Page 17 - Book3E

Measuring Your Current Progress
Budgets are seldom effective if they are not written down. Successful businesses rely on specific, written budgets. Individuals and families should follow the same practice. A wise business owner wouldn’t consider spending money or hiring more people than originally estimated without evaluating whether or not those changes fit within the budget. Armed with the correct forms and an enduring determi- nation, you can quickly become competent at creating a successful household budget.
Let each household member contribute. With everyone participating, the budget will not only be more accurate, it will help you control family spending as well. The purpose of your plan should be to find the best road to improving your family’s finances.
Once you have established where your money is going each month, you are ready to establish a realistic budget. To do this, you will need two things:
1. Your Household Monthly Net Income. If you calculated this in Volume 2, you can find it on page 12. If you haven’t yet, use the information in Volume 2, pages 11-12 to calculate it now.
2. Your Household Monthly Expenses. This information is on the spreadsheet you created on page 6 of this volume.
Armed with this information, you can now use budget forms to create your budget. A set of budget forms is included in the back of this volume in the Appendix, beginning on page 72, to help you do this. Each form is two-sided.
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