Part 2: Setting up a Monthly Budget

I left you with some homework last week. To gather all the bills and income you have as well as writing down all the money you spend. Did you do it? If you did not-then work on it this week! If you did-awesome you can move on to step 2 in the process of making a budget.

I hope that you have gathered all your other expenses as well in your notebook.

This week we are focusing on your fixed expenses and flexible expenses. I have prepared a spreadsheet for you to enter your info into. This is on Google documents called Monthly Expenses. This is where your expenses from the past week go. You should be able to edit it and copy it into your own google documents account via gmail. If that doesn't work, let me know and I will try to help you another way.

1. Fixed Expenses: figure out from your list of expenses what is fixed. Rent, car insurance, cell phone bill, membership dues, etc. These are the items that don't change in amount due. Add these items up.

2. Flexible Expenses figure out from your expenses how much you spend weekly on flexible expenses: gas, groceries, clothes, eating out, entertainment etc. Tally up these expenses. You can then multiply this by four to get your monthly flexible expenses.

3. What is your monthly income after taxes? Include part time work if you earn that regularly a month.

4. Do your fixed expenses and flexible expenses cost more than your monthly income?

If your flexible/fixed expenses are more than your income, you need to work on cutting out some of your flexible expenses so that you have movement in your budget without drowning in further debt.

Next time we will put everything into a spreadsheet.

Remember to let me know if you are working along with the steps so that you are eligable for a giveaway. You must comment on the blog to be eligable.

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Financial Friday: Step 1: Getting ready to start a budget

As I have mentioned, being a professional live in nanny has wonderful benefits and sometimes a downfall of falling into debt. I have been working with a budget lately and wanted to help others set one up so they can be as financially responsible.

Over the coming weeks, I am going to share with you how to set up a budget along with weekly homework assignments that help you get to the next step in making a budget.

This week we will gather money totals for everything - money coming in and money going out. I suggest getting a one subject notebook for your budget and keeping things together. We will eventually put the budget on a spreadsheet so that it will do the calculating for you.

Here’s what you need to get started:

For all of the following you need the amount due, payment due date, amount of loan/balances of accounts, and interest rates

1. Your last paycheck (preferably two) and a schedule of when you get paid (weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, etc) with dates


2. Credit card bills (most recent)- Visa, Mastercard, Sears, Discover, Kohl's - all of them


3. Banking information - this includes checking, savings, money market, CDs, Savings Bonds including fees.


4. IRA/401K/Brokerage account balances and information


5. Insurance paperwork - car, life, health, pet, home/renter's, etc.


6. Utilities –phone, cell, internet, cable/satellite, electric, rent, water/sewer, trash, and appliances etc


7. Student loans or other personal loans


8. Prescription & health care costs


9. Subscription/Membership fees - Health club dues/fees, Netflix, union dues, etc


10. Doctor/dentist visits


11. Daily living:
    Groceries, clothing, eating out, dry cleaning, salon/spa services, gas, snacks, bus/metro/subway/cab fares, movie rentals, concerts, purchase of music/DVDs/books/toys/birthday presents, pet supplies, magazine & newspaper subscriptions,


12. Yearly/Semi Yearly expenses: car insurance, organization membership fees, conference fees, hotel fees, vacation, tuition, music/language lessons, charitable donations


13. anything else that you pay for or collect interest on
    
    This is a large list of items to work on. I promise you that when we get this budget together, you will feel great about yourself.
    

Homework

In addition, to gathering the

above information I would like for you to track ALL of your EXPENSES for this week. You can carry an index card and write down all cash/credit/debit purchases or write them in a notebook. This will help us figure out where you money goes and what kind of budget you need to work with.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Let me know if you are going to work on a budget along with me - there might be a special giveaway at the end of all these homework assignments.

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How to organize those receipts!

Over at Regarding Nannies, I published a post on a fun way to organize your receipts.

To read the article , A Fun Storage place for receipts & work notes

don't forget to pick up an accoridon file when you are done reading!

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So Very excited! Savings Savings and more Savings

Over at Regarding Nannies, they have gathered around 20 different direct sales companies to offer 10% off your total purchase and some even offer Free Shipping!

To celebrate being a professional nanny and National Nanny Recognition Week, please hop on over to NNRW Specials. Buy something for yourself, pass it along to your bosses, gift a little something for your nanny friends or nanny group. This is the time you can pick up a little bling to show off you being a professional nanny! Shop for the holidays!

Happy Shopping! Thank you everyone who has agreed to give nannies and those involved with nannies, a fun way to celebrate NNRW!

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