Planning family finances is scary for a lot of people. But planning family finances isn’t as complicated as many of us think.
First, before you make a budget or even open a savings account, you have to get your mindset right. Your relationship with money needs to change.
After I started reading FIRE resources, I realized that I was looking at money ALL WRONG. Money became something else entirely to me.
Instead of a means acquire things, it became TIME. Time that I could spend with my family or doing things I enjoy. It became a symbol of my work!
Below, I have curated some super quick and easy ideas to transform the way you think about money.
Read them and tell me if you agree or what you change or add!
Planning Family Finances: Your Relationship with Money
First, I am here to give you a little bit of tough love.
Without a plan, nothing will change.
From now on, you can’t look at money as something that you just trade for things.
Money MUST represent pieces of your life.
For example, a person working minimum wage makes about $7.25/hour. That means they have to trade 30 minutes of their life for 1 gallon of milk!
How You Use Money
Second, you have to think about how you’re currently using your money.
The best way to see where your money is going to track your spending.
Keep your receipts if you use cash. If you’re a card person, then you can use apps that connect to your bank and analyze spending patterns for you.
Once, I did this and realized we were spending about $150 at McDonald’s in a month!
Creating and Sticking to a Budget
First, budgets that work start the month before the one you are actually planning for.
Go back to those receipts or the app, and look at how much you spent in groceries, gas, etc and give yourself a DOABLE goal.
That means one that helps you save money but won’t make you feel deprived.
Second, think about budgets as fences instead of a rigid, unmoveable wall.
A fence gives you space and freedom to have fun, but it still protects you from going too far.
That’s what a budget needs in order to be doable, right? Keep you in the playing field, but lets you have fun in a responsible way.
Ready to get a bit dirtier when it comes to planning your family finances? Join my Facebook group, Money Savvy Mommas!
I just bought a budget planner. I know it’s going to be a challenge to start doing this, but I’m excited to make it a habit.
The habit part is the hardest! When I fall off the habit, it’s so hard to get back into it because I feel guilty.
Great tips. My husband has always calculated the cost of something in how many hours of work it cost.