HTML Preview Monthly Budget Calendar page number 1.
Credit Counseling Service of North Central Indiana
A Program of Family Service Association of Howard County, Inc
618 S Main
Kokomo IN 46901
Phone 765-454-7290
Fax 765-454-7294
”Building Strong Families”
PREPARING A HOUSEHOLD BUDGET
One of the most important items we can use to assist with household finances is a budget. Once
developed, a budget takes only a few minutes to maintain, and can make the difference between
financial success and failure. To be successful, the household budget must be used and reviewed on a
regular basis - say, once a week when you sit down to work on your bills. Revise and refine the budget
for the coming periods, and it will help to keep you on track financially.
Some notes about budgeting:
1. Always start working on next month's budget by the middle of the current month. Look and plan
ahead to be successful.
2. Remember that the budget is a spending and saving plan or goal. It will seldom be 100% accurate,
but should reflect a reasonable plan for the household.
3. It is generally easiest to develop your budget based on pay periods. Don't forget that if you are paid
weekly you will have an extra paycheck each 3 months. Those paid every other week will have an
extra check every 6 months. (The extra check does not, however, mean that you will have lots of
extra money! Depending on how your budget is set up, some expenses, such as food or gasoline
occur each and every week. Other expenses, like housing and utilities occur only once in each
calendar month.)
4. As you develop a budget, be honest with yourself. Over-estimating income or under-estimating
expenses will work against you. Adjust figures used in your budget to reflect accurate information
(if you guessed your electric bill to be $54 and it comes in at $74, go to your budget and adjust it.)
5. Don't forget to budget for those items that don't come up every month. These might include
insurance for home and auto, license plates and sanitation to name a few. To determine how much
should be budgeted, divide the projected expense by the period it covers. For example an auto
insurance policy of $180 that covers a period of 6 months would be budgeted at $30 per month.
6. There are a number of areas that are hard to assign a budgeted amount to, but are still important to
the success of a budget. Some examples might include: