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HandoutHandout 1: Family Budgeting Basics — Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Family Budgeting Basics — Supply & Shopping List
You don't need much for this class. That's kind of the point. I've seen people talk themselves out of budgeting because they thought they needed the right app or a fancy binder system first. You don't. You need a notebook, a pen, and your own actual bills. That's basically it.
Here's what to bring and what to buy, split into what you actually need and what's just nice to have.
The Budget Tier — get this, skip the rest if money's tight
A notebook. Any notebook. I use a plain legal pad because that's what I had at the kitchen table the first time I did this, years ago, and I never switched. Composition book, spiral notebook, whatever's in the junk drawer works. Do not wait to buy the "right" one. Grab one at Macey's on a regular trip, it doesn't need its own errand.
A pen you like writing with. Sounds small. It's not. You're going to be writing a lot the first night and a pen that skips or drags will make you quit early.
Your last two months of bills. Actual bills, not guesses. Power, water, phone, car payment, insurance, whatever you've got. If you get them online, print them or pull them up on your phone, either's fine.
Your last two months of bank or card statements. This is where the truth lives. I found a missing magazine subscription of Rodney's this way, decades ago, and I've never trusted my memory over a statement since.
A calculator. Your phone's fine. I still like a real one because I don't trust my thumbs on a tiny screen, but that's a preference, not a rule.
That's the whole budget tier. Notebook, pen, bills, statements, calculator. Anybody can afford this list.
The Nice-to-Have Tier — only if you want it
A ledger book with printed columns, if lined paper bugs you. I don't use one. Some people like the structure.
A file folder or envelope system for sorting bills by category. Handy if your paperwork's a mess, not required if it isn't.
Cash envelopes. We'll talk about these more in a later handout, but if you want to get ahead of it, a pack of plain envelopes is a couple dollars at Costco or Macey's. This is for groceries and eating out, the categories where money leaks out a little at a time and you don't notice till it's gone. I don't recommend a fancy envelope system with dividers and labels. Plain works. Plain is cheaper too.
A budgeting app, if you already like one. I'll say honestly this isn't my lane and I'm not going to pretend otherwise — I've tried a couple and I always drift back to paper. If you're a phone person and it actually gets used, fine. My worry with apps is they mostly tell you what you already did wrong instead of helping you stop doing it. A notebook you write in by hand tends to stick better for most folks, but you know your own habits.
Shopping notes
Don't make a special trip for any of this. Fold it into whatever you're already doing. If you're headed to Macey's for milk anyway, grab the notebook then — and while you're there, notice how a "quick milk run" adds up once you're standing at the register. That's actually half the lesson of this whole class.
One more thing. Bring your real numbers to the first class, not a made-up example. We're not practicing on pretend bills. We're doing yours, the actual ones, starting week one. It's more useful and honestly it's less work than inventing a fake budget just to feel safe about it...
HandoutHandout 2: The Cheat Sheet
Handout 2: The Cheat Sheet
Keep this one taped inside a cupboard or clipped to your notebook. It's everything from class, boiled down to the parts you'll actually reach for at 9pm when you're trying to figure out where September went.
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The Three Rules I Actually Live By
1. Round income down, round bills up. If you guess wrong, guess wrong in your favor. Estimate you'll make a little less than you think and that the power bill will run a little higher than you think. If you're wrong, you end up with extra instead of a hole. Nobody's ever been hurt by a pleasant surprise.
2. Build in the fry sauce. A budget with no fun in it lasts about three weeks before somebody blows it up out of pure resentment. Decide on purpose what your fun money is — dinner out, the canyon drive with a stop for a treat, whatever it is for you — and give it a line. On purpose is the whole trick. Unplanned fun is a leak. Planned fun is a budget.
3. Cash for the leaky categories. Groceries and eating out are where money disappears without you ever making one bad decision — it's just twelve quick stops that were each "only" twenty dollars. Pull cash for those two categories. Envelope, box, whatever holds it. When it's gone, it's gone, and that's not punishment, that's just information you can actually feel in your hand.
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The Notebook Method (My Way, Not the Only Way)
I don't do spreadsheets. Formulas get bumped, nobody opens the file again by March, and then you're back to guessing. A notebook you actually write in beats a perfect spreadsheet that's dead by February.
Set up one page per month like this:
Income (rounded down) Bills (rounded up) Groceries/Fun cash Left over Down the side, list every bill with its due date. Not categories — the actual bill. "Power - 14th." "Water/softener salt - 22nd." (If you moved here recently like I did, budget for the hard water. The softener salt is a real line item now, not a maybe.)
Check off each bill as it clears. At the end of the month, tally it up by hand. That tallying is how you know if the thing worked. Same as checking a recipe against what actually came out of the oven.
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The Weekly Five-Minute Check
Every week, sometime you'll actually do it — Sunday night works for me — go through your last week of charges and ask:
- Is there anything on here I don't recognize?
- Is there a subscription I forgot I had?
- Was I charged twice for anything — a copay, a membership, anything with a "processing" step?
I caught a doctor's office double-charging me twelve dollars once. Took three phone calls to get it back, but I got it back. Twelve dollars feels small. Twelve dollars twelve times a year isn't small. Check the charges.
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When the Numbers Don't Balance
They won't. Not the first month. That's not failure, that's just the first draft of the recipe. Go back through line by line, the way I did at my kitchen table with that legal pad all those years ago, until you find where it went sideways. It's almost always something boring — a renewal you forgot about, a "quick stop" that wasn't quick.
Find it, write it down, adjust, run it again next month.
There it is. That's the whole system.
WorksheetFamily Budgeting Basics — Handout 3: Your First Month, On Paper
Family Budgeting Basics — Handout 3: Your First Month, On Paper
This is the one where you stop reading about it and just do it. Grab your last bank statement and your last few bills. Real numbers, yours, not a made-up example. Sit somewhere quiet with a pencil, not a pen, because you'll be erasing.
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Step 1: Income (round it DOWN)
If your pay varies at all, use your lowest reasonably normal month. If you're wrong, you want to be wrong in your favor.
- Paycheck 1 (after tax): $______
- Paycheck 2 (after tax): $______
- Other income (side work, etc.): $______
- TOTAL MONTHLY INCOME: $______
Step 2: Fixed Bills (round it UP)
The ones that don't move. If a bill's usually $84, write $90. Give yourself the cushion.
Bill Usual Amount What I'm Budgeting Rent/mortgage Utilities (power, gas, water) Water softener salt, if you're on hard water Phone Insurance Car payment Subscriptions (check every one — see below) TOTAL FIXED BILLS $______ Step 3: The Leaky Categories
These are the ones that don't leave a paper trail unless you make one.
- Groceries: $______ (this is your envelope amount)
- Eating out: $______ (this is a separate envelope, don't blend it with groceries)
- Gas for the car: $______
- "Quick stops" — the Macey's-for-milk run that's never actually just milk: budget for it honestly. It exists. Put a number on it.
Step 4: The Fun Line
Don't skip this one. A budget with nothing fun in it lasts about three weeks and then it's dead. Put in your version of fry sauce, on purpose.
- Fun money, no questions asked: $______
Step 5: The Math
``
Total income: $______ minus fixed bills: -$______ minus leaky categories: -$______ minus fun money: -$______ _________ LEFT OVER: $______``If that number is negative, don't panic and don't erase your bills to make it prettier. Look at the leaky categories first. That's usually where the room is.
If it's positive — even ten dollars — decide right now where it goes. Savings, extra debt payment, whatever. Don't let it float, it'll disappear into nothing and you won't be able to tell me where.
Step 6: The Twelve-Dollar Check
Before you call this done, go through your last statement line by line and ask of every single charge: do I know what this is, and did I mean to pay it.
- Any subscription you forgot you had? ______
- Any charge that looks doubled? ______
- Anything you don't recognize at all? ______
Call and ask about anything you're not sure of. Twelve dollars here and there adds up faster than people think, and it's the easiest money in the whole worksheet to get back.
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One Rule for This Month
This first version will not be right. That's fine. It's a recipe, not a diet — you're going to run it for a few weeks, write down what broke, and adjust. Bring your notes back next week even if the whole thing fell apart. Especially if it fell apart.
There it is. Now go use it.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems
Every single person in this class is going to hit one of these in the first month. I've hit most of them myself, over the years, so this isn't me looking down from some perfect budget on high. This is just what I've seen go wrong, over and over, and how to fix it.
1. "My numbers don't balance and I don't know why." Go line by line, slower than feels necessary. That's the whole secret. Don't scan the statement, read it. The missing money is almost always one thing hiding in plain sight — for me it was a magazine subscription Rodney forgot he'd renewed. Find your one thing.
2. "I made a beautiful spreadsheet and now I never open it." This is not a you problem, this is a spreadsheet problem. I think they're overrated for regular folks — a formula gets bumped, or it's just easier to avoid the file than face it. Get a notebook. Write it by hand. You're more likely to actually look at something you made with a pen.
3. "I budgeted zero dollars for fun and now I've blown the whole budget on takeout." A budget with nothing fun in it fails in about a month, guaranteed. Put the fry sauce in the budget on purpose. A little bit, on purpose, beats a lot, by accident.
4. "I keep overspending on groceries and I don't know where it goes." This is the leaky category for almost everybody. Try cash in an envelope for groceries and eating out. When it's empty, it's empty, no card to lean on. I don't love the apps that just track what you spent — that tells you what you already did wrong. Cash stops you before you do it.
5. "I estimated my income and now I'm short." Round your income down and your bills up. If you're going to guess wrong, guess wrong in your own favor. Nobody's ever gotten hurt by overestimating the water bill.
6. "A bill came in higher than I budgeted and I panicked." Check it before you panic. I caught a doctor's office double-billing me twelve dollars once — took three phone calls to get it fixed, but I got it. Twelve dollars adds up faster than people think, and errors happen more than you'd guess.
7. "I did the budget once and now I'm not doing it again because it wasn't right." It's not supposed to be right the first time. A budget's a recipe, not a diet. You test it, something doesn't work, you adjust, you run it again next month. Nobody's first attempt at anything worth doing came out perfect, and I include my own kitchen table in that.
8. "My spouse and I don't agree on where the money goes." Show the numbers instead of arguing the feelings. Numbers are less personal than "you're spending too much on X." I'm working on this myself with Rodney's woodshop, honestly — I see the tool spending with no plan behind it and it makes me twitch, but nagging never worked, so now I write it down instead of saying it out loud. Slow progress, but progress.
9. "I set someone up with a whole system and they never used it." That one's not really a fix, that's just a thing that happens. I walked a woman through two full afternoons once and found out later she never opened the notebook. You can hand someone the tool. You can't make them pick it up. Do your own budget regardless.
10. "I don't know if I should pay off the smallest debt first or the highest interest one first." Honestly, I'm not fully sure which is technically optimal either, avalanche or snowball, and I'd rather tell you that than fake an answer. Pick the one you'll actually stick with. The best debt strategy is the one you don't quit on by March.
If none of these are your exact problem, bring your notebook next week and we'll look at it together. That's what the table's for.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay, and that's really the whole reason we're doing this podcast, so people who can't make it to American Fork on a Tuesday night still get some of it. Joyce, say that last part again, about the checkbook.
JOYCE: Well, I just said it started because I couldn't stand not knowing. This was years ago, early on with Rodney, before kids. The checkbook didn't match what I thought was in there and it bothered me for weeks. Not the money so much. The not knowing.
JESS: So what'd you do.
JOYCE: Sat down at the kitchen table with the bank statement and a legal pad and went line by line until I found it.
JESS: And?
JOYCE: A magazine subscription Rodney forgot he'd renewed. I have never let that man live it down, gently.
JESS: Thirty years later and you're still bringing it up.
JOYCE: Gently, Jess. I said gently. But that's the whole class, really, in one story. You don't fix what you can't see, and you can't see it until you write it down somewhere and actually look.
JESS: That's a good place to start, because I know some people listening are thinking, I don't have time to build a whole system.
JOYCE: You don't need a whole system tonight. Here's one thing, and anybody can do this without ever coming to a class. Round your income down and round your bills up.
JESS: Say more.
JOYCE: If you think you're bringing home two thousand two hundred, write down two thousand. If your power bill is usually about ninety, write down a hundred. You're building in a little cushion on both ends. If you're wrong, you're wrong in a direction that helps you instead of one that leaves you short on the fifteenth wondering where it went.
JESS: I like that because it's not about tracking every receipt.
JOYCE: No, and honestly, most of those tracking apps just tell you what you already did wrong last week. That's not the same as stopping it before it happens. I'd rather you have a little too much room than find out at the register you don't.
JESS: Okay, I have to ask about anecdote... I mean, I have to ask you to tell the one about Leonard. People love this one.
JOYCE: Oh, Leonard. My friend from years back, he called me practically in a panic, car needed a repair he didn't think he could afford. And my first instinct was not to hand him money.
JESS: Which a lot of people would do.
JOYCE: Sure, and it feels generous, but it doesn't teach anybody anything, and it doesn't fix the next time. So instead I sat down with him and went through his budget with him, and it turned out he had room he didn't know he had. He'd never actually looked. Once he saw it laid out, he handled it himself.
JESS: How'd that feel?
JOYCE: I count that one high. That's a win in my book, because he did the work, I just helped him see the page.
JESS: That's kind of the whole point of the class, isn't it. You're not doing it for people.
JOYCE: Can't. Wouldn't want to even if I could. You have to see your own numbers or it doesn't stick. That's why the first night we work with your actual bills, your actual income. No pretend example. Pretend examples are a waste of everybody's evening.
JESS: So next session, what are people walking into.
JOYCE: We build the first draft. Everybody brings whatever bills they've got, a pay stub, whatever's sitting on the counter, and we put it on paper together. I'll tell you right now, the first draft is never right. That's fine. It's like a recipe, you test it, you adjust, you run it again next month.
JESS: No shame in the first draft being wrong.
JOYCE: None at all. The shame's in not writing it down at all... that's the one thing I really can't talk anybody out of caring about.
JESS: That's next week, Family Budgeting Basics, session two, same room, bring your bills. Joyce, thanks for doing this.
JOYCE: Anytime. Bring a pencil, not a pen. You'll be erasing.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but that's the part I want people to hear, because you said it like it was no big deal and it is kind of a big deal.
JOYCE: Which part.
JESS: The three phone calls. Over twelve dollars.
JOYCE: Oh. Well. It was billed twice, so it wasn't really twelve dollars, it was twenty-four dollars that should've been twelve, and I don't love being charged for a thing twice just because somebody's office software had a hiccup. It took three calls because the first person couldn't see it, the second person saw it but couldn't fix it, and the third person actually fixed it. I wrote the date on the statement and everything.
JESS: Most people would've just let it go.
JOYCE: Most people do. And I understand why, because who wants to sit on hold for a copay. But twelve dollars here and twelve dollars there is exactly how the money goes missing, and I built this whole class around not being okay with money going missing. So. I count that one.
JESS: For people just joining us, this is week two of Family Budgeting Basics, I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Utah Community Learning, and this is Joyce.
JOYCE: Hi.
JESS: Last week was building your first budget with your real bills. This week's about to be the fun-slash-not-fun part, which is where the money's actually leaking. Joyce, tell the woodshop one. I feel like people need this one.
JOYCE: Oh, Rodney's woodshop. Okay, so. Rodney has a woodshop out in the garage, and he's been building it up, tools and clamps and this and that, and I can see — because I look at everything, I can't not look at it — I can see he's spending on it without really having a plan. No number in his head, nothing written down, just, oh, that's a nice chisel, I'll get that too.
JESS: And you want to say something.
JOYCE: I want to say something so bad. It makes me twitch, honestly. But I've learned — and this took me a while — that me marching out to the garage to lecture him about a bandsaw is not actually going to help either of us. So instead of saying it out loud every time, I've been writing it down. In my own notebook. Just noting what he's spent, no comment, no sigh, nothing.
JESS: Does he know you're doing that?
JOYCE: He does now, because I just told a podcast about it, so.
JESS: [laughs]
JOYCE: But the point is I'm learning restraint, which — I over-explain things, I know I do it, I did it three times already tonight probably. And this is the same muscle. You can see a problem and still choose not to pounce on it right that second. You gather the information first. It's not that different from watching a grocery receipt before you say anything to anybody about the milk run.
JESS: Speaking of which — give people a tip. Something they can use tonight, no class required.
JOYCE: Okay, here's one, and it's simple. When you're building out your budget, round your income down and round your bills up. If your paycheck's twelve hundred and change, write down twelve hundred even. If your power bill's usually around ninety, write down a hundred. You want to be wrong in your favor. Nobody ever got hurt by overestimating a bill and then having a little extra show up. But plenty of people get hurt the other way, where they counted on money that didn't quite come through, or a bill was higher than they figured because, I don't know, it was a cold month and the furnace ran more.
JESS: That's it? That's the whole tip?
JOYCE: That's the whole tip. It's not fancy. Most of the good ones aren't.
JESS: Okay, last thing — next session.
JOYCE: Next time we're doing the envelope system, cash for groceries and eating out specifically, because those two are where the money disappears fastest and nobody notices until it's gone. I'm bringing actual envelopes. We're going to sit down with everybody's real numbers from this week and figure out what goes in each one.
JESS: And you're going to tell the Macey's story.
JOYCE: I might tell the Macey's story.
JESS: She tracked three months of grocery runs to prove a quick milk stop was costing forty dollars a pop.
JOYCE: I was right, too. I still have the pad...
JESS: See you next week, everybody.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but the copay thing, you can't just drop that and move on, how did you catch it?
JOYCE: I look at every statement that comes in. Every one. And I had two charges same date same doctor's office and I thought, well, that's teh same visit, that can't be right.
JESS: Teh visit.
JOYCE: You know what I mean. I called, and they said no, that's correct, and I said it is not correct, and I called back the next day and got somebody else and that time they found it. Third call's when they actually fixed it.
JESS: For twelve dollars.
JOYCE: For twelve dollars. And I know how that sounds. People hear twelve dollars and think, Joyce, go find a hobby. But twelve dollars here and eight dollars there and a subscription you forgot about, that's how the money goes missing without anybody stealing a thing from you. Nobody did anything wrong. It just slipped.
JESS: This feels like a good spot to bring up the anecdote you told me about the choir.
JOYCE: Oh, the singing thing.
JESS: Yeah.
JOYCE: I sang in choirs for years, different wards, a community one for a while too. And the thing about your part in a choir is you cannot fake it. If you're flat, or you come in a beat early, everybody around you hears it, even people who don't know music. And the fix isn't some big insight. The fix is you go home and you sing your part slow, by yourself, over and over, until it's boring, until it's right.
JESS: And that's the budget.
JOYCE: That's the whole budget. People want there to be a trick. There isn't a trick. You go line by line, slow, boring, until the numbers match reality, and you do it again next month because it drifts again. It's not glamorous. I don't have a shortcut for you. I wish I did.
JESS: Okay, give the people something they can use tonight though. Something that doesn't require coming to class four.
JOYCE: All right, here's one, and it costs nothing. When you write down your bills for the month, round every one of them up. Not down — up. If your water bill's usually sixty-eight dollars, write seventy-five. If it's hard water season and the softener's been running more, write eighty.
JESS: Because the water here—
JOYCE: The water here will eat a softener alive, and salt isn't free either, so build in the cushion. And do the opposite with your income. If you get paid an amount that varies at all, round it down. So you're wrong in both directions the safe way. If your bill comes in lower than you guessed, oh my heck, free money, put it in savings. If it comes in higher, you already planned for it and you're not caught flat.
JESS: That's it. That's genuinely it.
JOYCE: That's it. People think budgeting is complicated because they've been burned by a spreadsheet that broke on them, or an app that just tells you what you already did wrong after the fact, which, what good is that. This is just — round up the debt, round down the income, and check every bill that comes in the door like it might be lying to you. Because sometimes it is.
JESS: Twelve dollars at a time.
JOYCE: Twelve dollars at a time. I count every one of those a win when I catch it. Doesn't need a fuss. Just needs counting.
JESS: Okay, so next session — we're doing envelopes, right? The cash system?
JOYCE: Next time we're doing the leaky categories. Groceries and eating out, mainly, because that's where the "quick stop for milk" turns into forty dollars before you've hit the register, I've tracked this, I have the pad. We're setting up cash envelopes for those two categories specifically. Bring your last two grocery receipts if you kept them.
JESS: And if they didn't keep them?
JOYCE: Then we talk about why not, gently, and we start fresh next week. Either way, bring your own numbers. I don't do pretend budgets in this class. Never have.
JESS: Real bills, real receipts, real fry sauce.
JOYCE: Always room for the fry sauce. Just put it in the budget on purpose so it's not sneaking in the side door...
JESS: All right — that's episode three. See everybody Thursday.
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