Re-evaluating your budget goals is no different than re-evaluating any other part of your life. As you achieve your goals you will need to set new ones. As you struggle to make some goals, you may realize that you might need to reconsider those goals. Whatever the outcome of your old budget goals, it’s always a good idea to assess them and determine which ones still work for you and which ones need replacing.

Savings Goals – Savings goals commonly need to be re-evaluated every time you meet your goal. For instance, if you were saving to pay for a winter vacation, you don’t want to simply stop saving after you have paid for you trip. Think ahead to your next vacation, or other major purchase, and start putting away the money you’ll need for it.

Debt Reduction Goals - Debt reduction goals are another type of goal that is in constant need of updating. If you set a goal to pay off one line of credit, maybe a consumer charge card like a Lowe’s card, you’ll need to set a new goal once you’ve paid that account in full. Tackle the next debt on your list of debts and make paying it off your new goal.

Unaccomplished Goals – Sometimes, through no fault of your own, you just can’t make one of your goals happen. Maybe your goal was to pay off your credit card debt in 2007. Then you were laid off from your job in June and took three months to find a new job. It’s just not realistic to think you would still be able to pay off your credit card debt in the time you originally allotted. The important thing to do in these situations is to recognize that your original goal isn’t going to happen and set a new goal in its place. Instead, try something like not accumulating any additional credit card debt while you’re between jobs. You just need to make sure that you’re working towards something.

Re-evaluating your budget goals doesn’t have to be a monumental task. By simply keeping in touch with your financial situation, you won’t find it hard to recognize when you’ve met a goal or when a goal has been placed outside of your reach. Keeping your budget goals in line with your changing life is the best way to guarantee financial success.

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So, you might ask, what are the ways to increase your income? Of course, there are the traditional methods of asking your boss for a raise or looking for a part-time job to supplement the income from your primary job. But you can’t control whether or not your raise is approved and working two jobs can cause burn out in a hurry. An alternative to these drastic choices is to take a look at the things you already spend your time doing and find a way to turn it into a source of revenue. A hobby, whether it’s sewing, woodworking, or drawing, can be turned into a nice little money-maker in a few quick steps.

Firstly, look at your talents. Do you enjoy decorative painting? Maybe you prefer to spend your time handcrafting special gifts for your friends’ children. Whatever your special talent is you can bet that there are people who don’t have your skills and would like to be able to take advantage of them. When friends or family admire your handiwork, just mention to them that you’ve started a business offering this service. More likely than not, they will want to be among those first few clients who are lucky enough to use you.

Secondly, spread the word about your new endeavor in as many free ways as you can. Post flyers wherever you purchase your hobby supplies. Ask your friends and family to share your name when others admire the gifts you’ve given them or projects you’ve completed for them. You can even post short notices about the service or product you’re offering in local forums. The most important thing here is to get your name out there.

Lastly, you’ll want to work towards gaining clients or customers without leaning on your family and friends. Although referral business is nothing to sneeze at, your business will really start to take off once you start adding new clients to the mix. As soon as you start earning some profit, you can think about investing money in growing your business. Then you can consider things like purchasing business cards to hand out to potential customers and even placing an ad in local newspapers.

Turning your hobby into a business makes sense for a lot of reasons. No other method of increasing your income allows you to make extra money while doing something you enjoy, controlling the amount of work you have to do, and building a viable new business. While you work in your spare time, you could find yourself on the road to financial success.

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1. Inspect your cable or satellite television bill. No one is suggesting that you have to give up cable channels entirely, although dropping cable would make a huge difference in your monthly budget. Instead, consider removing a few extra services you subscribe to. Do you really need HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime? Just cutting a couple of movie channels can save you as much as $250 each year.

2. Consider adjusting the thermostat in your home. By allowing your home to be a couple of degrees warmer in the summer and a couple of degrees colder in the winter, you can cut some of the expensive heating and cooling costs that have been plaguing homeowners so much these past few years.

3. Look closely through your phone bill. There are often extra charges hiding there for services that you don’t even use. Call waiting, long distance calling plans, and caller ID service charges can really add up. As cell phones grow more and more popular, you may even find that you don’t need a regular phone line at all.

4. Evaluate the items you are purchasing at the grocery store. Certainly, if your family really enjoys name-branded cereal more than generic-branded cereal, you should purchase your regular box of Frosted Flakes. You’ll probably find, however, that your family couldn’t care less about the brand of ketchup or bread that you purchase. These little savings can quickly cut your grocery bill down to a more manageable size.

Budget cuts like these are great ways to get your budget under control without feeling like you’ve deprived yourself too much. Alone, none of these little sacrifices will save your family’s finances, but together these changes will really help you find some extra cash in your monthly budget.

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Let’s say for example that you budgeted $400 for food expenses during the month. Assuming that your original budgeted amount was adequate and feasible, an analysis of the bills can provide valuable detail to your spending patterns, and help you to gain insight on what might need some more attention. After adding up your receipts for actual food expenses you find that the actual amount spent was $550. Now is the time to dig deeper:

List the specific reasons you went over budget. Find all the items or events that caused the $150 difference and you may find that there are several different reasons. Was it eating out more meals than planned? A spur of the moment splurge on T-bone steaks for a holiday cookout for friends and family? Whatever the reason, by looking into the supporting receipts for details you can ferret out some important information that will help in future budgeting.

Look at spending patterns. Now that you have identified specific instances where your spending did not match the budget, look carefully for patterns that will emerge. Did you spend money to save time? Were any of your choices because of an inability to curb impulse spending or because you needed to project a certain image to someone? Assessing the patterns to the spending will help you to take steps to change them the next time the spending situations present themselves.

Develop alternatives for budget friendly choices the next time. For each reason that you listed, develop a way to counter this if it were to happen again. Perhaps some menu planning is in order or you need quick and easy recipes to get on the table at dinner time instead of choosing the drive thru or pizza delivery. Write down these alternatives and keep them in a place you can find them when the circumstances arise.

This process of analysis will take a little bit of time but you can gain very valuable information from it. During each step remind yourself that you are examining feedback and not casting blame for past spending. By gaining insight into your spending habits you’ll have the chance to respond differently when presented again with similar circumstances. By making little changes and practicing them until they become automatic, you will see yourself accomplishing your budget goals.

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Spending Plan Online Calculator at Crown Financial Ministries.  With this calculator you enter your gross income, tithe, and tax, and a sample budget is generated for you.  This is the best calculator to use if you have never done a budget before and have no idea of your current expenses by category.  This calculator provides you with some recommendations by expense category and can be a good baseline to forming your budget.  The Crown Financial Ministries site is also full of good, solid, money management advice. 
 
Budget Calculator at Consumer Credit Counseling.   Income from each spouse as well as all expenses by category are entered into this budget calculator.  You can only use this one if you already have been tracking your expenses and know what they are by category (how much you spend on rent/mortage, food, auto, insurance, etc.)  A budget is generated which shows your actual spending versus the recommended budgeted amounts and shows the difference between the two.

Budget Calculator at CNN.com - Requires you to enter your income information and expenses by category.  Provides subtotals as well as recommendations for budgeted amounts.  

One important element in regard to your budget is to track all your spending.  We use Quicken software but there are many other ways to do this as well.  You can even just use a notebook or make a spreadsheet.  The important point is that you monitor your spending by category so you will know how much money you have spent in different areas.  How much do you spend on rent/mortgage, your food costs both in groceries and in dining out, insurance, etc.  Making your budget is just part of what you’ll need to do to manage your money; tracking your expenses is crucial to see where you can save more and spend less.   

Technorati Tags: money, budget 

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When we ran our reports, the preliminary review shows that nearly every expense in our budget (except for our mortage which is a fixed rate) has increased.  We are going to be reviewing each of these increases to find out the reason (although most of them we already knew about) and brainstorming solutions to the increases. 

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I am a real bargain hunter and consider myself pretty good at finding “great deals”. My local Target store is one of the places where I have had the most success. If you didn’t already know, Target has a regular method of clearancing merchandise, and will follow a progression of marking things down to 25%, 50%, 75%, and, yes, even to 90%. What you have to do to find the bargains is to find your particular store’s markdown schedule per area, and be the first one at the store the days of the sale. Apparently, a lot of other people know about these clearance sales, employees and customers alike. I’ve also seen a lot of folks who snatch up everything at 90% off with the intention of selling their stuff on Ebay.

After Christmas the merchandise is all marked down to 50% but it does eventually go to 90% off. It does include Christmas decorations but also things like Christmas gifts too, like the perfume sets, bath sets, even things like car wash kits! All seasonal items go through clearance as well including the patio sets and barbeque grills. Clothing is another great area to watch. I rarely pay full price for clothes for the kids, and my children know if they want something, they’ll have to look for the red clearance sticker. 

Another tip you’ll want to try is scanning everything. Sometimes the clearanced items are not marked but you can find the price at the scanner. Here is a list I have used to get an idea of the clearance schedule. However, each Target store is different so you will have to find out what happens at your store.

Traditional Holiday clearance schedule
50% off day after holiday for three days
75% off fourth day after holiday for three days
90% off seventh day after holiday for 1-2 days.
Other than Christmas this is the schedule used for holiday clearance, including Valentine’s Day, Easter, July 4th, Summer, and Halloween.

Weekly Mark Down Schedule:
-Mon. — Electronics, Kids Clothing and Stationary (Cards, GiftWrap, etc.)
-Tues. — Domestics, Women’s Clothing, Pets and Market (food items)
-Wed. — Men’s Clothing, Toys, Health and Beauty, Lawn & Garden items
-Thur. — House Wares, Lingerie, Shoes, Sporting Goods, Movies, Music, Books, Decor and Luggage
-Fri. — Auto, Cosmetics, Hardware, & Jewelry

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If you do not know how to budget money, then take small baby steps in learning how.  It is much easier to begin slowly and stick with the budget, then throw something together quickly, only to abandon it in a very short time.

One of the most important things to remember when you are making a budget, is that it will take time to change your spending habits.

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When you get married, your life and your money become one.  It is no longer, this is mine and that is yours.  It is this is ours.  100% of everything you have together is hers and 100% is his. Or sometimes when you first get married and you do not have much money, you could say, “two halves of nothing is a whole nothing,” as Fog Horn Leg Horn use to say.

So you have your budget. You’ve got your categories (auto, clothing, groceries expenses etc.).  You have set your percentages of each expense. But what happens when one of you goes out and breaks the budget and buys a want and not a need.

Let’s face it guys, we like to ask our wives, why are you spending all this money and where.  In reality, they are buying what the family needs.  The guys will go out and buy one large item and break the budget.

That is where the $100 rule comes in.  It is simple.  No one buys anything over $100 without discussing it with the other first.  This prevents unneeded problems and helps facilitate communication on your money. 

Also, if you see something that you do not need but want, write it down on a piece of paper and put it on your bathroom mirror or refrigerator door.  Wait 24 to 72 hours to see if you really want this.  This one works well with the kids also.  They will soon forget about it or go on to the next one.

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I was reading this article on the 5″>http://www.crosswalk.com/family/finances/1385675.html”>5 Steps To Creating A Successful Budget from Crosswalk. The author gives these in order:

1. Teamwork.
2. True Income.
3. Monthly Budget.
4. Write your Budget Down.
5. Prioritze your budget.

Definitely, from our own experience, teamwork has been the top of the list. If you are not working as a team, there will be no harmony in your family finances.

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1. Determine why you made a budget. There is a reason you have put time into developing your budget, now you need to put into writing what your goals are. Do you want to be debt free, live on one income, or save for retirement? Make this into your personal or family financial mission statement. Write it down or type it up nicely and then have it laminated and display it in a prominent place where you can see it often. Many times we just need a reminder to ourselves for why we are doing a particular thing, and that can be just enough incentive when things get tough.

2. Set small range goals so you can see progress. It can be very difficult to keep up the discipline necessary to stay on budget if you can’t see any measurable progress. Develop some short term goals that you can celebrate meeting. If your goal has been to reduce your grocery spending by $100 per month, then your weekly goal would be to cut grocery costs by $25. Likewise, if your goal is to pay off debt, make a chart to show how much you’ve paid off. Reward charts just aren’t for children! Use a type of chart where you can color in a bar to show your progress, and then color it in every time you make a payment so you can see the progress you are making. Put it up on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror as a reminder that your hard work is paying off!

3. Identify your weak spots and develop a plan to battle them. In sticking to your budget, you need a clear idea of where you may be tempted to break the budget. If you are prone to impulse spending, then you must remove that temptation from yourself. If you go window shopping, leave your credit cards and check book at home! Especially in the early days of sticking to your budget, it is important to re-train yourself to curb spending.

Making a budget is really the easy part in financial management. It is sticking to the budget and making your spending match your plan that is the difficult process. By disciplining yourself and retraining your spending habits, you can achieve your budget goals.

 

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