Family budget plans need to lower your expenses but be realistic or they won't work

The main goal of starting a budget plan at the beginning is only to break even. After a 2 or 3 months after you are comfortable with what you are doing you can start working on having extra cash left over at the end of the month.

It doesn't matter how much you save at first just that you have succeeded.

Success is very important for you self esteem so at the beginning even if you only manage to save 10 dollars you can congratulate yourself in being successful.

Managing your money is just a matter of coming up with a household budget that is realistic in its approach to your personal finances or income. It will also require  you change your attitude towards how you deal with credit and spend money.

Sounds good but I have never found it that easy to put into practice. Every time I seem to have a money left over at the end of the month, something breaks down. 

What I did finally do is start to take a look at my overall expenses to see exactly where it was going. I started by first writing down every penny that I spent.

This part turned out to be the most beneficial thing I have ever down. I mean every expenditure including the small things like Friday night pizza, buying a stick of gum or cup of coffee.

After you have your list, look at your credit card and bank statements to see how much you much your debts are, right down to the penny.

Now here is the scary part, add up your debts for loans and charge cards and then add it to your list of what you purchased this month, subtract that from how much money you take home.

Now you can see where to start your budget and where you have to start cutting costs. Just take one step at a time and you will be more successful in the long run.

What else can you find - cheaper ways to do things

I don't want to eat spaghetti every night either, if that's what you are thinking. Saving money in the home is one of the hardest things to keep under control for families. You have no choice but to pay what ever price is set by the retailers. We have dedicated an entire idea section on this so that you can try different things to see what works for you.

First off lets look at you gas bill. How much are you spending on fuel that is really unnecessary. If you are in the habit of driving to the grocery store just to pick up one or two things and it is under 5 blocks - you should walk. Get your regular shopping down to once a week. You can do this by coming up with weekly meal plans.

After I started l paying attention to this kind of activity I was really surprised to find out how much driving I was really doing.

Not having the right kind of credit card will also set you back

If you are not using the right type of credit card you are loosing money. A friend of mine who works for the chase bank showed me how many benefits I was loosing because I didn't have the right type of rewards for my spending habits.

I was overly concerned with the interest rate and not getting the most out of it. Because of the amount of driving I was doing ( 4 teenagers with jobs and college) I needed a credit card with better gas rewards. for me it was the chase freedom points card, you can review this card here.

For my wife it was the discover more card review here, its one of the better shopping and gas rewards cards.

Really look at your cell phone bill

This is a huge expense that you probably can reduce with the right plan. If there is more than one cell phone in your home you really should be on a family plan. The best one is a At&t family cell phone plan because of the roll over minutes.