Creating A Family Budget

Nov 14, 2012 by Megan Snook

Having a family and maintain all the day to day needs is a job in itself. I think the hardest job is having a family and taking care of all their needs, which need to be met. With a family there are more area in which you need to budget for and plan head for. When you have children you need money for their doctors, school, clothes, food, college, vacation and any extras. Which we all know their will be extras. I have come up with a few areas in which you need to budget for, when on a Family Budget. We all know about rent, bills, food and savings, but when you have a Family there are more areas to budget for.

Life Insurance

Life insurance is need because if anything should happen to the parents, their children will be taken care of. Life insurance does not have to be a great cost. You can use life insurance to benefit you and your families financials. Life insurances is small, if you considering the benefit it could bring for your family.

Healthcare

When you have a family there are many medical needs, which can be very costly to you. If you invest in a healthcare plan you will be able to save money and not be caught off guard with a large medical bills. Healthcare is beneficial for you and your family. You can budget in a healthcare plan for your family, to help with medical bills.

Medical Bills

When you have children they are a great expense in the begin. When you have a baby in hospital it can cost anywhere for ten thousand dollars to fifteen thousand dollars. If you budget for this you will not be in debt after your baby is born. You can have a healthcare plan which will also, help with the cost of having a baby.

Education

As with any parent, you want to see your child succeed in school. Some parents choose to home school, which is a great cost. You have to provide the curriculum, paper, pencils and books. If you decided to send them to private school you will pay for their tuition, uniforms and books. This could be costly, but if you can budget for a private school education it can be affordable. If it in the family budget than you know you can afford it. If you choose to send your children to public school all you have to pay for is their school supplies. Which ever way you choose to educate your children, remember to place it in the family budget.

College fund

When we look into the future, we know there will be a great expense in sending our children to college. I was in a program once where we taught the parent to save two dollars a week, for the child's college fund. If they did this for the child's whole life in the end they would have saved up a hundred thousand dollars for their college fund. If you start saving when they are young, than you can have a college fund for them. When they are ready to go to college it will be affordable. Placing a college fund in your family budget will help you save for your child's future.

Clothes

When you have a family, they are always growing and changing. You see this in the day to day. Children are continually needing bigger clothes and the cost of kids clothes are expensive. If you budget for your kids clothes, there will be money set aside for you to go buy clothes. When you do buy your kids clothes, try to buy a bigger sizes for them to grow into. Find other mothers who have children who are old than yours to borrower clothes from them. If you budget for it, than you will have money for it.

New Cars

When having a family you are always out growing the family car. If you put in your budget to save for a new family car, than you will have the funds when you need them. I came from a large family and we had to have larger vehicles to transport all of us. Smaller cars are less expensive, but you may need more than a five-seater. This can be costly. Remember when buying a new car to have extra seats for friends or family. If you place a new car in your budget, you will be able to buy one when the old family car does not work.

Emergency fund

An emergency fund is where you save money for emergencies. When you have a family you can't always predict the future or when you may need to have some extra cash. An emergency fund could help cover the cost, if you or your spouse is laid off from work. You will have some money to get by with till they can find a job. This is a great thing to place in a family budget, because it will give you a little financial security. If you have an emergency fund in your family budget you will have a little extra money to fall back on.

Pets

All young children want a family pet, but pets can be expensive. If you do have pets you know they need to go to the vet, get grooming, have food and their toys. Pets can cost money to keep and raise with a family. If you budget in the cost of a pet then you will be ready to take care of your pet's needs.

I hope these tips have helped you to create a better family budget. If you have any other budget tips let me know, so we can all achieve a stress free financial life.

Comments

Rudolf

09/12/2013 2:31pm

Yeah. I mean, let's face it, when it comes to proof of imminent end-of-the-world, "There shalt be war in the Middle East" is, as paochrpy, right up there with "There shall be divorces in Hollywood" and "There shall be long lines at the check out counter when thou art realy, really, in a hurry".

cheap car insurance in nj

09/13/2013 10:55am

free quotes car insurance in Illinois

09/15/2013 1:17am

Stick with the wet food if you can. The dry can cause Urinary infections and crystals in the urine. (it sucks the moisture from your cats body, which is also why most cats on dry food drink lots of water) Also can cause other health issues and (hairballs) but I won’t go into that whole long schpeel. (I have experience working as a vet assistant and working for a pet nutrition store)Most dry food is cooked and processed so many times that most of your proteins and extra vitamins and minerals are cooked down (leaving very little “nutrition”)Also, if you look at most dry foods, the first few ingredients are normally corn, rice or some other ingredient that isn’t MEAT. Your cat is a carnivore, it needs meat.STAY AWAY FROM SCIENCE DIET!! ITS ALL CORN NO MEAT! (look on the label if you don’t believe me {starch was the first ingredient on some of the ones I looked at}) (Vets only recommend this stuff because their “nutrition” class in vet school is (Optional) and only an 8 hr course. And guess who teaches the class????? The Hills company that owns Science Diet….go figure right? Also VARIETY VARIETY VARIETY! That is key to keeping your cat allergy free, try to mix up your protein source as often as possible (even switching brands all together every now and then is a good thing). (Good for wet and dry foods)The more of one protein you push on the animal, the more likely it can develop an allergy to that protein.If you decide against the “all wet” diet, then look for a dry food that has the first ingredient as a MEAT (NOT A BY PRODUCT OR A MEAL) They always try to throw you off with (Beef Meal) Its not the same! Example of what you want; (Beef, chicken, tuna, salmon) (Don’t feed too much fish though because of all the mercury. Limit to like 1-2 cans of fish a week at most)NOT; (Beef meal, Beef by-product or beef by-product meal)A “Meal” is just the protein (ex. chicken) that is cooked down so many times that it turns into a liquid, then it is added to the dry and cooked again and again and again, then added in vitamins at the last stage. So how good can that be?And a “By product” or “by-product meal” Don’t even get me started. (by-products are parts of the animal {yes clean} but not what you (yourself) would want to eat) (Feathers bones and other gross stuff) why feed that to a cat? Or dog for that matter?This “Meal, By-product and by-product meal” is “Alright” as a second or third ingredient in the food, because the cats do get SOME by-products in the wild. As long as it’s not the first ingredient and the first ingredient is a GOOD source of protein, you’ll be good to go.If you are concerned about budget, when I was on a tight budget, my cat lived on canned Friskies. (They come in large cans too) and depending on where you live, they offer that at .99 cent stores (bought for .89 cents a can but you’re limited flavors) and they are very affordable at Wal-Mart and petco.If you go with the dry food, avoid “free feeding”(They aren’t goats or cattle), this causes obesity and other health issues. Your cat should eat when you put the food down and whatever isn’t gone within 30mins, is food for the next feeding. The better the food, the longer happier and healthier life your kitty will have.As far as litter goes. I get the clumping multiple cat with the fresh scent. (Scoop away or tidy cats) There is also a cheaper good litter by “Priority” I don’t know if it’s available everywhere, but its very cheap, clumps great, but has a tendency to be a little dusty, so wait a bit after you first dump the litter in the cat box (if its enclosed).Hope this info helps you!

insurance car free

09/19/2013 3:45am

About cat litter, if it’s not a kitten anymore get the clumping kind, best without any fragrance, cats have sensitive smell and could refuse to go to the box if they don’t like it.As for the food, I wouldn‘t really recommend feeding any dry food. Cats are designed to get their water from food. That’s the way nature designed them, they have low thirst drive. When fed dry, they won’t drink enough to compensate for the lack of moisture. They will only consume about 50% of the water they should be having. This can lead to kidney disease, UTI, crystals, blockage, renal failure and more.Free feeding also contributes to obesity. And the fact that dry food is over-processed means, that most of it’s little nutrition has been already destroyed, leaving almost no nutrients for your cat. It needs to eat more to meet it’s needs, and in the process consumes more calories from the fillers.Btw wetting the dry food will not help. There’s bacteria on the kibble and the water would just allow it to grow.The only way to give the cat it’s natural hydration is to feed it wet food only.But some wet foods are not of a very high quality, either. That goes for most commercial foods. Just like the dry, they are often made with cheap fillers such as corn, wheat, soy, rice etc. These are not a part of cat’s natural diet (it’s an obligate carnivore – it eats meat) and they are not designed to digest it. Grain is carbohydrate which the cats can’t process and it turns into blood sugar and fat, causing diabetes and obesity. In the wild, where cats only hunt for meat, diabetes and obesity are unheard of. It’s us who cause these by feeding a species inappropriate food.We usually read labels on our food, but rarely on the food for our cats. Learn to read the label and understand the ingredients. The healthiest food to feed apart from raw feeding is grain-free wet food with no by-product. Some good brands are Wellness CORE, EVO, Merrick, Nature’s Variety, Blue Buffalo Wilderness and more. Good Budget food would be Petsmart’s Authority. These will give your cat the proper hydration and nutrition it’s designed to get and it will be strong and healthy.If you switch it’s diet, do it gradually, by mixing the current food with the new one over couple of weeks until there’s only the new. This will prevent diarrhea and upset stomach.You will probably get a lot of different answers, so google feline nutrition or look at the links below, and do the research for yourself. I personally wasn’t able to find one reliable source (besides the pet food industry) that would say grain is beneficial for cats or that dry is beneficial for them.More on cat nutrition below, Good luck!

how to order cialis

09/22/2013 9:02am

The best food and on a budget=almost impossible.The best food is Blue Buffalo (found in Petco, Pet Supplies Plus, etc..) It’s the best because it’s natural, the first ingredient in the food should be a meat not a meat by product. This food has natural ingredients such as chicken, fish, cranberries, potatoes, carrots, etc… It will keep your cat healthy for a long time whereas food like fancy feast (great for a budget) will not promote a healthy cat because there are many by products and chemicals and artificial ingredients as well as a lot of grains that are not healthy for a cat. Foods like fancy feast or anything big name brand which often has by products keeping costs down are very unhealthy for your cat. It’s like giving your cat McDonalds or TV Dinners every night whereas giving them a natural food like Blue Buffalo or Wellness is like giving them a home cooked meal. Best litter in my opinion is Fresh step with crystals. It does have some dust when you shift it but it covers smell really well as opposed to Tidy cat. I find people who use tidy cat have smelly homes and when I gave it a try I did to. Tidy cat made my house smell because the litter itself kind of smelled. I like fresh step and if you have a bjs membership you can get it there 40 pounds for about $15 and for one cat that’s a good deal I have four adopted cats and Fresh step works great and Blue Buffalo=they love it. I used to give them fancy feast and other cheap foods you can get at bjs but they all ended up having bloody stools from it, once I started them on wellness and blue buffalo they were better in one day.

cheapest auto insurance provider

09/26/2013 1:57am

The best food is the food your cat likes. No, I am not being silly, just a realization that your cat is the decider, and your opinion doesn’t matter. If your cat doesn’t agree, it won’t eat.Look for meat as the first ingredient, and meat products high in the descending order. A quality food pays off in lower vet costs. I am giving you a link to an article from the Cornell Vet school on how to evaluate cat foods.Your cat doesn’t need variety; quality is the most important criteria.Oh, you notice I didn’t state a particular brand. That’s because what works for mine may not be liked by your cat.And any changes in the food should be done gradually, over perhaps a week to avoid tummy upsets.For litter, most people use clumping litter, and I shop the sales and use coupons, but buy brand name litter. I have quite a few cats, so multiple litter boxes, and I use several different brands. Two of the most used are Tidy Cat (red label) and Arm & Hammer.

cheap car insurance quotes onine now i have no phone

09/26/2013 3:35am

These i-bankers have been understating the whole credit crisis issue since last summer.The higher mortgage bond weighting in Bill Gross' portfolio is likely a reflection of the extreme mispricing in those assets rather than an indication of the end of the financial storm. In fact, the housing market is still in the midst of a huge wave of foreclosure which will for sure depress housing prices even further. This will of course adversely affect the US economy substantially. In the next few months we will see the real impact of financial markets' bad news on main street America. Anything the cat will eat…my cats like stinky smelly stuff. I use storebrand, especially Giant store, dry food and canned. They have a generic looking can for 25cents! The storebrand includes “natural”/”organic” varieties…probably made at the same plant using same recipe as the name brand. I also buy friskies canned food on sale(40 cents a can not 48 or 49 cents) Provide fresh water also…change water 2x a day. Litter, I prefer white clay, again store brand. (Target, walmart, kmart dollar general) Dollar tree offers 7pounds for $1, it’s gray and turns to mud but /w 1 cat it would probably be fine( I Have 16 cats now) Stick /w unscented to avoid allergies/breathing problems for you and the cat. remove solid waste asap, at least once a day and change litter weekly. Enjoy the cat!

Anaz

10/17/2013 11:26pm

Stick with the wet food if you can. The dry can cause Urinary infections and<a href="http://aarkgaom.com"> cylatsrs</a> in the urine. (it sucks the moisture from your cats body, which is also why most cats on dry food drink lots of water) Also can cause other health issues and (hairballs) but I won't go into that whole long schpeel. (I have experience working as a vet assistant and working for a pet nutrition store)Most dry food is cooked and processed so many times that most of your proteins and extra vitamins and minerals are cooked down (leaving very little nutrition )Also, if you look at most dry foods, the first few ingredients are normally corn, rice or some other ingredient that isn't MEAT. Your cat is a carnivore, it needs meat.STAY AWAY FROM SCIENCE DIET!! ITS ALL CORN NO MEAT! (look on the label if you don't believe me {starch was the first ingredient on some of the ones I looked at}) (Vets only recommend this stuff because their nutrition class in vet school is (Optional) and only an 8 hr course. And guess who teaches the class????? The Hills company that owns Science Diet .go figure right? Also VARIETY VARIETY VARIETY! That is key to keeping your cat allergy free, try to mix up your protein source as often as possible (even switching brands all together every now and then is a good thing). (Good for wet and dry foods)The more of one protein you push on the animal, the more likely it can develop an allergy to that protein.If you decide against the all wet diet, then look for a dry food that has the first ingredient as a MEAT (NOT A BY PRODUCT OR A MEAL) They always try to throw you off with (Beef Meal) Its not the same! Example of what you want; (Beef, chicken, tuna, salmon) (Don't feed too much fish though because of all the mercury. Limit to like 1-2 cans of fish a week at most)NOT; (Beef meal, Beef by-product or beef by-product meal)A Meal is just the protein (ex. chicken) that is cooked down so many times that it turns into a liquid, then it is added to the dry and cooked again and again and again, then added in vitamins at the last stage. So how good can that be?And a By product or by-product meal Don't even get me started. (by-products are parts of the animal {yes clean} but not what you (yourself) would want to eat) (Feathers bones and other gross stuff) why feed that to a cat? Or dog for that matter?This Meal, By-product and by-product meal is Alright as a second or third ingredient in the food, because the cats do get SOME by-products in the wild. As long as it's not the first ingredient and the first ingredient is a GOOD source of protein, you'll be good to go.If you are concerned about budget, when I was on a tight budget, my cat lived on canned Friskies. (They come in large cans too) and depending on where you live, they offer that at .99 cent stores (bought for .89 cents a can but you're limited flavors) and they are very affordable at Wal-Mart and petco.If you go with the dry food, avoid free feeding (They aren't goats or cattle), this causes obesity and other health issues. Your cat should eat when you put the food down and whatever isn't gone within 30mins, is food for the next feeding. The better the food, the longer happier and healthier life your kitty will have.As far as litter goes. I get the clumping multiple cat with the fresh scent. (Scoop away or tidy cats) There is also a cheaper good litter by Priority I don't know if it's available everywhere, but its very cheap, clumps great, but has a tendency to be a little dusty, so wait a bit after you first dump the litter in the cat box (if its enclosed).Hope this info helps you!

cheap car insurance n ireland

10/31/2013 8:00am

I didn't know where to find this info then kaboom it was here.

health insurance quotes online

11/02/2013 8:05am

Kudos to you! I hadn't thought of that!

cheapest auto insurance in PA

11/06/2013 10:44am

It's great to read something that's both enjoyable and provides pragmatisdc solutions.

low cost car insurance

11/08/2013 4:12pm

Thanks for sharing. Always good to find a real expert.