Family Reality Check
CHAPTER 2, LESSON 3
NAMES DATE
raphael
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
Tree childrens twins age 4,6
2. Family name
The Millers
3. Names of each family member (identify adult and child names)
Joe Miller Jackson Miller
1. 5.
2. stephane Miller 6.
Jack Miller
3. 7.
4. Jill Miller 8.
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Family Reality Check
CHAPTER 2, LESSON 3
4. Annual income
90,000
5. Special budget situations (if any)
Nothing
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 $0 in categories where you don’t plan on spending any money.
STEP THREE: TOTAL EACH CATEGORY
Go through the form and add up all of the categories’ Total boxes. Place that grand total in
the Expenses box. That’s how much you spend every month.
The goal is to spend every dollar you make—but no more. So if your total expenses add up to
be greater than your income, you need to cut back on the budgeted amount on some items.
If your expenses are less than your income, you need to increase the amount budgeted for
some areas like College Savings or Groceries.
STEP FOUR: GET TO ZERO
Once you can subtract your total expenses from your total income and get zero, you’re done!
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Budgeting Form
INCOME Planned
EXPENSES Planned
3750$ joe month Spending
Health care 736$
3750$ steph month
groceries 2000$
auto insurance 50$
Total 7500$
tv 300$
EXPENSES gas 300$
Planned
car insurace 200$
125$ dept 3 months
phone data 141
Charity 25$
miscleanious 375
charity
Total 150$
cell phone bill 100
Saving
Jacks saving account 100$
Jackson saving account 100$
Jill saving account 100$
parents saving 500$
emergency saving 100$
retirement 1000
Total 1900 Total
Giving Total Saving Total Spending Total TOTAL EXPENSES
+ 1900 + 2738 = 4527
TOTAL INCOME TOTAL EXPENSES
7500$ – = 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?
7. What was most stressful about your group’s scenario?
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