If you are a new stay at home mom tracking your income and expenses is going to be vital for the financial stability of your family.
For my family even whenever I was employed I managed the family budget and still do.
However, since my husband and I decided that I would stay at home after our first child was born, it was extremely important to make sure:
- There was enough saved
- We did not overspend each month
- Don’t lose your cool since the household went from two incomes to only one income.
Let me tell you the last describes how a bit of anxiety could set in, especially for me, because I’ve pretty much worked all my life, so this was definitely new, but I also knew that I wanted to stay home with our new baby.
How To Track Income and Expenses For Beginners
Tracking what is coming in and going out is vital when it comes to paying bills, saving money, and having the ability to do extra things.
If you don’t know where your money is going it would be almost impossible to do what you need with your money plus save it.
Related Budgeting:
Keeping track of your income and expenses, will relieve any money stresses, and trust me when I say money stresses as a new stay at home mom, is a different kind of stress level.
First, keep it simple, the objective with budgeting is making sure that ends meet at the end of the month while doing the ACTION of saving.
Emergencies come up for everyone and having money set aside is freedom from stress and anxiety.
The best two ways to manage your budget is either with pen & paper or electronically; like an excel spreadsheet or money managing app.
Let’s face it, trying to manage your budget in your head does not work well at all.
It is not humanly possible to remember every penny you or your spouse spent on a daily or weekly basis.
Let alone remember how much every bill is due for the month.
As a new stay at home mom, management of the household can be a lot, so save yourself the future stress by writing it down.
The Stay At Home Mome That Likes To Write With Pen and Paper
Yup, I fall into this category. It’s something about taking the pen to paper that allows my brain to understand what’s going on with the household finances.
I do this in my financial planner along with additional budgeting sheets.
However, a three-ring binder or spiral notebook will work also.
The benefit of having your planner, binder, or notebook, is you can take it with you wherever.
Also, you don’t have to worry about losing it if the power goes out or your computer were to crash.
The Digital Stay At Home Mom
If you like spreadsheets, graphs, and formulas, then going the digital route may be best for you.
There is a lot of work upfront putting in the numbers, but afterward, it is quite efficient and worth the time it takes to add the income and expenses to the program.
This option allows charts to be created to help you put your income and expenses into categories which will help you know where you can make changes.
There are also apps that will do the same for you if you prefer to have that convenient access with you at all times.
Having an app would be handy if you spend a lot of money on eating out, quickly put the amount in the appropriate category which is helpful if you are forgetful.
Tracking income and expenses as a new stay at home mom, in the beginning, will require a bit of work, but the long term benefit is, good management of the finances equals stress and anxiety relieved.
What are some ways that you are managing your family finances, leave them in the comments below.
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