How to Start a Budget -

Managing family economics is no breeze. However well you’re doing financially, there’s never enough to do everything you want to for your loved ones, and many young families struggle to balance even the basic necessities against their income. Kids, pets, a house, all come with sudden and unexpected costs, and if you’re constantly living on the edge then stress will add to your difficulties.

Rather than waiting for these problems to arise and dealing with regular costs on an improvised basis each day, you can take a lot of weight off your shoulders by making a financial plan that accounts for your incomings, your outgoings, unexpected bills, and long-term plans. Setting out some spending principles and making the numbers add up in advance can free a whole lot of headspace – and cash – to use on more fun things.

However, for many of us the idea of setting up a budget is pretty intimidating. It can be motivating to think of it not as a set of numbers, but as a roadmap to security, to holidays, to the best household you can have. And indeed, that is how to begin: list some aims – your dreams and also concrete targets for the next three months, year, and three years. The rest is about making the figures match what you need, and what you want.

Fortunately, there’s a helping hand on standby to guide you through the various steps needed to complete the task. A new infographic from OnStride provides simple, no-nonsense instructions on how to get back in control of your finances with a serious family budget. Their website also contains some other tools, such as an Annual Budget Planner and Budget Calculator, so you needn’t feel like you’re grasping to remember maths lessons from back in the day! Taking time to get your budget in order now will give you a lot more room to breathe through bad times and the good.