• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • Write For Us
  • Children
  • Education
  • Pets
  • DIY/Home
  • Wellness
  • Fashion
  • Travel
  • Finance
  • Tech

ABC At Home

Homeschooling Mommy Entrepreneur

Spring Clean Your Finances With a Mid-Year Personal Financial Review

July 1, 2018 by Lauren Palmer

Now is a great time to take a snapshot of your finances and make sure you’re spending your family’s money wisely. Here are some things you should check when completing a personal financial review.

Do you know how much you spent at your last trip to the grocery store? Or, are you finding yourself taking the whole family out to eat all the time?

Food is one of the top three expenses in America, right after transportation and housing. The average citizen spends close to $7,000 on it a year – that’s a whole lot of late-night Taco Bell and Saturday morning green juices.

Seriously though, you need to have an idea of where all the money you work hard to earn is actually going. Think back to your financial goals at the beginning of the year. Maybe you said 2018 was the time to finally pay off your student loans or get a handle on your credit card debt.

Well, we’re halfway through. How are those goals going? Use the following spending categories to help you conduct a personal financial review and assess your progress.

Basic Living Expenses

You should always take care of yourself and your family first. This means all the money you make should go into living expenses, then everything else.

Living costs break down into your home, meals, and health, as well as the wellness of your pets and necessary items like car and insurance payments.

Your Home, Your Meals, and Your Health

Take a close look at how well you’re sticking to your living budget. Chances are, if you’re eating out all the time or buying everything organic at the store, you’re spending more than you need to be.

Find ways to cut down your energy costs at home, too. Educate your children on the value of shutting all the doors and windows for airflow, and pay attention to how your water bill reacts to all the loads of laundry and bathtimes in the home as well.

This doesn’t mean you have to compromise your wellbeing or move to a smaller home. It just means you should be smart about how you budget for these basic necessities.

Pet Expenses, Car Payments, and More

Don’t forget to include your dog’s vet check-ups in your yearly budget, just like you would your kid’s braces or your husbands prescription. Factor in car payments and the insurance for each vehicle, too.

These are things you’re going to be spending money on regularly, so you need to know where the money will be coming from.

Your Savings Fund and Credit Score

Speaking of knowing where your money is coming from, how are your savings doing? You should always be making more than what you spend.

This allows you to have a consistent stream of money to set aside for emergencies, a new home, or a college fund. Your savings goals will depend on the immediate needs of the family and the wiggle room the rest of your budget allows.

Try to prioritize getting out of debt over having fun with your finances, though. Check your credit score, pay off any loans you still have, and find ways to make your money work for you, like opening an HSBC credit card and building points on it.

Using a Regular Personal Financial Review to Create Financial Freedom

The better you get at spending and saving responsibly for the things mentioned above, the more money you’ll have for miscellaneous spending. This is how you can start to build a travel fund for a family vacation every year or maybe set yourself up to buy another pet or a new home.

Whatever your definition of financial freedom is, always remember it’s attainable! You just have to make a few sacrifices and stick to your budget with the help of a personal financial review. The rest will come.

For more personal and family finance tips and tricks, click here.

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: finance, financial review, money

Primary Sidebar

Follow us

  • facebook
  • twitter

Should You Leave a Humidifier on All Night for Baby?

Domestic Cleaning Tips – Cleaning Your Fridge

The Importance of Building Your Family Home

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Should You Leave a Humidifier on All Night for Baby?
  • Domestic Cleaning Tips – Cleaning Your Fridge
  • The Importance of Building Your Family Home
  • 3 DIY Home Projects You Can Do With Your Kids
  • 3 Picture Day Outfit Ideas for Little Girls

Tags

auto business career children company destinations DIY education entrepreneurship Europe family fashion finance fitness garden health health and wellness holiday home home improvements house interior design internet investing job kids learning marketing money parenting pet pets profession property real estate student study style tech technology trading travel vacation wellness yard

About Us

Welcome to ABC at Home! The woman/parenting/homeschooling/entrepreneur resource brought to you by a busy, but efficient mother! I write articles about travel, business, finance and many more subjects for stay-at-home parents (yes, that includes men too) so that our kids can thrive as much as we do.