Home Budgeting Tips

While budgeting for your household may be a stressful topic – and even a heated one between you and your partner! – setting up a healthy household budget is essential so that you can take care of your family’s needs. Plus, budget planning can reduce stress and can actually increase, rather than restrict, your financial freedom by helping you meet your household needs. Budgeting is especially important if you’re a single mom.

The good news is home budgeting doesn’t have to be hard; read on for our easy home budgeting tips that will help you learn how to save money on a monthly budget.

Setting Up a Household Budget

Establishing main categories of spending is a smart first step in creating a home budget. The following categories are good guidelines:

 

  • food
  • shelter (including utilities)
  • health care
  • insurance
  • clothing
  • transportation
  • entertainment

Next, establish the following calculations so as to determine your monthly household budget:

 

  • $____________ Write down your monthly income
  • $____________ Subtract planned monthly savings
  • $____________ Subtract monthly personal spending
  • $____________ The amount left for your monthly budget

The money left over is what you will use to calculate your monthly for your household expenses. It is a good idea to re-evaluate your budget on a regular basis to eliminate unnecessary spending.

 

Home Budgeting Money Saving Tips

The following are some suggestions on how to minimize spending in each category of household spending:

 

  • food: purchasing food in bulk and buying less expensive or no name brands helps cut back on money costs. Also, avoid buying expensive snacks like soda and chips, which – in addition to be costly – are also harmful to your children’s health.
  • shelter: reduce heating and cooling costs in your home by turning up the thermostat by a degree or two in the summer and turning it down a couple of degrees in the winter. And on those hot summer days, turn off the air conditioning and head outdoors for some fun outdoor activities for kids! You should also consider downsizing or moving to a less trendy area to cut down on property taxes.
  • health care: make sure your health care plan is reasonable for you and your family’s needs. Oftentimes, purchasing a less expensive plan with more deductions can help you save money.
  • insurance: research your insurance coverage to see what you’re covered for and to determine what extent of coverage you and your family require. Buying a work insurance plan can be less expensive compared to individual insurance plans. If applicable, research whether or not you can extend your waiting period on disability insurance.
  • clothing: purchasing you and your family’s clothing at more economical stores is a great way to save money. You can also try shopping at thrift or second hand stores. Waiting for end-of-season sales is also a good way to save on clothing costs.
  • transportation: if possible, downsize to one car instead of two to cut down on expensive insurance and gasoline costs. Carpooling to work, taking your bike or walking can also minimize transportation costs.
  • entertainment: eat out less often by brown-bagging your kids’ lunches and yours as well. Having a weekly pot luck at work is another great budgeting tip. When traveling, stay at a bed and breakfast instead of an expensive hotel and look for last-minute deals to save. If you have season tickets to the opera, ballet or your home city’s basketball team, sell half of your tickets.

Implementing these personal budgeting money saving tips can help you reduce your household spending. This helps reduce financial stress so that you can plan for long-term goals like saving for your child’s education and help you focus more of your energy on your family.