. You can find out more about him on the about page or check out his design site at http://www.logosforwebsites.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at @moneymatters.

Related Posts

• Family Finance: Top Mistakes Young Families Make
• How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting
• Would You Give Up Your Favorite Financial Sin To Achieve Financial Freedom?
• Should Married Couples Divide Their Money?
• 3 Ways To Trick Yourself Into Saving Money
• The Benefits Of Being A Stay At Home Mom Versus Being A Working Parent

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have a difficult time saving money. If the cash is there, it ends up getting spent! For those of us who need new ways of saving money, here are some great tips on saving more money than we thought possible.

It’s All About Habits

Before we get into some specific ways of saving money, I think it is important to recognize that our habits usually determine the end result. What does that mean? It means that if we want to get down to the root of our spending issue, we have to address our habits. Those things that we do habitually can make us or break us.

Take wearing your seatbelt for example. For some of us, it’s a habit that we naturally do when we enter a vehicle. It keeps us safe and yet we hardly have to devote any brainpower to the action. Personal finance is the same way. The more we can develop healthy habits, the better.

Trick 1: Acting And Pretending

This is one of the best methods in behavior modification. Sometimes it is best to simply act as if we CAN save more money than we think. This pushes us to rethink what is possible.

Believe it or not, a simple budget can be a way to pretend you have less to spend than you actually do. By splitting your money into budgeting categories, you’re putting limits on what you will allow yourself have to spend. This saves you money almost automatically. If you really want to save more money, multiply your household income by .9 and spend the result. By capping your spending at 90% of your income, that 10% can go a long way toward your savings!

Trick 2: Old Fashioned Coin Jar

For those who are using the envelope system of budgeting, this trick might just save you quite a bit month over month. Pull out an old jar and set it next to the area where you do your budgeting. Whenever an envelope has coins left over in it, toss them in the jar. When the jar is full, take it down to the bank and deposit the money into your savings. Of course, you’re going to want to make sure that your teller has a machine to process the coins – who wants to count them one by one?!?!

Truly, this can yield a lot of money in the end. Don’t cheat by raising your budgeted expenses! The idea here is that you systematically save more money without thinking about it.

Trick 3: Automatically Draft It!

Let’s say that you have worked hard to pay off your car. Perhaps your payment was $425/month. Instead of taking that extra money and spending it, why not draft that $425 into your savings account automatically?

Many banks will give you the ability to automatically draft a certain amount of money from your checking to your savings account. If your bank offers this, consider doing it! If you’re on a variable income, you might not want to do this. However, if you are on a fixed income, automatically drafting from your checking is brilliant. It hurts a lot less to save when it is done automatically.

Keep The Vision

Overall, saving money comes down to sheer determination and diligence. It helps to remember that saving money now will result in numerous rewards for the future. Whether you’re saving for an emergency fund, a college education, or simply a new gizmo, these three tricks are sure to help you if you put them to use. What’s your favorite?

This article was written by John Frainee. John Frainee is a personal finance writer at TheChristianDollar.com. His goal is to provide biblical financial principles that encourage people to live healthier lives. Beyond personal finance, John enjoys spending time with his wife and two crazy cats, playing a competitive game of Monopoly, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• Living On Less Before You Need To: Getting By With One Income
• Doing A Zero Based Budget Will Lead To Found Money
• How To Analyze Your Budget And Spending Decisions
• How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting
• Would You Give Up Your Favorite Financial Sin To Achieve Financial Freedom?
• Will You Pay For Your Kids To Go To College?

Well congratulations if you’ve recently found out you’re expecting to have a child! Assuming you’re having a child for the first time you may not know what expenses to expect or how to save for your child. That’s okay. Having children does impact your wallet, but it’s well worth it. Children are a blessing and as you pay for your little one you won’t think anything of the expenses as long as you’ve done some planning and preparation and spend smart.

What Expenses To Expect For Your Child

There are a number of expenses you’re not used to paying or accounting for in your budget. It’s a good idea to talk to family, friends and reach articles such as this one to get an idea of such expenses.

• How do you plan to feed your child? Will you breast feed or use formula? Breast feeding isn’t for everyone, but it will save a ton of money as compared to buying formula (even if its bought in bulk).
• Clothes and blankets are essential for a newborn. You’ll want to make sure you have blankets for swaddling and keeping your baby warm at night. Just remember your baby doesn’t need designer clothes. Nice, but not super model fashion is the approach I would recommend.
• You’ll want to furnish your nursery. This will include a baby crib, changing table or dresser, rocker, lamp, etc. Read below for tips for such one-time expenses.
• Diapers can be quite costly. Some people use cloth diapers, but we couldn’t do it; we didn’t even go there. You’ll want to buy diapers in bulk each month, but make sure you check unit prices as bulk isn’t always cheaper.
• Medical supplies and other products. These are tough to plan for, but make sure you have a thermometer, nail clippers, baby bath tub, etc.
• We quickly learned it was better to spend more on a few high quality bottles rather than buy the cheapos. The more expensive bottles simply work better and tend to leak less.
• You’ll want your little to have some little toys to play with. Rattles are good for babies and most of these types of products can be found at your local Wal-Mart or Target. I recommend doing a bit of research on baby toys because you want to make sure you buy safe products.
• A stroller with car seat attachment can be costly, but make sure you get something that is going to be safe! These are not expenses to skimp on, but you also don’t have to buy top of the line.
• Doctor and hospital expenses for having a child can differ so you need to make sure you have a good understanding up front as to what your insurance will cover.

How To Save For Your Child

Once you’re expecting you’ll want to start setting money aside for these expenses. There are one-time expenses and expenses that will occur each month. The one-time expenses mainly consist of the nursery furniture, stroller and costs associated with the hospital and doctors. The recurring expenses include all the monthly purchases such as diapers, food, etc to help provide for your child.

Head into your local baby furniture store and you’ll find you can easily spend a few thousand dollars on one-time expenses. Rather, be smart about how you’re spending money and buy some things used. For most furniture you can get away with buying used, but don’t buy a used baby crib or a stroller that has a car seat attachment. These are important things to insure safety and you need to make sure you’re getting a reliable product that isn’t damaged (if used) and well manufactured.

Make sure you buy your one-time items without financing them or using a credit card. You may need to sacrifice some spending if you don’t have any extra income. You may also want to take up a part-time job if you need money to buy supplies. Can you sell furniture or other things you don’t use? And don’t forget work bonuses, tax refunds or even a family loan are all better options than going into debt to plan for your new child.

A great way to get some of the essential things you need is through baby showers. Many families and friends host baby showers. Don’t use this as an opportunity to go overboard and request every gadget at Babies r Us to furnish your nursery. Rather pick out the essential things you need at moderate prices and most people will be happy to help you out. This is, of course, a wonderful occasion that you can celebrate with those close to you.

Plan ahead and carve out room in your budget. Since you now have a list of some expenses you can expect within the first year, visit some stores such as Target with a list of the items and write down the prices. Compare with a few other stores too. I’ve made a line item in our family budget that includes expenses for baby supplies. These are normal monthly expenses for diapers and baby food. It may take you a few months to know how much you need to spend, but the important thing is to have some money set aside each month.

Don’t forget Health Care FSA’s. Most baby related medical expenses can be purchased through your FSA. This can definitely help as babies and young children tend to need over the counter medicine and other supplies from your local pharmacy often.

The most important thing to remember is you are not the first person on the planet to have a child. Remember, others have saved and provided for a child and you can do it too. Sure, it may take some sacrifice, but it’s worth the blessing.

What tips do you have to save for your first child?

This article was written by Jason Price. Jason Price is a personal finance writer at One Money Design and a Money Map Coach. His mission is helping people achieve true financial freedom. He provides practical tips for managing money wisely and shares Biblical financial principles. Beyond personal finance, Jason enjoys spending time with his family and playing soccer. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• How to Go On A Financial Diet
• What You Need to Know About Cash Flow Management
• An Emergency Fund Will Help Reduce Your Risk Of Financial Catastrophe
• How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting
• Would You Give Up Your Favorite Financial Sin To Achieve Financial Freedom?
• Increase Your Productivity With These Three Powerful Tools

Upon contemplating how to implement our first budget, I ran into an inevitable problem: how to cash flow monthly expenditures. Having worked in retail for large corporations, I understood that other people had a similar problem. When it came time to pay their bill, some would say, “Well, I don’t get paid until Friday. Can I make partial payments?” I had to find a way to avoid this problem and stay current with all of our bills.

Perhaps you have the same issue. You can’t quite figure out how to easily pay all of your bills on time. Or maybe you’re dealing with stress from barely making enough money to pay your bills in the first place. Things can get twice as complicated when you have a variable income. What do you do at that point?

There are three steps you can implement so that you can easily pay all your bills on time:

1. Use this month’s income to pay next month’s bills. This is the most reliable way to make sure you have the cash to pay all your bills on time. To get to the point where this becomes feasible, you must drop your expenses and raise your income to have this “1-month cash buffer.” You know that you have enough money to get this system in place once you can pay all of this month’s bills on the 1st of this month. Allow me to explain. During the month of May, we wrote down all of our paychecks in a list and at the end of the month we totaled that list. Whatever the total was, we budgeted it for the month of June. That way, we spent only the money we had ACTUALLY HAD in our checking account. As June progresses, we will only be spending the amount of income we had in the month of May. Meanwhile, June’s income will be filling our checking account which will prepare us for July. This method assumes that you have at least one paycheck a month. If you’re commission-based, you may want to budget according to averaged timeframes. To understand other ways this helps you pay your bills on time click here!
2. Prioritize your expenditures. When you have variable income this is especially important. Start by writing your list as expenses pop into your mind. When you’ve maxed out your list, put check marks next to the items that are essentials (things you need for survival). For example: Food, Shelter, Utilities, Transportation, Reasonable Clothing, etc. Put these items on the top of a second list and order them according to your specific situation. Then add all the non-essentials (things that help you live a productive life and enjoy life). Prioritize these things as well. In the end, you should have a master list. Cash flow your income to pay for these expenses in this prioritized order.
3. Create 7-day advance reminders for all non-auto-pay bills. Of course, you want to make sure you set up auto-pay for all bills you can. For those bills you can’t, use a reminder system such as Things to keep you on track. I use 7 days as a rule of thumb, but you can adjust as needed. Once your reminder pops up, stop everything you’re doing and pay that bill!

There you have it. Follow these three steps and you’re on your way to paying bills with ease.

How do you currently pay your bills on time? What are some tips and tricks you use to effectively manage your budget?

This article was written by John Frainee. John Frainee is a personal finance writer at TheChristianDollar.com. His goal is to provide biblical financial principles that encourage people to live healthier lives. Beyond personal finance, John enjoys spending time with his wife and two crazy cats, playing a competitive game of Monopoly, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• Motivate Yourself By Setting Goals And Rewarding Yourself When You Meet Them
• Christmas Budgeting Tips: Avoid Overspending At This Expensive Time Of Year
• Make Sure You Know The Due Dates On Your Bills Before Leaving On Vacation
• Make A Better Budget!
• Increase Your Productivity With These Three Powerful Tools
• How To Pick A Credit Counselor

Over the past couple of years the economy has been in a tailspin.  With double digit unemployment, people are having a hard time finding jobs, and not many people (beyond government workers) have been seeing their incomes increase. Because times are tough most people are having to be more creative in looking for places to trim the fat,  create new side incomes and keep their head above water.

What if I were to tell you, however, that most people could easily give themselves a raise without having an increase in income?  Here’s how it can be done.

Zero Based Budgets

A couple of years back my wife and I took Financial Peace University, and as a result ended up doing a budget for our family for the first time in our 5 year marriage.  Until then we hadn’t really bothered to keep track of where the money was going because it seemed like we just didn’t have enough to keep track of anyway.   What we didn’t realize was that because we weren’t keeping track,  money we could have been saving was instead just disappearing into the ether every month.

After we started doing the Dave Ramsey recommended zero based budget and a cash flow plan, however, we found that we were routinely had hundreds more in our bank account every month just because we were being conscious about our spending.   It was like getting a raise!

So let’s get started!

Write Down Your Income And Expenses

Figuring out what your current situation is should be the first step in coming up with a zero based budget.   Sit down with pen and paper, and set about figuring out what your income and expenses are for the month.

• Income:  What money is coming into your bank account from your full time job, part time jobs and sideline income that you might have. Your regular income streams probably don’t change that much from month to month, so this shouldn’t be too hard.  (Unless you have a sales job, own your own business or other different situations)
• Expenses:  Go through your monthly expenses and figure out what you’re spending for necessary things like food, clothing, shelter, utilities, insurance and so on.
• Less Frequent Expenses: You’ll also want to look at your less frequent expenses that can be different from month to month. These can be things like entertainment, gas, property taxes, pet supplies.

Create A Plan To Allocate Every Dollar

After you have written down all of your monthly and infrequent income and expenses, you need to start allocating every dollar to a specific spending saving or giving category. This is called creating a cash flow plan.

For example, if you have 3000 dollars of income coming in for the month, you would allocate every penny of that 3000 dollars to one category or another.   A pared down zero based budget might look like this:

• $1000 for Housing expenses ($2000 left over)
• $300 groceries ($1700 left over)
• $200 car payment ($1500 left over)
• $300 Utilities & Insurance ($1200 left over)
• $200 Gas ($1000 left over)
• $300 tithe ($700 left over)
• $100 clothing ($600 left over)
• $100 entertainment ($500 left over)
• $200 savings account ($300 left over)
• $200 mutual fund ($100 left over)
• $100 Donation ($0 left over)

At our house, the money for tithe comes out first.  Next, the money for monthly or irregular expenses gets allocated. If you have money left over when you’re done with those expenses, money gets allocated to a saving, investment or giving category.

When the month is done you have allocated every dollar, and reduced the total to zero.  No money goes unaccounted for.

When you start allocating your incoming funds to specific categories every month, and don’t go over those spending limits set forth in your budget, the result is that you’ll end up having more money left for saving, investing and giving every month. My wife and I found we were able to find almost $500-600 per month extra just by doing a budget and not overspending on our allotted categories. You can do the same, so why not start?

The Zero Based Budget: Review

The steps to follow when setting up your own  zero based budget include:

1. Figure out all your income sources and write down a figure for total net income.
2. Write down and allocate for all giving and saving categories. Come up with a total for giving and saving.
3. Figure out a dollar figure for total expenses, both fixed regular monthly and irregular expenses.
4. Subtract total expenses and giving/saving from total net income. You should come up with zero as the final tally.  If the total isn’t zero, allocate the remaining funds to a saving or giving category.

Have you ever done a zero based budget?  Did it lead to decreased spending and increased available funds in your accounts?  Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

This article was written by Peter Anderson. Peter Anderson is a Christian, husband to his beautiful wife Maria, and father to his baby boy, Carter. He loves reading and writing about personal finance, and also loves a brisk game of tennis every now and again. You can find out more about him on the about page or check out his design site at http://www.logosforwebsites.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at @moneymatters.

Related Posts

• 3 Ways To Trick Yourself Into Saving Money
• Living On Less Before You Need To: Getting By With One Income
• How To Analyze Your Budget And Spending Decisions
• How To Deal with Out of Control Spending
• The Budget Goes Out The Window!
• How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting

I love helping people with their finances.  It’s a passion of mine as you can see with the One Money Design tagline – helping people achieve true financial freedom.  Money Map coaching involves walking with people through a Biblical financial study and helping them use practical financial tools for their finances (such as setting up a spending plan (budget)).

Often people seek help because they can’t make debt payments, they can’t stop using credit cards, they’re tired of living month to month, or they think there just isn’t enough money every month to meet their needs.

I understand how it can be challenging for people to determine the underlying reasons why these things are occurring.  It’s difficult to gain proper perspective to analyze your finances because, after all, they’re your finances, right?

Sometimes, emotions are involved.  When it comes to spending and debt, these emotions can run high and lead to stress and anxiety.  Especially, when the problems get big.  Before you know it, you can’t think clearly.

But sometimes it’s a lack of knowledge on how to look closely at ones situation.  And sometimes it’s just a lack of motivation until the problems get too big to handle.

However, there are some basic steps in evaluating your budget and spending decisions and determining what could be behind some of the problems mentioned.  It’s easy to get started and can be of help in solving spending problems, or in preparing to work with a financial counselor.

Basic Steps To Analyze Your Budget And Spending Decisions

1.  Estimate your spending

Before doing anything you need to have a baseline.  Why do you not have enough money each month?  Well, you won’t ever know unless you can determine how much you’re spending across different spending categories such as food, transportation, housing, clothing, entertainment, debt and so on.

I like the spending plan template from Crown Financial Ministries.  Even if you haven’t tracked your spending before and know where your money is going you can still complete  the worksheet.  Make some reasonable estimates for variable spending and enter the fixed spending amounts across all categories.

Ideally, your spending plan will balance and every dollar should be assigned to a purpose (Net Spendable Income minus expenses should equal zero).  Net Spendable Income, according to Crown, is money left over after taxes and tithe.  But if doesn’t initially, that’s okay.  You’re going to get there.  So, now you have a baseline spending plan.

2.  Look at recommended spending percentages

Okay, so if your budget isn’t in-balance, you have to determine why.

I like the Crown spending guides to determine whether or not you’re in the ball park for different spending categories.  As an aside, I don’t think you have to use them as an exact science, but they’re good for helping you establish some limitations.

So, identify a spending guide for your situation.  Next, review your spending across the different categories and determine how the % of Net Spendable Income from the guide aligns with the % for each category in your spending plan.

As you review each category some spending will surely be less than the recommended and some will be higher.  You’ll want to focus on the ones that are higher first.

3.  Ask yourself tough questions

Now that you’ve identified some areas that are potential problem areas you’ll want to ask yourself some tough questions to analyze your situation.

• Is the spending higher because it’s a want or a need?
• Do you really need the extra expense?
• Are you spending excessively or carelessly in certain areas?
• What could you do to reduce the expense?
• Did you over estimate the expense?  Perhaps you need to lower it because it’s not realistic.

Your objective in looking at these areas is to identify spending that can be reduced to become more in-line with the recommendations provided in the guide.  Most likely, these areas are robbing money from other areas of your budget which you need.

You should walk away from the exercise with some specific action steps to address categories that are too high or out of line with the spending guide.  For example, “I will reduce entertainment expenses by $200 next month because I will only go out to eat one time per week instead of three”.

Your goal at this point is to balance your budget by reducing spending using your action steps.

If you’re having trouble, I have a note on financial counseling at the end of the article that may help.

Under spending

While you might have identified your spending problems there may be some areas not getting enough attention.  Emergency savings is a common area.  Crown recommends 5% of Net Spendable Income for savings.  So, ask yourself why you can’t hit at least 5% and make some adjustments to get there.  Hopefully, your steps to reduce spending will help you get such areas more in-line with the recommendations.

Going forward

Your initial baseline in this exercise was probably based a lot on best guesses.  And that’s okay.  But, to get this more accurate, you have to start tracking your spending daily by each category.  After a 1-2 months you can review your spending and determine if your budget estimates by category need to be adjusted.  I like the Crown spending diary for this exercise.

Financial Counsel

Don’t dismiss the value of a financial counselor and know that it’s okay to seek help if any of this proves to be too difficult or becomes overwhelming.

Depending on your specific situation, you may need to visit with someone in-person and work through options to overcome challenges and reduce spending.  Counselors can also provide accountability and hands-on help with using the practical tools mentioned.

Crown Financial Ministries offers free Money Map Coaching services.  You can learn more by visiting Crown’s Money Map Coaching page, or www.biblemoneycoach.org (my personal Money Map coaching website).

Other helpful tools

I thought I would add in just a few other tools I think you may find helpful in analyzing your spending.  You may want to check out these tools and other tools on the Crown website before getting started.

• Spending plan calculator
• Budget analysis form

What do you think of these steps to evaluate your spending decisions?

This article was written by Jason Price. Jason Price is a personal finance writer at One Money Design and a Money Map Coach. His mission is helping people achieve true financial freedom. He provides practical tips for managing money wisely and shares Biblical financial principles. Beyond personal finance, Jason enjoys spending time with his family and playing soccer. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• 3 Ways To Trick Yourself Into Saving Money
• Living On Less Before You Need To: Getting By With One Income
• Doing A Zero Based Budget Will Lead To Found Money
• How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting
• Would You Give Up Your Favorite Financial Sin To Achieve Financial Freedom?
• Will You Pay For Your Kids To Go To College?

You might be surprised by my response to this question.  But in general, I don’t think you should plan having children around your finances or financial situation.  In other words, I do not think finances have to be in order to have children.

Now I know there are some exceptions in which a child couldn’t receive the medical care or food needed  for survival if there wasn’t some sort of firm financial foundation or income.  But then again, by whose standards of living am I basing that statement?  There are people with children in other parts of this world without the standards we’re accustomed to having.  Although there are struggles, many children survive fine.

Why your finances don’t have to be in order

Okay, so back to my initial thought.  Why do I feel this way?  Simple…

Having children is a blessed part of life.  If you’re considering starting a family let me tell you there is never a perfect time to do so.  Truthfully, the only perfect timing is God’s timing.  If you use finances as an excuse you’ll certainly find something holding you back.  A financial excuse could also block God’s plans for you as it relates to children.

Let’s just consider for a moment you have no debt and your emergency savings is fully funded.  You could still conclude you don’t have your retirement fund established , or perhaps your home paid off.

No, there is not a financially ideal time until perhaps you’ve reached the point of financial freedom and all financial goals are achieved.  But even at that point, I suppose you could reason you don’t have enough time and resources for children because you’re focused on giving to others.

How far do you take achieving financial goals before making the decision to have a child?  I don’t think there is a good answer and therefore, I don’t believe you can ever apply what I refer to as a financial child birth formula.

Do finances fit anywhere into the picture of having children?

While I don’t think finances should deter or stop you from having children, I do think there are some wise financial things to do in order to prepare.

Lifestyle adjustments

The best approach to prepare for having children, in my opinion is to focus on adjusting lifestyle.  Ultimately, I believe people should have children and adjust their lifestyle accordingly.  By adjusting lifestyle you can still make progress towards financial goals and enjoy the blessing of having a child.

Perhaps you’re diagnosed with a condition that required additional expenses to treat each month.  You might be forced into a lifestyle change in order to continue to make forward progress with paying off debt, etc.  The same approach holds true with having a child.

Emergency savings

You can either build an emergency savings, or create a separate cash savings for children.  Having cash on-hand is helpful.  There are many expenses that come up that are sometimes unplanned with young children.  Having an extra savings fund available to draw upon from is helpful in those cases.

But guess how much emergency savings I had when we had our first child?  Zero, yes, zero.  It would have been helpful, but it’s not necessary.  Again, a lifestyle adjustment would ideally allow you to build an emergency savings while raising children.

Insurance

Buy the most insurance you can afford.  As the father of two young children, I can tell you that you will want the best coverage that fits within your budget.  You might be able to save on insurance premiums later, but good coverage early can help cover pregnancy, delivery, hospital and other medical costs.

One household income

Live off one household income.  I feel very blessed my wife and I made the decision when we did to sacrifice and learn to live off of my income.  It took some adjusting (again lifestyle adjustments), but we made it work.  As an aside, I love the fact that my children are able to spend each day with my wife.  This is an opportunity for my wife to instill into them our Christian values.

Reduce or eliminate debt

Of course, it’s helpful to reduce or eliminate debt.  Looking back, we paid off debt to make living off one household income possible.  But if you’re unable to pay off debt prior to having your child, you can look to cut out big expenses which might include driving used versus new.

Pray

Finally, set everything aside and just turn to God.  It may be within God’s plan for you to have a child now.  And even if your finances are not in order you have to be open and responsive to God’s plan for your life.  You have to trust He will provide.

Final thoughts

Don’t sacrifice having a child, which is one of the rich’s blessings in life, over accomplishing financial goals and having a perfect financial situation.  Remember the path to financial freedom is a life-time journey.   Life will bring many new things along the journey.  Certainly, we have to take wise steps to prepare, but most importantly we have to learn to adjust and modify our plans around these blessed events.  And of course, you can still achieve financial freedom with children.

What are your thoughts on having your finances in order before having children?

This article was written by Jason Price. Jason Price is a personal finance writer at One Money Design and a Money Map Coach. His mission is helping people achieve true financial freedom. He provides practical tips for managing money wisely and shares Biblical financial principles. Beyond personal finance, Jason enjoys spending time with his family and playing soccer. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Related Posts

• Family Finance: Top Mistakes Young Families Make
• How Many Financial Accounts Should You Have?
• Personal Finance Bible Verse Of The Day: More Blessed To Give
• Personal Finance Bible Verse Of The Day: Fools Spend
• Personal Finance Bible Verse Of The Day: Conduct Your Affairs With Justice
• Personal Finance Bible Verse Of The Day: Deceitfulness of Riches