Utah Community Learning
Money & Career

Family Budgeting Basics

Meets Tuesdays 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM · Fall 2026 · registration open
This class runs in the Fall 2026 session. Registration is open now; lessons, materials, and the class discussion board are posted before it begins.

This is for households who are tired of guessing where the paycheck went. We'll build a real budget the first night, using your own bills and your own income, not some made-up example, because practice budgets are a waste of everyone's time. You'll learn a way to track your spending by hand, in a notebook, without a spreadsheet that breaks the first time somebody bumps a formula. We'll deal with the leaky categories like groceries and eating out, we'll build in room for the fry sauce so this actually sticks, and we'll go line by line until your numbers balance. You'll leave with a working monthly budget and a system you can run again next month...

Lessons

  1. Why You Don't Know Where the Money Went

    We start with the honest picture of your income and spending before we try to fix anything.

  2. Building the First Budget

    You'll put your own income and bills on paper tonight and get to a working first draft.

  3. The Leaky Categories

    Groceries and eating out are where the quick-stop money disappears, so we handle those on purpose.

  4. Budgeting for the Fry Sauce

    A budget with no fun in it fails in about a month, so we build the treat in on purpose.

  5. Tracking and Checking Every Charge

    Tallying by hand is how you know it's working, and checking charges catches the small stuff that adds up.

  6. Adjusting and Running It Again

    The first budget is never right, so we test it, fix it, and set you up to run next month on your own.

Class discussion

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