Homemaking and Managing The Household Finances
Personal finance is probably one of my favorite topics and when I became a Homemaker I assumed the responsibility of managing our families finances.
Over the years the way I’ve managed and organized our finances have changed, from different applications and software to paper and pen and everywhere in between. Today I will be sharing how I have been managing our finances for the past two years.
Disclaimer: I am not a certified accountant or professional, I am just sharing what works for our family. Remember to research and discover different techniques that may work better for your family!
Our Budget
For budgeting I use Quicken software (You can read some previous articles I’ve written here, here and here). I will never stop professing my love for Quicken because it is:
Incredibly detailed
Easy to set up. The software even designs a budget FOR YOU when you link your accounts
Easy to personalize and adjust categories
Has monthly AND yearly budgeting capabilities
Has fantastic Youtube tutorials that help if you hit a snag
Is incredibly powerful outside of being an amazing budget tool. Cash flow, bill payments, calendars, tax forms… seriously.
Has no agenda. Literally nobody telling you HOW to arrange and manage your money. Quicken gives you the software and allows you to create a budget that works for you.
(Please note that I am NOT sponsored or endorsed by Quicken)
Quicken not only gives has your monthly budget but, as I mentioned above it also has your YEARLY budget which you can manipulate and change as you see fit. So not only can I work on our families budget for the upcoming month, I can change the amount in a category several months away when I know there will be an expected change.
As we near the start of a new month, I will go into our Quicken budget and ensure all our money has been allocated and is going SOMEWHERE. Maybe I’m changing it that month to send more into our sinking funds (located in Ally), maybe I’m looking at purchasing more in our brokerage account. (Fidelity) Or maybe it’s a busy entertaining month and I need to increase the amount of money in that budget category, regardless allllll the money is earmarked for something.
As we continue through the month I can easily adjust the amount in the categories. If I noticed a bill was higher or lower than expected I can change the amount and ensure either any remainder is reallocated or I take money from another category to cover the expense.
Cash Flow
I perform a cash flow and budget check daily, because I have control issues but also because in the past I’ve caught fraudulent charges before they had a chance to totally effect everything. But mainly control issues.
Here is how I calculate cash flow:
Total in Checking
- Total owing on AMEX
- Total owing on VISA
- Total owing on BUDGET (Quicken)
+ Remaining income for the month
- One month’s worth of expenses that I keep in Checking
= Negative or positive cash flow
Note: We pay off our AMEX and VISA each month in full.
Performing a quick cash flow gives me a great snapshot of where our finances are at this very moment and makes me feel warm and cozy.
Google Sheet and Tracking Accounts and Sinking Funds
I use a Google spreadsheet to keep track of our sinking fund categories, tax savings and a quick snapshot of our net worth (the total wealth of our household, taking account of all financial assets and liabilities).
Online Savings
We have 2 Ally accounts: General savings and one for tax purposes.
In our general savings we have
Sinking fund money (broken down in detail on our Google sheet) - we currently have 10 sinking funds.
Our “Banana Stand” (money used for misc random expenses)
Our Emergency fund (6 months)
In our tax savings we have:
Accountant fees
IRA savings for next year - We max out 2 IRA (one is spousal) on the 1st of January each year.
Possible tax savings we may have to pay
Property tax payments
As you may have guessed, each of these requires funding which is when we circle back to our Quicken Budget and ensure the correct amount of money is being saved each month to meet our financial goals.
And that my friends is all she wrote as they say.
If you have any questions or would like me to go in depth into one of the topics discussed please let me know! I’ll be happy to clarify or dive into the subject more!
