Every now and then I speak about how we budget month to month and the amount of DMs I receive after posting, asking how we do it is always mind blowing.

I’ve been promising this blog post for so long (like most blog posts) and finally, here it is.

How to create your budget sheet

If you want to there are tons of free templates online, but to be honest, the easiest way to create your budget is in a spreadsheet, like Excel which is what we use.

Have a list of all your monthly income in one column and then all of your monthly expenses in another. The difference between the two is what you have left over (if it’s a positive amount), are short (if it’s a negative amount) or break even (if the amount is R0).

We use the same budget sheet every single month because the calculations stay the same and so do many of the amounts.

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What to include in your budget

It seems fairly obvious but I can’t tell you how many times Dan and I used to forget a certain expense and it sent us and our finances into a tailspin when it was paid.

My biggest tip for writing up your budget is this: go through your bank statements for the past three months and record every single thing. Every takeaway coffee, every amount of data bought, every quick little pop into the shop to buy bread and milk. You will be shocked at how quickly it all adds up.

Put everything into your spreadsheet, every single thing. Some of the line items we have:

Going out, individual spending (so our “fun money” each), kid’s extra murals, savings, account fees (so many people forget this).

Then there are things that don’t happen every month e.g. plane tickets, birthday presents, etc so we only put those in when we need to.

Something else to remember when writing up your family budget for the month is to check how many weeks are in the month because this will affect quite a few things like groceries and petrol.

How we assign an amount to each expense

This is where you need to set aside some time initially, which is a pain but if you want an accurate budget, it’s super important.

Some things are a set price like your cellphone contract, your bond or rent, school fees, etc. But some will vary which is why again, it’s so important to go through your previous bank statements. We went through 3 month’s worth and took an average amount spent per week.

A good example is groceries. We always thought that we spent about R2000 a week on groceries for our family. After going through our bank statements, we found out that it could actually go as high as R3000 a week when we started to include all those “quick” trips to the shops to “only” get bread and milk. On an average month, that’s a good R3000 – R4000 difference!

Once you have your average per week, you can work out how much you need to budget per month depending on how many weeks there are in your pay cycle.

So for example, if you spend R2000 a week on groceries and you’re in a 4 week pay cycle, you would budget R8000 that month for groceries (R2000 x 4 weeks). But if you were in a 5 week pay cycle your budget for that month would be R10 000 (R2000 x 5 weeks).

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A few last tips

Here are a few things we’ve learnt that have really helped:

• Check in weekly. Grab your coffee and your phones and update your budget with how much you’ve spent so far that month, it honestly takes 10min once you’re in the swing of things. For example:

• Check your bank statements every 6-12 months. We all know how prices have been increasing so it’s very possible that some of your expenses will go up, especially groceries and petrol. Things like insurance, school fees, etc. also change year to year. Going through your bank statements will ensure that you stay on top of this.

• Try to leave your frustrations at the door. I know, so much easier said than done but if you can keep your cool while doing your finances then that’s half the battle won.

• Work as a team. If you’re doing this budget with a partner, work together to find solutions where you’re coming up short or figuring out where to invest any savings.

Having a proper budget, one that you actively work on and stick to is honestly life changing. You know where your money is going, you have control over that. The amount of little surprises that crop up are minimal, if not none plus you and your partner are on the same page which changes everything and has such a positive knock-on effect on your relationship.

I know this may come across as quite overwhelming but take some time to digest it, read through it again and try to implement it. I promise you, you wont be sorry!

Family Budget Planner

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