Page 21 - FAMILY TIMES 23 JAN

FAMILY TIMES -The Family Edutainment Magazine - January 2023 Edition ©

If you get to the point where there's no more money left for the month
in a particular category, stop spending. Don't let yourself spend what's
not in the budget.

If one of your family's goals is to spend time together in the evenings
and weekends, then you don't want to get yourselves so far in debt that
you're barely making it each month.

If your expenses exceeded your income, you'll have to cut expenses or
increase your income to have a balanced budget. If finding additional
income is not possible, you will need to decrease your expenses. Most
of these cutbacks will have to come from variable expenses (utility bills,
entertainment, transportation, clothing, groceries, entertainment,
dining out, etc.) rather than fixed expenses (mortgage or rent
payments, auto and educational loans, tithes, etc.).

Once you've come up with your budget, stick with it. When you do
spend, record the expenditure either on a computer (using a budgeting
program such as Quicken or Microsoft Money) or in a ledger book.
Keep a running total of how much you've spent in your various budget
categories for each month.

If you get to the point where there's no more money left for the month
in a particular category, stop spending. Don't let yourself spend what's
not in the budget.

www.familytvghana.com/times