Introduction
With the rising hard economy of this twenty first century, everyone has to know how to budget for the little annual income that they earn. This is extremely necessary in order to cater for the needs of families.
A budget is a financial document used to project future income and expenses. The budgeting process helps individuals involved estimate if they go on with the operation according to the income that they earn or not. This paper is discussing a family budgeting.
Requirements of a good budget
It is necessary for one to know the actual income before planning the budget. For one to be able to make a successful budget there are a number of features to consider; categories that fit one’s personal situation and spending habits only, and income expectations, which are right.
One should reflect how he or she spends money so as to cut down costs where necessary and the budget should entail costs that are not on a monthly basis. These are a few of requirements that this family of four can consider.
This family where the annual earning is 15300 dollars is living in a low social economic life. This is because it is estimated that poverty lies among citizens who earn 10000 dollars annually. This family is slightly above the poverty line. Therefore, it should not go for the most costly expenses.
Housing
This family should go for a house that has a minimum of three bedrooms. This is due to reason that the ten year old girl and the four year old boy will not share bedrooms. The house should also be located in an area occupied by middle class people. This is where the family can get an affordable three bedroom house.
Also, commodities in the locality are available at fair prices. This family should also look for a house that is not far from their places of work. The house location ought to be near social amenities like hospitals and schools. Due to their earning, this family ought to live in a house worth 3,240 dollars annually to avoid spending more than their income.
Buying clothes
Clothes are also basic, thus this family can budget to purchase both second hand clothes and the brand new ones. In accordance to their annual income, they should spend approximately 4,800$ per year. While budgeting for the children’s clothes, these parents should consider the size of the clothes. They ought to purchase clothes that are not very fitting.
This ensures that the children wear the clothes for a long period of time. Also, they should buy clothes that are of good quality. This helps them avoid buying clothes frequently due to wearing out. In addition, they can sort out their clothes to get the one that have outgrown their children and theirs that are not in use.
Instead of disposing them, they can sell them as second hand clothes. This will earn them some income that can help them meet their family needs. Such income can also be used in case of emergencies like sicknesses.
Education
The children in this family require education at different levels due to their age differences. The parents should look for schools located near the middle class people. This is because the schools are affordable according to their annual income. The parents should look for a school that charges fees of approximately 1,260 dollars for the four year old boy. For the ten year old girl the fees should amount to around 2370 dollars.
This means that the total cost for school fees in this family per year will be 3630 dollars. The children should be taken to one school. This has very many advantages. One, the school fees, is paid at the same time and place. Secondly, these brother and sister go to school at the same time. Hence, they save time for parents to attend to other chores. Also, when purchasing the uniform, parents are able to cut the cost.
This is because the four year old boy can wear the pullovers and socks that have outgrown the ten year old girl. In addition to the advantages, the boy uses the text books and revision books that were used by the older girl. This ensures that the parents purchase textbooks only once that is, for the ten year old girl.
Parents are able to cut down the cost of the school fees. Since the school is located near the family’s home, parents are able to take lunch to their children instead of including it in the school fees. Moreover, the transport fee is low since the school is not far from their home.
In education, the father and mother of these children should remember to insure their children’s future education. This includes high school and higher learning institutions. Since this is done annually, the parents dedicate a certain amount of money from their salary.
Transportation
The family should always look for the cheapest means of transport as they move from one location to another. They can use the railway transport since it is the cheapest across the world. To help cut down transportation cost, the family should always walk to places that are not far. For instance, they should walk to the nearest market centers. They ought to worship at the nearest places.
The annual transportation cost for the parents should be approximately 500 dollars. This applies if they work at a distance where they cannot walk. A decent house location also helps in cutting down the cost of transportation.
Therefore, during budgeting, this family should consider the house nearness to social amenities. When health facilities, schools, together with others are near, the family will use little money on transport.
Healthcare
Health is one of the most fundamental requirements in a family. Healthcare involves a number of activities. For instance, eating a balanced diet, regular check- ups, and living in a clean home environment. To boost healthcare in the family, a family should be located in an area where they can access it easily.
This family’s home should be near a hospital. This is because children fall sick often; hence they should be rushed to hospital fast. To keep the environment clean, this family must spend some funds. For example they spend money when buying treated mosquito nets, purchasing detergents, tools for trimming flowerbeds and bushes, and hiring a gardener. The family should also have a thorough weekly general cleaning.
This includes cleaning all the bedding, clothes, and the whole house. If the family maintains this high standard of cleanliness, it reduces the chances of them falling sick. This reduces the cost of treatment because they will not visit the hospital regularly. This family should budget for health care at an amount of approximately 2,973 dollars annually.
The family should make sure that every member is insured against health care. This helps them receive the best health care no matter the price of medicine prescribed.
Apart from other basic needs in this family, there are other requirements that are not expected. Therefore, it is necessary for them to save some money for such emergencies. This helps the family avoid borrowing money now and then when such cases arise. Thus, they can open a bank account to save the remaining amount of their annual income which is 119 dollars.
Conclusion
This family of four ought to put apart some time to plan on how to budget on their earnings. This helps them spend wisely so that they can meet all their basic needs. This plan will also ensure that there is a balance in the allocation of funds, in all their basic requirements. This will also help the family relieve the burden of thinking on how to spend their earnings every time they are paid.
Good budgeting also helps the family live peacefully. This is because there are no issues of drug abuse like alcoholism which result to quarrels in the family. Budgeting is, therefore, a peace contributing factor in families.
In addition, proper budgeting helps is reducing the chances of poverty due to poor spending of income earning. Therefore, budgeting is highly essential to all families and especially to a family that earns an annual income of 15300 dollars. This is all that is necessary for proper budgeting.