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Household BudgetHaving to deal with the financial realities of being disabled is almost as difficult as the disability itself if you are not prepared. How do you get prepared? By making a household budget. The first thing that you need to do in preparing a household budget is to make sure that you include your spouse. This needs to be a two party decision. Next, you need to identify every expense that you have on a yearly basis not a monthly basis. This is where a lot of couples go wrong. They forget to budget in their yearly expenses. What I found to be the best is to identify your expenses first yearly, then biyearly, then quarterly, and then monthly. Also, I found that the envelope system works the best for me and mine. Decide what you can and can not afford based on the income that you will have. Mutually agree with your spouse the items that need to be deleted from your budget. Remember that compromise is important. After figuring out your annual budget, you make envelopes for every item. Then each time you get your money, you put the proper percentage of money in the envelope so that when the bill comes, you have the money. Yes, this does take discipline. However, it is well worth it in my opinion. I know that not everyone will have the same expenses. Some of you will have a lot more money than others do in your disabilities. Take the information that is pertinent to your situation and use it wisely. For items that are paid yearly, you should put 1/12 of the money away each month. Items that can be paid yearly:
Many of the yearly items can also be paid biyearly or quarterly. It's up to the two of you to decide how you want to handle it. If you want to pay something biyearly, then you need to put away 1/6 of the total monthly. If you want to pay for something quarterly, then you need to put away 1/3 of the total monthly. Personally, I add up all of my yearly, biyearly and quarterly bills and divide the total by twelve and then place the monthly amount in a separate checking account. When the bill comes in I simply pay for it with that specific checking account. It works out wonderfully. Finally, there are the monthly bills. This is the hardest to handle because many of them are not fixed. For the ones that aren’t fixed, you must set an upper limit that you can afford comfortably that will keep you within your budget. The biggest culprit is food money. The two of you need to decide how much you are willing to spend monthly on food for your family and then divide it into the number of weeks in the month. Remember some months have almost 5 weeks in them. What I learned with food money is whatever you decide on, add about 20% to it. Becoming a coupon clipper and sale shopper can keep you within your budget. Note: holiday meals should be budgeted into holiday money. Utilities although not fixed can and must be capped by you. For instance, in the summer cool the house down with the air conditioner but then turn it off when you go to sleep. If your budget is going to work, you need to eliminate as many variables as possible. Limit time on the phone and water the garden just enough to maintain it. A budget is not an easy thing to set up and stick to. However, it will make everything more manageable and reduce your stress. Good luck.
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