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.