So I finally settled on doing a budget after doing much reading.
This is how the older budgets looked. They are set up in sections. Income, Payments on Debts, Savings, Shelter, Taxes, Operating Expenses, Special expenses. In the Shelter section and keep in mind this is based on the 1930s and 1940s, Rent, Mortgage, Taxes, insurance, improvements, repairs, transportation to businesses, which consider the time and they way they traveled. And other.
Operating expenses were electricity, gas, fuel, telephone, Garbage collection, water, ice (which was for their icebox as many did not have refrigerators), services, repair, furnishings, household supplies, laundry and other.
There is a food column and it goes up and down and has 31 numbers for the days of the month to list the total for groceries whenever you go to the store, then total that at the end of the month and bring it over to the summary.
I didn't do this very well here, it is just an example. This is the summary and you bring all the column totals over to this summary and then total and then add cash on hand from the first of the month, then income and total that. Then deduct the total expenses then deduct savings and you have your balance or cash on hand.
So I made my own book and put entries that reflect the time we live in today in sections. I did this in a spreadsheet on my computer.
The sections I added are Income, Debts which thankfully we don't have to fill in that column right now. Savings, Clothing and upkeep, Hair cuts etc, Medical/Dental, Shelter, Operating expenses, Transportation, Prescriptions, Insurance, Subscriptions (for Amazon, computer virus thing, etc), Lawn and Garden, Entertainment, Sewing and crafts (for fabric, yarn etc), and other catagory. Each section has a total at the bottom to tally the sections.
The second page has two 31 row sections, one is food and the other is household because I want to keep a record of just food then the other for toilet paper, soap toiletries etc. Under the food is pet food and care section then upper right hand side is the summary where I have listed each section so I can bring the totals over to the summary and do the tally.
This took me a lot of time to decide how to do a budget like 1942 while living in this current year. Having said all of this, we are only starting this budget so I left a section to write in things that I may have to add sections. I think this is going to work pretty good. I wanted to share this with you because there is quite a bit of interest in this.
You can do this with just a ruler and pen or pencil, you can add sections that you need for your household. We all live different and have different expenses. The main thing is to put it all down and deal with reality so we can be going in the right direction.
I feel we will save money better because this will completely hold us accountable where all of our money is being spent. And the best part is knowing where we can make changes to improve.
We already budget but not like this. We already read our electric and water meter daily and we keep records of that. With this budget I think it will be a good thing and I hope it inspires those of you that are wanting a new way to budget.
I am now in the process of working out foods from 1942 based on the grocery ads and I have a list already ready to print out so that is coming very soon.
Grandma Donna
