Family Reality Check

CHAPTER 2, LESSON 3

NAMES DATE

DIRECTIONS
Follow the steps below to create a zero-based budget for your assigned family. You will use the budgeting
form in this process, but keep in mind that you might not need to fill in every single category—just the ones
that are relevant to your specific situation.

1. Family makeup
two parents (34,35), one child (age 3), one dog, one cat

2. Family name
dell

3. Names of each family member (identify adult and child names)

dell
1. 5.

2. dell 6.
dell
3. 7.

4. 8.

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 Family Reality Check
CHAPTER 2, LESSON 3

4. Annual income
90,000

5. Special budget situations (if any)

Building Your Family’s Budget

STEP ONE: ADD UP YOUR MONTHLY INCOME
Fill in your assigned family’s monthly take-home pay in the Income section at the top of the
page. This is the amount you have to spend for the month. Pretty simple, right?

STEP TWO: ESTIMATE YOUR SPENDING

Now it’s time to gather your assigned family’s expenses for the month and figure out how
much you’ll be able to spend in each budget category. Within each category, like Giving
and Spending, there are blank lines (Item 1, 2, 3, etc.) where you can fill in each expense
you have and how much money you’ll budget for that item. Start at the top and work your
way down, filling out the information about the items first. Then add up the dollar amount
budgeted for each item and put that number in each category’s Total box (e.g., Spending
Total).

*Remember: Just put $0 in categories where you don’t plan on spending any money.

STEP THREE: TOTAL EACH CATEGORY

Go through the form and add up all of the categories’ Total boxes. Place that grand total in
the Expenses box. That’s how much you spend every month.

The goal is to spend every dollar you make—but no more. So if your total expenses add up to
be greater than your income, you need to cut back on the budgeted amount on some items.
If your expenses are less than your income, you need to increase the amount budgeted for
some areas like College Savings or Groceries.

STEP FOUR: GET TO ZERO

Once you can subtract your total expenses from your total income and get zero, you’re done!

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 Budgeting Form
INCOME Planned
EXPENSES Planned
monthly income 7,500 Spending
debt 165

flat tire 35

groceries 150
Total 7,500
phone bill 120

EXPENSES internet 50
Planned
Giving subscriptions 35
charity 750
mortgage 1,000
church 2,000
water bill 60

electric 135
Total 2,750
entertainment 80
Saving
car savings 1,500 insurance 50

emergency fund 500 miscellaous 200

general savings 778

Total 2,778 Total 1,972

Giving Total Saving Total Spending Total TOTAL EXPENSES

2,750 + 2,788 + 1,972 = 7500

TOTAL INCOME TOTAL EXPENSES

7,500 – 7,500 = ZERO

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 Family Reality Check
CHAPTER 2, LESSON 3

Group Feedback
6. What did your group disagree about as you created your budgets? How did you
resolve your disagreements?
how much would be spent on expenses and giving. It could be different for any mnth so its not
always fixed.

7. What was most stressful about your group’s scenario?

none of it really, it was a good income and well amount of debt.

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