The first half of step 7 deals with finances.  We have talked about the Family Bill Book as well as the the budget sheet and bill payment planner.  Before we move on to paper clutter and filing, I want to quickly touch on allowance pads and the Pig.

First, keeping track of allowance.  Part of being a parent (well most of being a parent – aside from feeding, clothing and keeping them safe) is to teach your children how to be a responsible member of society.  One way to teach them about finances is to give them an allowance.  Now, I have heard all kinds of debate on allowance.  Should they get allowance for doing chores?  How about for being a member of the family?  Maybe they should get allowance so that they have a set amount of money and you don’t have to continue to shell out money.  Whatever the reason it is probably wise to start allowance at a young age.  There are several different ways you can do allowance.  I’m not going to address any of those.  Personally, I think that you do chores because you are member of the family and you should do your part.  However, I also believe that children NEED to learn about money and how to manage their money.  Not teaching your children this skill will really hurt them in the long run.  Credit is still fairly easy to get and they could get into a lot of trouble quickly if they don’t understand how money works.  That said, I think allowance receipts are a great way to teach your children about money.  This is not anything fancy, just common sense.  Don’t you just love common sense?

If you don’t believe in allowance you could also use these as a way for them track money they earn for doing odd jobs.  Begin by writing down the amount of money they are starting with.  Teaching children to “live within their means” will be important for their future.  If they know how much money they have at any given moment, they will be more responsible in their spending.  I recently had a chat with my children about this.  My two oldest children were spending money like crazy!  They were taking money for the school store (can I just say I am NOT a fan of school stores!), they were taking money on field trips and everywhere we were going as a family.  One night I made them dump their piggy banks and count their money.  They were shocked to find they had spent most of their money.  I guess they thought it was somehow regenerating itself in their piggy banks!  Their brother on the other hand never spends money and he had three times what they did.  They have lately been much more careful with their money.

Next, Have a line for tithing or charitable donations.  It is a great idea for kids to learn how important it is to be generous.  Make sure they understand what this means.  If it is tithing or a donation for your church teach them where that money goes and how it is spent.  If you would like them to donate to a charity, sit down together and give them some choices.  Let them choose one that means something to them.

Next, have a spot where they can subtract the amounts they owe.  For example, my son lost his shoes last month (how in the world do you come home from a school swimming activity with no shoes????) so he had to buy himself some new shoes with his own money.  This is subtracted from the total income.  If you have more than one item (the same child had a difficult month last month – shoes, library books, and music lessons that he chose to skip were all deducted from his total) list them out individually so they can see how they add up.  It may be no big deal if they have to pay for something small here and there but combined they can add up to a larger sum!

You should also include a line where they can put some money in savings.  Whether this is a bank account or just a piggy bank is up to you (I recommend a bank that they can’t easily access!).  You may even want to talk about what they are saving for.  If they have something they want or a trip they want to save for, this can make a big difference in their motivation to save.  You could have a few different things they are saving for (a mission, college, etc.) that you can list.  You will also want to show the running total here so they can see their progress.

Finally, set some “spending” money aside.  This is money they can have whenever they want it.  This money is easily accessible for whatever they may want to spend it on.  It’s what we call our “fun money”!  This is probably going to be their favorite line!

It may sound complicated but once you get started it’s a piece of cake.  Keeping track of their money now will help them learn how to be responsible in the future when it really counts.  Sometimes we have to learn the hard way and that is never much fun.   Hopefully if they have some background on the subject by the time they get to college, on a mission or get married they will know exactly how to budget and track their spending habits.

Here is a sample you can use or tweak if you want to:   Allowance Receipt.  This will you something to start with.

The last thing to discuss on finances is the PIG!  This is a fun family idea to save all of your extra change.  Find a fun piggy bank that cannot be opened unless you break it.   Since you are already using the cash system (we discussed that in the first part of Step 7) round everything up to the nearest dollar.  All of the change you get during the day is brought home and put in the family pig.  The spare change can up fast.  Having all of it in one place will help you save for something important like a family vacation.  You can also use this as your Christmas Jar (check out our post on The Christmas Jar) if you want to donate it to someone in need.  This can turn into something fun and be a great way to save money.

Finances are not always fun so we have to appreciate the fun things that come our way!

I have taught a lot of classes and talked with a lot of women.  One of the biggest complaints that I hear is what do I do with all of my paper?  Step 7 addresses finances as well as paper clutter.  This is an area that we could all use some improvement in.  If your finances are a mess it could affect your relationships as well as your organization.  The first and most important tip is to be on the same page as your spouse!  Sit down and discuss what is happening with your money.   Remember this should be a calm and rationale discussion – no pointing fingers!  Even if you don’t pay the bills you should be aware of where your money goes.  This can be an eye opener for a lot of people.  Every household is different in how they handle their finances.  I have seen houses where the hubby takes on this responsibility (this is the way it works at my house – I hate money! ), there are many households where it is the wife’s responsibility and then there are those households where they have separate accounts.  You need to find what works for you but no matter what the situation, you both need to be aware of what is happening with your money each month!

Once you have discussed how you are going to handle the money and where you stand, it is time to discuss a budget.  A budget?  Yes, a budget.  This is a hard concept for some but an important one.  You may have different ideas on where your money should be spent.  Your husband may be one that likes a lot of toys.  You may enjoy a good day of shopping now and then.  If you are both spending like crazy and not consulting one another, you could get into trouble quickly!  If you have the money, be sure to allot each of you a little extra, if you don’t have the money, make sure you are both being more careful!  The best way to stay on top of your finances is to use cash.  When it is gone, it’s gone!  Use the old fashioned envelope system until you get an idea of how you spend your money.  Be sure to track all you spend too.  This will really help you to see where you need to cut back or where you need to put more money.

When you are planning your budget make sure you are saving.  Paying down debt is important too.  Once you pay something off put that money toward something else until you are completely out of debt.  Once you are out of debt the stress is gone and you can live how you want to without any guilt!

Once you have planned a budget you need a way to organize your finances.  I love the concept of a bill book.  This is one of my favorite things to talk about!  Filing cabinets can be big and you can lose things in them.  A binder is much easier to manage and keep track of.  To make a bill book you will need a 3″ binder (the D rings are very helpful), 21 file jackets (these are file folders that are enclosed on three sides and open at the top), labels (the large shipping labels or something a little larger would work great), 4X6 photo holders (these will serve as your envelopes), and the print outs that we are giving you in this post.  These go in the front of your bill book and are used for planning purposes and to keep track of your spending.

Bill Payment Schedule

Budget Sheet

Financial Goal Planner

To begin each file jacket should have a label.  The first 5 should be labeled Bills to be Paid, To be Filed, Taxes ____ (you put the year on the line i.e., Taxes 2010), Bank Statements and One Time Only Payments.  Each file jacket after that should be labeled with each account that you pay money to each month.  For example, the Power Company and all its information such as Company Name, address, phone number, account number, name of your contact there, when the bill is due, how it is paid and any other impertinent information.  You need to fill out a label for each bill you pay and put one on the front of each file jacket (see photos below for reference).

The photo holder is used for your cash system.  It takes the place of envelopes and allows you to keep everything in your Bill Book.  This is a great way to file your bills and control paper clutter.  When your mail comes into the house immediately put bills to paid in the right folder and you will get rid of half your paper clutter from mail! 

      

You will have 5 file jackets that look like this with the following labels Bills to be Paid, Bank Statements, One Time Only Payments, Taxes ______, and To be Filed.

The Bill Book is a fabulous place to start with finances and will help you get many things in your home organized from your bills (paper clutter) to your relationship with your spouse!  Good luck!

On Sunday, I decided I was tired of having a big huge coupon binder that is hard to take with me to the stores.  I also didn’t want to buy one and spend money that wasn’t involved in our budget.  Instead I challenged myself to see if I could make one using only the supplies I have around the house.  I have to say, after a couple of tries that didn’t really work I came up with a FANTASTIC idea.  I can’t wait to share it with you!  You only need a few supplies and, wallah, you are more organized with your coupons and your cash you spend!

Supplies needed:

One used Franklin Covey planner, or one that zips up, it doesn’t have to be Franklin Covey.


Some unused photo holders

Crack and peel or labels that are blank

Shipping tape that is clear.

Hole Punch.

Cut your photo holders to fit in your binder.  I got creative and cut along the small spacing left between each photo holder to make that my hole punch area. 

Hole punch them to fit your binder. 

On our website is a freebie you can use for typing in your categories to Microsoft Word.  I will leave the categories I did on there so you can use them or change them if you want. 

Before you cut out each tab, run a strip of shipping tape over the whole row of tabs.  This gives you instant lamination.

Cut out each tab.  I like to take the whole strip of backing off the label before I cut them apart.  It makes it easier so you are not fiddling with small little rectangles of backing.

Stick them together front to back using your photo holders. 

Load them with your coupons and put them all in your binder and you are ready to go!  Enjoy!

I have loaded the pictures so you can see exactly how I put it together.  I have already used it this week and have fallen in love all over again with coupons.  I love that it fits in my purse and is easy to use without being cumbersome.  I even keep my restaurant coupons and other activity coupons in there, just in case we have spontaneous family activity.  I hope you love it as much as I do!

Since today is an organizing tip.  I wanted to share one of my favorites with you.  I LOVE our Holiday Organizer.  Not only does it come with fantastic pages to help you organize your holidays better, there is a place for everything you have related to your holidays.  Not including your decorations of course.  But there is a place to help you organize your decorations as well in our Holiday Organizer.  I am talking about all those Bingo games, Tom the Turkeys, Halloween Scavenger Hunts, Valentine’s Love Notes, St. Patrick’s day Neighborhood Lucky Leprechaun game, and the list goes on with our products.  Then if you have additional stuff besides that, you have a lot to keep track of.  I found a way to utilize our Holiday Organizer even better by keeping everything together.  Doesn’t that sound familiar?  After dividing my organizer into two binders, January through June and July through December, I have taken ordinary photo holders, page protectors and page pockets and turned them into my storage of holiday ideas and games.  I then placed each of my holiday games and ideas in front of the cooresponding month folder for that particular holiday.  It’s the perfect way to keep everything organized and keep it handy in one place.  I love being able to go to that month and see all my fun games and ideas without having to search endlessly for where I put them last.  Even they can get lost or even forgotten in a tote full of decorations.  To give you a better idea, I took some pictures of how I put mine together.  However, make it work for you and your personality.  Feel free to comment about what has worked for you or you are always welcome to ask questions in the comment section and we will answer them for you.

When people think about having all of our important documents and information all in one place, they sometimes forget about an important part of this step, having cash on hand.  In the event of an emergency would you have cold hard cash to use?  Or would you have only a debit card, credit card, atm card, or checks?  These may not always work, depending on the emergency or even natural disaster.  What would happen if there was no electricity in your area for days or weeks?  The only form of buying anything would be cash.

An idea that has been really helpful for me, actually came from our CEO, Tricia.  She created a Family Preparedness Bank to store her cash on hand for her family.  The reason why I really like this, is because I have no idea how much is in there.  (see photo below)  Everypaycheck I put $20 – $50 in there before I do anything else.  No excuses.  By forcing myself to do it this way, I am saving money, without it tempting me to spend it.  The only way to get the can open is with a can opener.  I am not about to ruin my good looking can for some petty item.  So my cash remains, safe and tight, ready to be used in case of a real emergency.  I have even given each of my children one to put there future savings into.  Out of site, out of their mind.  It has worked like a charm.

CHALLENGE:  Your challenge this week is to find a safe container to start storing your cash on hand in.  Make it something that won’t tempt you to spend the money.  Sit down with your family and decide how much you can put in each time.  Even starting with $5 is a start.  Remember no amount is too little.  In the end, it will make a difference, no matter how much you have in there.

BONUS:  We thought it would be fun to give away a few of our Emergency Preparedness Banks to some of the first people who share a comment about this post and how our Vital Records postings have helped you get your family better prepared.  After the first few banks we will put the names of all the other people who comment into a basket and draw names for the other banks.  Our Banks are also available for sale (pick up only or at our boutique on the 14th of April), watch for our email for further details.  If you would like to be on our email list, go to our website, listed on the left of our blog and sign up for our newsletter.  (Just a small note.  All comments will go through us to be approved.  Then it will show up on our blog.  We do this to cut down on spammers.)