The Family Budget

Let me start this post on budgeting by saying I am no finance expert. The point of this blog is to share things we do in our home that keep us on track in life and point us to the Lord. A budget is one of these things, and it is a foundation for so much! So many couples we know do not have a budget or fight about money, or do not even share their money like a family, they keep it separate. So here are my thoughts and tips on the Family Budget.

Why Would I Need a Budget?

If you have no plans in life and do not want to have any plans or goals in life, then you probably do not need a budget. However, if you would like to one day retire (or your spouse), pay for your children’s college, go on a vacation, give money to those in need, own your house, eat food, etc. A budget is a good idea. In general people spend what they make, so unless you are the actual creator of money, there is a limit to your ability to spend. So yes, to have any goals or plan in life, a budget is extremely helpful.

Where Does Your Money Go?

Family Manager

My role as the family manager requires so much, and if I do not slot out time for this role in my schedule I do not believe I would succeed.

Defining Your Role

I started this process by writing down what it meant to be a family manager, what is my job description. Here is what I came up with:

“The role of Family Manager: The family manager will develop and carry out strategies to accomplish short term and long term goals that are developed as a team by the CEO (husband) and manager (wife) of the household, using God as their ultimate source of wisdom and direction. The manager should encourage, inspire, and motivate the family to move forward together towards the the long term goals.”

Guest Post: Real Cost of Money

Part of household management is financial management. We work together on our finances in our house and work to be in agreement on our budget and plan, but my husband handles the bulk of the financial management since finances are his passion. He was kind enough to share some of his passion with us in the following post.

Real Cost of Money

The vast majority of Americans save the minimum percentage recommended for retirement or less of their income for retirement.  The rest is spent on “stuff”.  Stuff may refer to: a house (or two), a $30,000 car, electronic gadgets (+expensive contract in the case of Verizon/AT&T), a boat, or other things to fill a basement.  

It is easy to justify spending the vast majority of our income, because, we already saved for retirement (up to 15%).  This is based on the premise that we are going to work until we are 65 years old.  Rather than asking, do I have the money for this, a better question is: how much more do I have to work if I purchase this item.  I like to think of money in terms of time commitment rather.

Merry Christmas to your Kitchen

It is the Christmas season! Some years we exchange gifts, some we don’t . Some years I have a gift exchange or other ladies I want to get a small gift for. If you are looking for some ideas for small gifts, this is one of my favorite kitchen tools that is relatively inexpensive.

It is a manual food processor, the price runs ~$12-20. I use this to chop onions, carrots, peppers, garlic, nuts (does a fine chop), potatoes etc. It does a fine rough chop. I usually peel (if necessary) my vegetable, then cut it into big chunks to fit, put the lid on, pull the handle, and in a matter of seconds it is chopped! There are many manual food processors available. I recommend the pull/spin design as opposed to the “pump” design.

Merry Christmas!

Feeding the Freezer

It is 4:30, everyone is up from nap time, you are exhausted and your husband will be home soon… starving, and you have no plan for dinner. Do you:

1. Call him and ask him to pick up some take out
2. Slap some PB & J together and call it good
3. give the kids some play dough and whip up a quick 30 minute meal
4. Take a meal out of the freezer and make a side to go with it

Every answer is the right choice, that is assuming your family is enjoying meal time, remaining healthy, and you are staying in budget. If you are struggling to get dinner on the table, or your budget is tight, or your health is suffering etc. freezer meals may be one step in the right direction. 

Kids in the Kitchen

Since we are a team and life is a classroom you will often find my little ones helping me in the kitchen. Working together also makes cooking fun, well usually. While I would also like to say it improves the eating habits of my children, I am not so sure. I have 2 very picky eaters–they only eat bread and dessert. Maybe their eating preferences would be even worse if they were not helping me and experiencing all this culinary excitement, maybe they would cut out the bread and just go to straight desserts?? Who knows.

My daughter rolling out dough at age 4

Either way, they love helping and I think it is great experience for them and quality time for us (plus if they are with me helping, they aren’t making a mess while I work). My children usually joined me in the kitchen around 18 months. They would get a tall step stool and help me dump ingredients into a mixing bowl, occasionally I would let them stir, but that didn’t usually work out too well until they were almost 2 or older.

My 18 month old on his step stool, ready to help

Whenever I am in the kitchen cooking I will hear stools and chairs being pushed up next to where I am. There is joy found in the kitchen when we work together. Start small and progress from there; as your children show maturity you can increase their responsibilities. Here is a summary of what my children help with when we cook:

The Memory Box

My children are always developing their skills and creating artistic masterpieces. I love to look at them and see my children grown and learn, but the amount of masterpieces created is a little overwhelming, especially from 3 budding artists! So what’s a loving mother to do?

Here is what happens to these beautiful creations in our house:

1. Masterpiece is shown to daddy and possibly taken with him to his office
2. Masterpieces that don’t make the daddy cut are displayed in a designated area (ours is in the play room using the Ikea curtain wire and clips, which can be found on Amazon)
3. Once the display is full my children sit on a chair surrounded by their masterpieces while I snap a photo
4. Extra special masterpieces are saved for The Memory Box, not so special pieces go in the garbage (usually during quiet time)
5. Photos taken of the child and masterpieces are printed and put either in their photo album or join the extra special masterpieces in the memory box
6. Start over at #1

My son surrounded by some of his masterpieces

The Memory Box

This can take whatever form you want. Maybe a shoe box for each child that they decorate, or a large tote if you want to keep larger items (not just artwork) in the box as well. I just started using a portable file box. You can find these boxes in varying sizes and styles. Each child has their own file in the box for their masterpieces.

I keep our memory box tucked away somewhere to look at on special occasions. Looking back at their creations is a great way for them to visually see how they have grown and changed and what they have accomplished. Looking back also brings fond memories and can re-teach lessons already learned.

 

Keep the Pantry Stocked

I was making cookies the other day and I ran out of vanilla, so I walked over to my pantry expecting to find my extra bottle there when I was disappointed to find I was completely out. My system had FAILED! Let’s just blame someone else in my family… they must have forgotten to mark vanilla on the shopping list!!!! The goal of a stocked pantry is to never run out of what you need.

It is frustrating to need vanilla, sugar, flour, oatmeal, baking powder, or any other ingredient and be out. When I add a new favorite recipe to our list (like my favorite Granola), I make sure I have a 2 of everything. My granola recipe uses Real Maple Syrup, so when I started making it I bought 2, 1 to use and 1 for the pantry. When the 1 I’m using runs out I get the one out of the pantry and then I MARK MY SHOPPING LIST! This is where my vanilla shortage problem was. If you use the vanilla from the pantry and never mark the list you will eventually run out, completely out!

So the next time you need a spice, onion soup mix, brown sugar, vinegar, or other item you use regularly, buy 2- 1 to use and 1 to replace it. Every time you grab your back up from the pantry, mark your grocery list. If you do this you will never be missing an ingredient again… well hopefully not.

If you find a sale on these items, buy more than 1, maybe even stock up if it is a great sale! Just remember, when you start to run low, or grab that last bottle/bag, mark your list!

Working the Sales

Part of my job is staying within our grocery budget, while that isn’t always easy there are a few things I use to assist me.

1. Have a Meal Plan
2. Create a Shopping List
3. Cook in bulk and use the freezer
4. Work the sales (can relate directly to #3)

There are groceries that every family uses often. For example, my husband loves a particular kind of whole grain loaves of bread, we also used canned tomatoes in a lot of recipes. We watch these items and when they go on sale, on a GREAT sale, we stock up. You should be watching the prices regularly to know what a great sale is. For example a $1 off a loaf of the bread we get is okay, but 50% off is great. When this happens we typically buy 5-10 loaves. When Cheerios get down to a certain price we buy everything on the shelf.

How do I know what a good price is?

If you do the grocery shopping regularly, start looking at the prices and keep a mental note. If you want to get really good at tracking prices you could write them down, but that would really be a time investment, and time is money. As long as you know how much they generally go on sale that should be enough. When you see the prices drop lower than that, stock up.

What items should I look for?

I would recommend only doing this for items you use regularly and items you know how to store long term. For example, we use Tahini for making hummus, but I sure don’t use it regularly enough to buy 10 bottles when it goes on sale. Here are items we commonly buy in bulk when on sale:

• Bread (freeze)
• Shredded Cheese (freeze)
• Fresh Fruit (Chop and freeze for smoothies)
• Meats (cook and freeze or freeze individually raw)
• Any shelf stable item that you use regularly (i.e. chopped tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, beans, cheerios, pastas, rice, flour, grains etc.)

How often should I do this?

We leave enough margin in our budget that I can get what is on my list and stock up on anything on sale. The number one way to save money is to make a budget and STAY ON BUDGET, so if you haven’t put any margin in your budget, either up your budget OR cut back on other items so you can stock up when items go on sale. The goal is to never pay full price for items that regularly or occasionally go on sale. 

Keeping a Clean House

Lets discuss another one of my many roles, The Maid. The efforts I go to on this one are mostly for me more than anyone else, I have a higher level of “clean” than others in the house. I consider a clean house important for various reasons:

• Overall feeling in the house is calm
• Allows everyone to find what they need when they need it
• I’m not embarrassed when people stop by
• We are more likely to invite company over
• Minimize things like mold, mildew, bugs, mice and other pests
• Minimize temptations for the dog to chew on

While I believe having a clean, tidy house is important, I try to remind myself that it doesn’t have to be perfect. It is more important to me that I spend time with my family than perfecting my house.

So when do I do all this cleaning and tidying? I start with a schedule: Cleaning Plan. I keep this schedule posted right above my shopping list and schedule for the week inside my pantry door. I’ve been doing this schedule long enough that most days I don’t need to look at it, but sometimes life gets busy or I can never remember what “swing day” I’m on, so it is nice to have posted. Now that I’m used to the schedule I also don’t follow it exactly. I usually do things when I have time. For example, on preschool days, most my morning schedule is pushed back to afternoon etc.

Where to get started:

1. Pick a schedule that works for you. Use the one I posted or check out google or pinterest for other ideas, edit the schedule to meet your needs. I love my schedule because I have 2 days off a week (except for the daily items) and it’s not overwhelming! It is enough to keep my home very clean and tidy without spending hours cleaning on any day.