The Nanny Financial Corner

by Alice Shaffer @ The Financial Nanny

Getting Ready to Start a Budget
As I have mentioned, being a professional live in nanny has wonderful benefits and sometimes a downfall of falling into debt. I have been working with a budget lately and wanted to help others set one up so they can be as financially responsible.

Over the coming weeks, I am going to share with you how to set up a budget along with weekly homework assignments that help you get to the next step in making a budget.

This week we will gather money totals for everything - money coming in and money going out. I suggest getting a one subject notebook for your budget and keeping things together. We will eventually put the budget on a spreadsheet so that it will do the calculating for you.

Here’s what you need to get started:
For all of the following you need the amount due, payment due date, amount of loan/balances of accounts, and interest rates.
*Your last paycheck (preferably two) and a schedule of when you get paid (weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly, etc) with dates
*Credit card bills (most recent)- Visa, MasterCard, Sears, Discover, Kohl's - all of them
*Banking information - this includes checking, savings, money market, CDs, Savings Bonds including fees.
*IRA/401K/Brokerage account balances and information
*Insurance paperwork - car, life, health, pet, home/renter's, etc.
*Utilities –phone, cell, internet, cable/satellite, electric, rent, water/sewer, trash, and appliances etc
*Student loans or other personal loans
*Prescription & health care costs
*Subscription/Membership fees - Health club dues/fees, Netflix, union dues, etc
*Doctor/dentist visits

Daily living:
*Groceries, clothing, eating out, dry cleaning, salon/spa services, gas, snacks, bus/metro/subway/cab fares, movie rentals, concerts, purchase of music/DVDs/books/toys/birthday presents, pet supplies, magazine & newspaper subscriptions

Yearly/Semi Yearly expenses:

*car insurance, organization membership fees, conference fees, hotel fees, vacation, tuition, music/language lessons, charitable donations
*anything else that you pay for or collect interest on

This is a large list of items to work on. I promise you that when we get this budget together, you will feel great about yourself.

Homework
In addition, to gathering the above information I would like for you to track ALL of your EXPENSES for this week. You can carry an index card and write down all cash/credit/debit purchases or write them in a notebook. This will help us figure out where you money goes and what kind of budget you need to work with.

If you want a spreadsheet to report them on, here you go Monthly Expenses

To find out other steps in setting up a budget please visit: http://www.thefinancialnanny.com/
Part 2: Setting up a Budget

Part 3: Putting everything into your spreadsheet