Welcome back for the second day of the
Homemaker's Month of Helpful How To's
Before we get into today's fun, I want to give all of you a chance to show off your homemaker's handbooks.
We are all unique and our lives are all very different so our handbooks of our daily lives will all look different!
To encourage us all I want you all to share your handbooks.
On Saturday {2/5} I will have a link up ready so we can all show off our handbooks.
I want to show off the simple and organized to the beautiful and helpful. So create a post and share with us all your homemaking handbook!
Link up will be open on Saturday {Sorry for the late notice}.
Grab my button on the side to add it to your page for the link up.
So back to today.
Day #2 of the Homemaker's Helpful Handbook week #1.
Yesterday we covered how to assemble your handbook if you want to go a little fancy and yet still keep your great organizer clean and wet free!
See yesterday's post HERE.
Today we will begin to cover what goes inside your handbook.
Now each of our lives are different so you will need to determine what actually makes your life simpler and less cluttered. The whole point with this handbook is to help us and not hinder us because it creates more work.
1) Financial Section
This is the section that really bore my handbook. I needed to be able to print my budget and tracker each month to really keep tabs. Now at the beginning of each month the Hubby and I get out the calendar and budget out our month.
What's inside my Financial Section
A) My Monthly Calendar
I made a monthly calendar to print and record each month's expenses.
But you could also use these as an everyday calendar.
Here are my calendars that I use and can be printed in full color.
Go HERE to download the full 12 months of the color calendar.
However I know many of you will want to save money on ink so here are the same ones but the calendar is white. Easy to print in black and white and still have some cute calendars.
Go HERE to get to the Black and White Calendar Collection
Here is an example of how I fill them out.
Click on picture to make larger
My budget would not work without this written calendar.
At the beginning of each month I write out all my bills on the day they are due or the day I need to send it, and the amount it is for.
Once the payment has gone through I highlight the item. If the actual amount is different from the amount paid then I write the actual amount below it in red.
This helps so much with knowing where our money is going and when. Then then makes it so easy to track my budget and spending throughout the month.
B) Budget Tracker
This is where my calendar comes in so handy! My husband and I have been following Dave Ramsey's budget and cash plan on and off for about 6 months now.
So with a budget tracker {that I update every Sunday} when it comes time to review the months budget and how well we did everything it is all laid out nicely. This then allows us to set a good working budget for the next month-where we need to reign in spending and where we can loosen a bit.
This is how I fill it out:
{Click picture to make larger}
Go HERE to download my Budget Tracker
Here are also some great resources for free calendars and budget worksheets
1. Dave Ramsey's Monthly Cash Flow Worksheet-Find HERE
2. Dave Ramsey's Basic Quickie Budget Worksheet-Find HERE
3. MoneyFunk.Net has a list of 7 free printable budget worksheets that look great-Find HERE
4. Simple & Plain Printable Calendars-Many different styles-Find HERE
5. Graphic Garden has some really adorable calendars to print-Find HERE
Example Calendar from Graphic Garden
5. Microsoft has templates you can download right into word or excel for calendars-Find HERE
C) Username and Passwords
This is a section that not every would like to have in their binder.
If for example, you plan on taking this binder with you grocery shopping then please leave this section out.
I do not however plan to take this binder out of my house or even out of my kitchen where I keep it. I do not though keep very sensitive passwords such as my bank account or paypal.
And if I need the password in it but it is of the more sensitive nature than I will abbreviate the password to something I would know.
For example if I had a password that was Godreigns4ever then I would simply write GR4E and hope I remember what that means when I get to it.
I do not have a sample for you of this list but I simply typed up a new line for each item.
For Example
Electric Company-Username: Password: Manual or Automatic Payment
This system really helps when my husband is trying to order something from Amazon or pay the electric bill for me. I cannot always remember the username and passwords unless staring at the screen typing it in. This allows my husband to pick up the binder and order!
So help us all out.
Do you use a Financial Section in your binder?
What do you include? Any hints or tricks? Links to free printables is always welcomed of course :)
Thanks for tuning in to Day #2 of the Homemaker's Handbook.
Check back later this week for more links and printables for organizing your binder.
