How are you able to afford that? Your going on vacation, HOW? You bought a new car, Really can you afford it? Oh and my personal all time favorite Are you sure you can homeschool your kid and afford it? Seriously, I am sure we all have heard questions like these and maybe rolled our eyes and thought None of your business.
We always put God first on our list though for us it still felt like we were sinking even though we really were not and then those questions started showing up a lot. I started thinking why now when we have always been asked that though lately a lot more. So I started digging and thinking about it, I love reading about financial guru's like Dave Ramsey they are great don't get me wrong though for our family it didn't work. On that note I will share some tips that has helped our family out and kept us on track, on that note here is tip number 1.
Make a household notebook.
This is a written document of what your household needs like items that need to be bought and projects that need to be done. Review your book weekly to add anything to it or mark off items completed.
When you are doing your household notebook include the following items
- Each household members
- Items needed-be specific
- sizes, dislikes
- Also include want items
- Doesn't include personal care items like deodorant, etc.
- Below is an example of what that should look like
- Household Projects
- Items you need to buy flooring, appliances, furniture, etc.
- Projects that need to be done; painting, repair, etc.
- include of phone numbers of people to contact
- prices
- Do a page for both inside and outside
- Refer to sample...I didn't include phone numbers here because many projects will be completed by us.
As you can see above my school and entertainment pages are a little sparse I will explain why in later time. For us, we have found that doing a book like this it has solved a lot of issues and everyone is on the same page. Believe me when you cross off items or get a lot of things crossed off everyone gets excited.