A New Budget, A New Attitude

Making a Budget for Nannies

A new year. A new decade. You have made your resolutions, your targets, and your goals. We want to continue with your financial checklist and get you to make some financial resolutions. It’s time to make a budget.

You need to know where the money you earn went and where the money you will make will go. Here's how to start.

Save Receipts:
The first step is to creating a budget is to keep a list of all the money you spend in a typical month. Save all of your receipts this month. Sort the receipts into groups such as: gas, food, clothing, movies, prescriptions, doctor visits, subscriptions, and examine invisible expenses, such as gifts and phone downloads.

Write Down Debt:
Get a spiral notebook, spreadsheet, or use spreadsheet software like the one we have made in the upper right hand corner (or Excel or Google Documents) and list the amount due, payment due date, amount of balances of accounts, and interest rates all of your credit cards, bank loans, car loans, mortgages, and school loans.

For a free copy of the sample Best Nanny Newsletter Personal Budget Worksheet as seen in the right corner of this post, simply email Stephanie@BestNannyNewsletter.com and she would be happy to email you one.

Make a Spreadsheet:
Next, make a spreadsheet listing fixed expenses and flexible expenses.

Fixed expenses are the bills you have every month or annually that do not change dramatically such as rent, mortgage, car payment, insurance, and utilities. Include items that require quarterly or yearly payments by dividing those costs by four or 12 to figure out their monthly cost.

Flexible expenses include purchases you can live without or change such as: clothing, dining out, and movie tickets. Add up your fixed and flexible spending and see what value is left.

Sum Up Your Income:
Subtract the sum of your fixed expenses and flexible expenses from your net salary (the amount you earn from your job after taxes). If your monthly spending is more than your income you will need to reduce spending.

When establishing a budget, keep a critical and realistic eye on your list of expenses. Be especially alert for habitual purchases like coffee. Notice how many of your purchases are emotional purchases of things that you want, rather than well considered needs.

Live Within Your Means:
To help curb your desire to overspend remember that the people you work for make more money than you do and you cannot spend as they do. Your employers may have a more expensive car, a bigger home, more clothes, and overall more possessions. They can afford expensive vacations and nicer cars. Don’t covet their expensive items. You don’t need a Louis Vuitton or Coach bag, the Mediterranean vacation, or entertainment systems the family you work for own. You do not impress anybody buying like your boss or imitating wasteful spending. It does you no good to pile up unneeded stuff. Instead, seek to be calm, serene, happy, and loving while living within your means.

If you are seeking to save money for some goal, (such as an education, a home, a car, a trip to Europe, or for retirment), searching for a better sale may not get you closer to your objective. The only way to really save money is not to spend it.

Before buying, ask yourself if this purchase will make me happier or more serene or will it only make me poorer.

Tomorrow: Who to Pay First
What tips do you have for nannies needing to plan a budget?