This real-life example of a family budget example will show a sample budget for a family of five family members — real, hard numbers.
We have been married for over 16 years… man oh man. Budgeting is HARD.
Table of contents
(Sidenote: This post was written in 2014, and I have updated it since then — but have kept the original framework, but we’ve been married 24 years now — I also include a free family budget worksheet/calculator)
Also, be sure to listen to my recent podcast on your home economy:
Also, finances have ALWAYS been part of our routine. If you’re looking to get your home into workable systems this is a valuable tool that moms love!
Family Budget Examples
The Road to my Real Budget
I also have a podcast all about this subject!
The Spend Nothing Budget
I think we initially started with a newlywed budget that was just “spend nothing” — which, for the most part, worked. I worked part-time for a pediatrician, Drew taught trombone lessons. He often had sob stories from parents as to why they couldn’t pay. They bartered with us for items. Seriously.
Then, I started working full time for a nursing home and Drew worked as a Teacher’s Assistant at BYU. Again, budgeting was something we lacked. That continued through Drew getting a teaching job and me changing men’s catheters once a month (yeah baby!). I don’t think we ever had a concrete “spend this much on ______ ” type of a budget. We still tended to the “spend nothing” budget but leaned a bit further from that because we were both making money, although not much.
At this point, I decided it was REALLY important to start tracking. Initially I used Quicken, but it became too expensive and painful to use. I have recently switched to Moneyspire, and I tolerate it.
Mix of a Budget and Spend Nothing
Then we moved to CA and we were both working. I was also getting sign-on bonuses and I was SO busy I didn’t have time to budget. At that point, I realized that having a lot of money wasn’t making us happy. At. all. When I was finally able to cut down my hours I realized that budgeting was important. There was indeed a happy medium between “spend nothing” and go crazy and go to Costco weekly. {I should say we have never had a “go crazy” period of our marriage, but we were not very careful when we first moved to CA — no couponing, just trying to keep our heads above water — and I would guess a lot of couples where both of them work AND they have small children, lie in that same boat}
Full Budgeting
I would guess around the time our second child was born, we came into this budgeting system. It is somewhat like Dave Ramsey‘s, but here it is — our actual, real-life family budget! (please see my addendum at the bottom):
Example budget for a family of 5
Our monthly income is really variable (because as a nurse I pick up different shifts each month) — so, we place extra money in a savings as buffer for months I don’t work as much. Figuring out how to mange your irregular income is important for you to do. Knowing how much money you have is a big win.
This is our real-life budget — and I’ll split it into
- Bills
- Household Money
Bills {this is an average and includes: Mortgage, cell phone, water/trash, internet, Netflix, Car insurance, electricity, HOA, life insurance, lunch money preschool tuition and health insurance — which we pay out of pocket for me and the kids}. I’m not sharing our mortgage costs, as it is INSANELY low (thank you Arizona real estate downturn just as we moved here), but I will share the rest.
A breakdown on that money (this is our 2018 update on the monthly expenses #’s). If you have things that aren’t paid monthly, I would recommend counting your annual expenses in that category (possibly by looking at bank statements) and finding the monthly average you’ll need.
- Cell phones $125 (we split a family plan with my parents and I just send them a check every month)
- Water/trash $85 (again, an average — but this is fairly constant)
- Internet $75
- Netflix $10
- Car insurance $190 (2 adult and a teen driver)
- Electric Bill $150 (it’s fairly less right now and way more in the summer, and while this is hard to budget for it is what it is)
- HOA $38
- Life Insurance $50 (we each pay quarterly, I just took our payment and divided it by 3, we each use different carriers because it was cheaper that way)
- Lunch Money $25 (my kids get to get school lunch once a week)
- Health insurance premiums $529 (this is down from $950 we were paying on traditional insurance — we are now on a Christian Health Share for our health care).
- Mortgage Payment is around $1300 for the mortgage, insurance and property taxes
All of this money is pre-funded from the month before, and covers our basic needs. I will talk about that a bit in a later blog post.
Then we have household money each month, that totals just about 1k (much of this is variable expenses, but I try to average them here)
- Weekly money $360 ($90/week) — this pays for groceries and any incidentals
- Costco $200
- Gas $200
- Dating $100
- Clothing/Household $100
- Personal Money $100 – discretionary spending of 50/person
- Allowance $50
Sidenote — using a grocery price comparison list saves us a ton on groceries!
On top of all that we pay 10% of our income each month to the church in tithing
We also contribute money to our savings which is included in our monthly budget.
Child Care (while I am at work) is not actually part of our budget because I feel like it’s a bill, I will talk more about it during my “pre-funding” post.
Every month, I put about $5200 to cover expenses in our bank account.
We also contribute to a retirement account for long-term goals, and have a few accounts with short-term goals (travel, car care). We also have a savings account for unexpected expenses, so we don’t have to go into debt.
Remember YOUR first step is figuring out your personal finances, the budget categories you want to use, and possibly how to use extra money. That will really help you take a closer look at your financial situation.
For us, we really made a go of our side hustles, and that gave us more sources of income for greater financial stability.
Sample Budget for a family of 3 (or 4)
A lot of a family’s costs are fixed costs. Mortgage, like power & garbage, will all stay pretty similar. Just adjust my budget to fit your numbers.
So, there it is, black and white. That’s what we spend each month.
Clearly — there are other things not covered in this monthly budget but these are the majority of things (we have savings to cover car servicing, etc).
I am a part-time nurse, Drew is a teacher. We are putting a fair amount into savings each month to cover the masters that Drew is getting, but we still make ends meet at home.
My ❤️ hotels for your 2024 trip:
– Best Western Park Place — it’s the CLOSEST hotel, has a breakfast and if it’s available for your dates, BOOK IT. If not, check out the Tropicana.
– Cambria – this is my favorite one with a great price point for larger groups – has a water park and free breakfast (not walkable though) – but if you want a walkable suite check out Castle Inn
I’d love to know what your thoughts on this budget are. Do you think we spend too much? Do you think it’s too little? I will say that we utilize Goodwill QUITE a lot. Much more than most people would find comfortable. I will say it has been my saving grace while shoveling that money into savings for Drew. I haven’t felt deprived and I truly think God has taken care of us by the things we have found there.
One week I REALLY wanted a biscuit cutter. The can trick just wasn’t working. I brought it up on Amazon, and while it was only 10 bucks or something, it wasn’t in the budget so I left it alone. The next week, it was sitting (literally, the same one I looked at the week before on Amazon) in a bag at Goodwill. God looks out for us. He truly does. 🙂
**I should add that the only debt we currently have is a mortgage. We do not have a car payment, and we do not carry a balance on our credit cards (we pay our credit card bills in full each month). We didn’t have to take any student loans, and while I thought we’d have to take them for Drew’s schooling, we have somehow made it without. If you have debt I am sure that will affect your budget in other ways. We are funneling the money towards a tuition fund, instead of to a loan payment. Staying debt-free (besides a mortgage) is one of our financial goals.
Family Budget Worksheet
So, now that we’ve talked MY finances — it’s time to make your family budget template to help you take control of your finances.
This is the first in my budgeting series. You can read more at my family finances page.
2018 Update: My husband left his job and we sort of shifted how we budget — to more of an abundance budgeting, but these are still our rough numbers. Some months are higher and some are lower, but by opening ourselves up to more — I found I had to nickle and dime us a bit less.
Another link you might like: Doing Disneyland on a Budget
*I am not putting these budget numbers out there to be “woe is me” or “woo-woo look at me! We’re rich!” type feeling. I really think if people were more transparent about their own expenses it might make people re-think what they are doing with theirs, and help them think about their long-terms goals. I am sure we spend more and less then many readers on my blog. I hope this is helpful to some of you. I would LOVE to see other people’s. There’s really no reason that our budgets have to be hush-hush. I didn’t give you my social security numbers, or how much we actually make — this is just our goal to spend.
Family Budget Example FAQ’s
It’s a guide to budgeting some people have found helpful — 50% of your money to needs, 30% to wants and 20% to savings. Would that work for you?
For us, it was $100/week when we were living “high on the hog” — and then I trimmed it to $80. That also allowed for $200 to be spent at Costco as well (once a month). I am not sure what the average american family.
Man, that really depends on the area you live. I think mortgage/rent is the biggest part of a family’s budget and it affects everything else. Hopefully, my budget was helpful to give you a guide for what works for us!
I think my budget worksheet is a great place to start. 🙂 You can find the sign-up for it at the top and bottom of this post. 🙂
I think it helps to really SEE where you spent money last month and then go from there. I’d use a program like Mint or another financial tracking program to do this. It is good to reconsider your budget line items on a monthly basis (or quarterly) to make sure you’re feeling OK with your spending habits and the amount of money for your main goals.
I think, again, this depends on where you live. When we lived in CA it was half of our take-home pay, but that’s just how it was for everyone. The average financial gurus recommend is 30%.
A lot of the ways we have done this is by getting into routines — be sure to check out my courses Family Routines — if you want to get your family into a new lifestyle
Keri says
Well I’m definitely still trying to figure this whole budgeting thing out. It’s helpful to see how you do it. I think we have a long way to come, but I’ll probably be learning how to budget the rest of my life as we gather more expenses and earn more money (I hope!). Thanks!
Tolly Bockbrader says
In the breakdown, you didn’t include groceries. I have a family of 4 and that is our number one expense after the mortgage.
Hilary says
I did include groceries. We get 80 dollars per week to spend on groceries, necessities/going out (besides if me and my husband go out, we have a separate pot for that). I also have a 150 dollar Costco budget on top of that. Sorry if it wasn’t clear. 🙂
Hilary says
Here’s the info on our “weekly” money — I should put a link to that! 🙂 http://www.pullingcurls.com/2014/02/budgeting-weekly-money.html
julie says
Where you’re living has a lot to do with if you’re doing “well” budgeting, it’s hard to look at your #’s and say you’re paying too much in one category or another.
Personally we make a whole lot less than you do, I used to work ft but we’re on baby #3 and that just wasn’t going to happen! So I’m a stay at home mom and now we depend on one income which is about $33,000/yr which is under $1900/mo (with life insurance, vision, health, taxes, etc taken out).
My husband is also going to school half time to finish his bachelor’s degree, which he’s been doing 3 years now and has another 3 years to look forward to lol; not easy to do while working 45 hours.
I feel like we do really well with the money we are given and definitely God has always taken care of us.
Hilary says
I completely agree about where you live! We used to live in the Bay ARea, and things were different. We are more able to stay in the 80 dollars/week budget thing.
Thanks for your comment — I was mulling over increasing my weekly budget, but now I think I’ll try to reign it in. We are lucky that I work and am able to supplement the teacher’s pay (which would be similar to your husband’s). It sounds like you are a wonderful financial steward!
Courtney says
Thanks for your transparency. I am a stay at home mom and my husband is also a teacher. I am forever reading blogs and tips on saving money and frequently find that the tips are steps we are already taking. It is very helpful to see your budget in black and white. We use mint and I will see if I can copy and paste ours. It’s pretty similar to yours for the most part, but we do have a few student loans. We live in Florida and are seeing an alarming rise in food costs. I am trying to utilize our club membership (BJ’s). What, in your opinion, are the best items to buy in bulk for your family? Thanks again for your transparency. God bless.
Hilary says
I actually find it a lot cheaper to buy many things on sale at the grocery store. I have a cheaper by me board on Pinterest that has a few tips on buying at Costco. See if that helps at all?
Heather says
I am not very good at budgeting! I noticed your electric bill sounded variable. I live near Sacramento and our summer bills go up significantly and that made it hard to budget. The electric company averaged our last 12 months of bills and now we pay $131 a month. If we use more/less energy, they change our billing amount.
Hilary says
My dad, the economist recommended leaving it variable — otherwise you’re often giving the electric company a loan… so we stick wtih this. It works, since I work more in the Summer. 🙂
TiffanyS says
I am terrible at budgeting, and i have a Joanns addiction. On top of that, or vice versa, we live in Seattle which is super expensive for everything!
I do know how much I expect to spend on bills each month, but writing it down has always felt too restricting, and I blow it everytime. Thankfully we only have student loans to pay and no other bills, but I still feel like we never have enough.
Hilary says
Tiffany, a budget may make you feel like you HAVE enough. Sometimes I feel like I have a LOT to spend — other times, I don’t. 🙂
TiffanyS says
I should mention I stopped going to joanns. And we do tithe too. I reserve half our paycheck in case I missed something or medical expenses come up.
CMFL says
With our family we would have issues with setting a budget and then slowly disregarding it as time goes on. I think the main issue for us was not looking at budgeting as a necessity at first. I figured, hey, we have no debt, we’re still putting some savings aside, that’s good enough, right?
Well, as time went on, I realized we haven’t been saving enough. We’re in our early twenties and would like to buy a house within the next couple of years but can’t at the rate we’ve been accumulating our savings. Money was being spent on unnecessary expenses as well. Problem!
We decided to sit down and take a good hard look at our monthly spending habits. We asked ourselves, what can we cut back on? How much do we need to save over what period of time?
So with that being said, I love how transparent you are about your budget. I think it’s going to be extremely helpful for a lot of people. 🙂
Hilary says
It’s really hard to prioritize savings. It doesn’t look glamorous and there are SO many things we WANT. I agree that a budget can help us keep it in mind. 🙂 I have another page in that budget series that shows how we save…. you can find it here: http://www.pullingcurls.com/family-finances
Rachel G says
I think the place where you live affects one’s budget immensely. Right now, our budget looks odd to me because our housing and house bills are all paid by our employer as part of our contract, so they don’t even appear in our monthly expenditures. I like that system, honestly. And I know a lot about living on the ‘spend nothing’ budget–we did that when we were first married, for sure!
Hilary says
I completely agree. We used to live in the Bay Areas of CA and our budget was certainly different. While our grocery budget was the same it was a LOT harder to stay under it. 🙁
Nikki @ Growing Up Mom says
Great post, it is so brave of you to put your budget out there like that. My husband and I took the Financial Peace University Class at home (okay most of it, the actual class would have been better and made us more accountable to complete, but we made it up to all of the first 5 or 6 videos). Trying to get the cash out for us is a killer too. Just setting up the zero balance budget each month has been an eye opener for us. We were always somewhat frugal, but this opened our eyes to the little things we were overspending and needlessly spending on. Thank you for sharing your struggles with us..
Hilary says
Zero balance is hard since my income varies quite a bit. I think a budget is actually more freeing than just living in fear that you’re overspending. 🙂
Melissa French, The More With Less Mom says
I like that you are transparent with your budget, I think it helps a lot of people to see how things are broken down. Everyone’s situation is different, and so is their budget. Thanks for posting. Hello from Thrifty Thursday.
Hilary says
Awh, thanks Melisa. I love Thrifty Thursday! 🙂
brooke says
Wow! Your budget is VERY similar to ours. Almost identical. We live in central Florida, are a family of 5 and on one income as I stay home with our daughter (I homeschool her).
Hilary says
Brooke, I am glad to know I’m not alone. My co-workers think I’m insane, but I’d so much rather be home with my babies than working. 🙂
Olivia @ Snyders Tell All says
I love this! I’ve been debating sharing our budget…I think it’s helpful to see others. I don’t really care, but need to get hubby’s permission. 🙂 I don’t know what faith you follow, but if you’re Christian you should look into Samaritan Ministries! Our amount is $370-$400 a month for a family (doesn’t matter how many kids). Anything over $300 of a medical expense is fully covered. My recent pregnancy was covered after the initial $300!!!! On our previous insurance we would have paid thousands! My husband is a teacher and once the “Affordable” Care Act was implemented, our insurance was going up to $1080 a month for our family with a $2400 deductible. That would have been a third of my husband’s paycheck not including any medical expenses incurred so we had to do something else. God is good! I didn’t see retirement (unless I’m blind) 🙂 Do you save for that at all? Thanks for sharing!
Hilary says
Huh, maybe I should check into that insurance. My husband just resigned from his job so everything is pretty well up in the air at this point! 😉 We do retirement through work, it is taken out before we ever see it. We have contributed to ROTH IRA’s in the past, in addition to work — but with my husband doing graduate school we stopped. We will probably start up again after we figure out what the heck we’re doing. 🙂
Lisa says
Thank you for letting what you do out there. My parents did not teach us about this… it was hush hush for some reason. We weren’t wealthy all at but I didn’t know what my dad spend on the household budget or how he did it or anything. My parents have both passed and I am floundering on my own running a household with two kids and a husband who is gone much of the time as a truck driver. Stress! I deny until I can’t and then I feel like I go crazy (but others say I’m pretty cheap…) Talking about it helps! Thank you! Blessings.
Hilary says
I think a lot of people think I am “flauting” my money. I totally am NOT, I think it really helps to see that everyone is just trying to work it out in their own way. Thanks for your kind words!
Katherine Evans says
This looks eerily familiar and I LOVE the freedom of a personal category. I feel like it’s important to realize that budgets aren’t just a way to distribute all the money that comes in the house, but actually reflects what are necessities (expenses) and goals (savings). Growing up I always thought that you take your paycheck and cut it all into spending categories. We started our budget by tracking our spending for six months then evaluating the categories that seemed excessive (thanks JoAnns). We discussed the reasonable amounts and started there, with maximum savings goals in mind. When income increases we don’t feel obligated to change any categories allowing for extra savings. I have found that having a budget gives more spending freedom as long as we keep within the amount for each category. Sometimes we hold over “leftover” money for bigger purchases in later months (clothes for kids in the fall), making it more of a quarterly category, but the goal is not to spend everything each month. Thanks for sharing!
Hilary says
I also find budgets more freeing than just a “stop spending” type budget. It sounds counter-ituitive, but true.
April Anyah says
I need to learn how to budget more efficiently like this for myself!! Unfortunately I have loans from undergrad and grad school so that takes a chunk out. I live with my mom and sister so we split all the bills and groceries in threes then I have my own personal bills (credit cards, phone and student loans). I have a notebook where I calculate all the expenses I need to pay every two weeks when I get paid and it helps. I also always manage to put however much I can in my savings account every two weeks.
Hilary says
Well, I say budget what is left after payments. It will make you feel more free if you know how much you have to spend. Good luck!