When I was still in the research phase of figuring out the best way for our family to budget, track, and actually make progress toward our financial goals (without being trust fund babies or both of us having to work around the clock), one of the topics that drew me in the most was being able to see examples of other families’ actual budgets and their actual routines/management of those budgets.
Considering that, I want to share a bit of our own budget with you, but before I do, I need for you to promise me something.
Promise me that you will not try to build your own budget based on the numbers that I share with you.
Why?
If you do that, you will end up frustrated and starting over again next month because the likelihood of OUR family’s budget being EXACTLY what YOUR family needs is very slim.
I’m sharing this in order to show you more of the concept of how we budget.
I’m NOT sharing this with you so that you can copy and paste any of our numbers that I may share with you. Our numbers are set based on OUR spending history and goals.
Your numbers will need to be set the same way. Know your own spending history and habits.
Using that data to set realistic goals is the only way you’ll be able to set realistic goals for your own family and not be consistently discouraged by “blowing your budget.”
Ok. On to the juicy stuff you clicked in for. 😉
FOOD/HOUSEHOLD:
When I first printed out and averaged out our food spending for three months, I was shocked, embarrassed, and disappointed in what we had allowed to become our spending habits.
Our groceries and household purchases were averaging out to be over $1200.
On top of this, our “eating out” spending was averaging to be around $400-500 each month.
Can we say excessive?
We were throwing away so much produce that was going bad before we would eat it (because we were going out instead of eating the food we planned for/purchased). You may be able to relate to this.
For about the last year and a half now (after this shocking realization), each month our spending has been between $500-800 for all of our groceries and household needs and our eating out has stayed around $200.
How did I make that happen?
- Monthly Meal Planning: I take 1 hour a month to take inventory of what we have, note how many meals we will actually need to make at home, and then I make a list of that many meals so I can shop for ONLY what we will actually need for the month.I buy everything that can freeze/keep for the month at once so I can be more aware of my budget, and then each week I just have to go in and grab fresh produce and maybe one or two random things I forgot at the beginning of the month (which only takes 10 minutes WITH my kids in tow).
- I update our spending regularly (at least twice a week – on our MUDs), so I know exactly how much I actually have left to spend at the grocery store and at restaurants.
- If we don’t have enough money left in our budget to go out to eat on a night that we regularly go out to eat, then we either: DON’T GO, we split meals to cut our bill in half (adults split something and kids split something) if that difference means we have enough in the budget to do so, OR we have to spend our “allowance” (aka: fun money, etc.) cash that each of us gets each month. If we want to go out to eat badly enough, we will spend our own fun money to feed the family/take us all out for that meal.
THE REST:
OK. So, for the rest of our variable budget areas, I’m actually going to just show you the list from our budget spreadsheet so you can see our categories instead of actual numbers.
Why? Two reasons:
- Our numbers are set based on OUR spending history and goals (as I mentioned above)
- The amounts that we set aside for each of these things changes almost monthly because our income fluctuates so greatly.
For those of you who have set income amounts, I must say I am slightly envious. It’s SO much easier to budget from month to month when you can better estimate what’ll be coming in along with what’ll be leaving your account! 🙂
If you haven’t done the research to find out your own actual numbers and spending habits, you’d be jumping the gun to assume that any numbers will work for you.
When I was working to set up our budget, it was super helpful for me to see/consider all of the categories that other families had in their budget!
Everyone’s categories will be different, but it was so helpful for me to be able to jog my memory of our own possible categories by seeing examples of other families’ breakdown.
This is why, inside the Sustainable Budget Blueprint course, I include the Ultimate Collection of Budget Categories download: So that you can be sure that you include any and all categories that your family will need! I’m so excited about little details like that inside the course. It’s coming up so soon (end of February), and I can hardly stand it. I hope you’re getting excited for it, too!
Now, I won’t be sharing the entire list with you in this post. That little nugget of goodness will be saved for my students inside the course, but I WILL share with you OUR list.
*Disclaimer: Just because there are a LOT of categories here, do not assume we are “rolling in the dough.” I assure you, we are not.
Some of these categories literally only have $5 put towards them each month (or $0 if we are in a tight month), but you know what? $5 in an account to go towards an event or expense is $5 less that we will have to come up with from the income of that specific month whenever the even/expense comes up for us. You know?
And let me tell you: I’m HERE for that.
Ok. Enough chit chat. I’m going to just leave our list below, and you just hit me up with any questions that you might have in the comments below! <3
OUR DIGITAL ENVELOPES:
Childcare/Babysitting
Clothing
Date Nights
Eating Out
Gasoline
Gifts (parties/bdays)
Groceries
Haircuts/Colors/Grooming
Home Maintenance
Kids Extras
Medical/Wellness
Ministry Spending
Miscellaneous Spending
Car Maintenance/Registration
Dental/Eye/contacts
OUR GENERAL SINKING FUNDS
Furniture/Home Decor
Family Birthdays
General Travel Funds
Summer+ Quarterly Mosquito Treatments
Sports/School Year Activities
OUR SINKING FUNDS W/ DEADLINES
Valentine’s Day 2020
Anniversary/Fam Trip 2020
Fall Birthdays
Kids’ Summer Programs/Camps
Amazon Prime ($130 in Oct.)
Family Pictures + Xmas Cards
State Fair 2019
Christmas 2019 Savings
Denton Family Xmas
2020 School Yearbooks ($25 each)
Mother’s + Father’s Day
Costco Membership
Are there any here that you know you definitely need to add to your budgeting tracker? Are there any you know are missing from my list that you will need on yours (pet costs, etc.)? Drop them in the comments below to share with us all!
If you’d like to find your family’s exact food spending numbers (as I mentioned so many times above) I have a free challenge group that starts each Monday through which I’ll send you one email each day, for 4 days, and you’ll find out those exact numbers you need to know before being able to set up your own realistic budget!
I’d love to help walk you through the process (and gift you my free printable template designs that make it a little more fun and aesthetically pleasing) 😉
