Household Budgeting by Rosie Titterington

A great big thank you to Rosie Titterington for presenting famiy budgeting. For more information or help, Rosie can be contacted rtitteri@gmail.com 

 Rosie’s background comes from the Dave Ramsey system, she has helped other couples and from former teacher and tutors.

 WHAT A BUDGET IS NOT Keeping track of what you spend just to avoid overdrafts. It’s not about balancing your checkbook or about being thrifty and bargain-hunting. There doesn’t always have to be deprivation, or punishment associated with budgeting and it IS NOT a way to control your spouse.

 A BUDGET IS A PLAN for spending by telling your money what to do instead of watching (or wondering) where it goes. It is spouses understanding/agreeing upon the plan and making a commitment to follow the plan! It also is a system or plan that can be revised when necessary

 WHY BOTHER you ask? Well, it may just save your marriage. It can help align priorities with spending to help you reach goals faster. Often times there can be less worry, stress, and guilt surrounding money issues and it is a great way to help your children understand the role money plays in all of our lives.  Having a budget can take you from carefully watching to consciously planning

HOW DO YOU START?

Step 1: Hold a committee meeting (aka – budget planning time, but stick with the term “committee meeting” – it’s disarming!) every month with your spouse. At this meeting, set up your budget for the upcoming month. If someone wants to change the budget mid-month, hold another meeting. You can used the attached example spreadsheet “Example Monthly Budget” or contact Rosie at rtitteri@gmail.com for help.

 Step 2: Adhere to the following Budget Committee Rules (from Dave Ramsey) - 

NERD RULES (the detailed oriented one, the one who started a savings account before he/she could read) 

• Make the budget draft beforehand. Then, bring it into the meeting, have your say, and shut up!
• This is a meeting, not a weekend summit. You’ve only got the free spirit’s attention for about 17 minutes.
• You have to let the free spirit mess with your budget! Gasp!

FREE SPIRIT RULES (the less detailed one, someone who might be able to tell you they spent about $20 but couldn’t tell you the exact amount).

• You must come to the meeting!
• You have to talk in the meeting. This means mature input.
• You need to change something on the nerd’s budget draft.
• You can never again say, “Whatever you want to do, honey.”

 Step 3: Make sure your budget is balances. That means that every penny that comes in is allocated to go somewhere. You can have broad categories like “savings” or really specific ones like “savings for college” or savings for new boat.” Just make sure that you each have some blow money (money you can spend on whatever you’d like) and a slush fund for those unpredictable expenses that will come up.

 Step 4: Use only cash and you will end up spending 12 – 18% less then if you used credit cards. Label one envelope for each budget category like groceries or clothing and fill each envelope with only the agreed upon amount of money. Once the money from the envelope is gone, it’s gone. You’ll have to wait until next month to fill it up again.

Advantages of using Cash ONLY – It will helps you stick to your budget. You spend less overall. Your kids watch and learn. These benefits ADDED TOGETHER make cash envelopes a superior system.