Saving Savior: Tips to Keep Your Family on the Budget
Friday, September 12, 2014, 1:00 AM | Leave Comment
Managing a family budget can be a headache for many people. With so many demands on one or two incomes, it can be difficult to budget for housing, transportation, health insurance, food, entertainment, and life’s many other expenses.
The following guide provides effective tips and tricks on how to manage a family budget.
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Start With a Plan
The best way to manage a family budget is through proper planning. Without adequate planning, it can be difficult to even know where to begin with the bills.
For many, spending is closely tied to income. Even families with six-figure incomes may end up in situations where wage earners are living one paycheck at a time.
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Build a Budget
To create a budget, write down all your expenses for a one month period.
This includes electricity bills, health insurance premium, home insurance premiums, mortgages, education-related costs, vehicle payments, vehicle insurance, life insurance, cable bills, Internet subscription bills, and cell phone bills.
These are known as recurrent expenses. Since they usually remain the same each month, there’s not much that a family can do to minimize these costs.
However, it is possible to consolidate entertainment-related costs. Instead of having satellite or cable TV, a single high-speed Internet connection can be a great choice for many families.
There are a wide variety of devices that can stream music, television shows, movies and news over the Internet.
You can also talk to a Vancouver commercial insurance agent to see about lowering the regular cost of your insurance.
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Extra Bills
Once you’ve added up all the recurring costs in your household, it’s time to add up all your non-recurrent costs.
While many of these items are very important, the amount that a family spends on them can vary based on a wide variety of different things.
Non-recurrent costs include food, gas, unexpected medical bills, entertainment, restaurant visits, vacations and discretionary spending.
While medical bills can be expensive, there are several ways to reduce their impact on a family’s budget. Underwriters Insurance Brokers (BC) Ltd suggests trying to sign up for a low-deductible health insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
These plans are often subsidized to reduce monthly costs. If a family has a household income of less than $70,000, it’s often possible to qualify for subsidies.
With a low-deductible health insurance plan, there’s no need to worry about excessive medical costs in the event of an emergency.
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Shopping Smart
Healthy, delicious food doesn’t have to be expensive. Instead of purchasing prepared food products, try to cook more food from scratch.
The price of many food products is based on how it is prepared. For example, a frozen whole chicken will be significantly cheaper than a rotisserie chicken in most grocery stores. Use coupons at your local grocery to keep costs down as well.
When you have a smart shopping plan, saving can become so much easier.
Staying on track with a family budget can seem daunting at first, but when you know where to look, you can cut costs and save money.
Just do a little extra planning and make sure everyone is committed to keeping the family under the budget.
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