Unless you are an accountant, you probably don't enjoy making a budget.  For years, I thought that family budget planning was for people who didn't have enough money to live the way they wanted and since I didn't want to be one of those people, I avoided budgeting as much as possible.  Then I realized that budgeting is important for everyone - even very wealthy people have a budget...that's probably part of the reason they are so wealthy!  

It's also a well-known fact that money, or the lack of it, is the biggest reason for marital problems and divorce.  There's nothing like money problems to put strain on a perfectly good marriage. 

If you are like I was and hate to have a budget, it's time to change your ways.  The first step in your family budget planning journey is to see what you are spending.  Hopefully you know the amount of your monthly rent or house payment, but do you have any idea what you are spending each week on coffee or snacks?  Many people don't!

Anyway, begin by seeing what you have coming in and what you have going out.  Take a small notebook with you and track every penny you spend for a couple of weeks. Have your spouse do the same thing.  

Next, make a list of all of your bills and all of the other spending that you do.  You should have a pretty good idea of what is going out.  Is it more than what is coming in?  

Once you know what you are spending every month, you are only partially done.  You've got to create a budget now that tells you how much you can spend each month.  My family made a family budget spreadsheet and plugged in everything that we spend.  Once we entered our monthly bills and other regular expenses like gas, food, etc. we added columns for other things that we need money for - including birthdays, Christmas, vacation, insurance deductibles, investing, etc.

Adding those extra items to your family budget is a very important step.  They are easy to forget, but a birthday or Christmas can really destroy your budget if you aren't saving for it.  

It will make you feel really in control to have it all written down, even if the numbers depress you.  Once you know what you are spending and what you are making, you can make changes and tweak your budget so that you can live without so much worry about budgeting.

When I put together our family budget, I found that I was spending more than what we were making. We were doing fine on a monthly basis, but when I added in extra spending like Christmas and birthdays, I was getting out of control.  Knowing this allowed me to do something about it.  I decided not to buy Starbuck's coffee any longer - my husband starting taking lunch to work at least four days a week.  It's not always fun to make those decisions, but if you don't have a budget, you don't even know they need to be made!

If you need help, there are a lot of really great books on budgeting that you can buy to help get you on your way.

If you don't already have a family budget, I hope that you'll decide to sit down and create one. It's not always fun to look at your financial situation, but if you know what it is, you can work to make it better!