START BUDGETING BY PAYCHECK

Hi! Assalamualaikum. 

As working mothers, we do earn money. We can bring extra income to the table. But at what cost? Our money is being wiped out by high working-mom expenses like daycare, groceries, dining out and even laundry.  

That's why we should have a clear understanding of the money coming and going from our bank account. And BUDGETING is the best solution. 

To be honest, it is difficult to tell which budgeting method is right for us. I also had a big trouble with it at the beginning. But I think that creating a budget by paycheck is a good baby-step. I mean...yes, since the paycheck is the main source of our income right? So, we should start from there. 

Ready to start budgeting by paycheck? Here are the 5 steps to follow:

1. Grab a blank calendar

We can use a calendar printable, a monthly planner, or even a digital calendar. We  can also use a spreadsheet. 

This is the calendar I use to do my budgeting by paycheck

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Another sheet I use to jot down the details. 

2. Add our paychecks and bills to our calendar

Add all of our paychecks to the appropriate date on the calendar, along with the specific paycheck amount. Next, add our regular monthly bills to their due date on the calendar. Regular monthly bills include our fixed expenses such as rent, insurance, debt payments, etc.

Not all amounts were written here. The details go to another sheet. 

Jot down the amounts of all incomes depending on how often we're paid monthly. 

3. Tally up our total expenses

Calculate our monthly variable expenses such as groceries, eating out, gas, and entertainment. If we aren’t sure how much we normally spend, go through our last few months of bank statements and find an average.

We can also divide our variable spending up into multiple expenses. If we normally grocery shop once per week, we can add grocery spending to our calendar as a weekly expense rather than accounting for the whole month at once.

This is an easier sheet to  make sure we write all expenses in a month.

4. Include savings and sinking funds

Ideally, we’d be putting money aside each month to fund an emergency fund and also, sinking funds. There’s no specific date that we have to fund these, but choosing a consistent date can help us stick to our savings habit. We can even use an automatic transfer to really commit.

This simple table will help us to have savings.

5. Assign each expense to a particular paycheck

We can use multiple highlighters to color code our calendar. Highlight each expense in the same color as the paycheck we’ll use to fund it. 

Mine is not so colourful and packed. I'm not too creative. Hah!

These two basic worksheets really help me a lot with my budgeting by paycheck. It is either we're paid once a month, weekly or biweekly, paycheck budgeting can be a good way to stay involved with our finances. 

So, let's do this! To know more about this, just click here. 

Wallahu'alam.