Highlights:
- Budgeting can help you save more money, work toward your financial goals, and reduce stress.
- There are lots of ways to budget, but in this article, we’ll go over why a weekly budget plan might be the most effective.
- Even though you’ll be budgeting on a weekly basis, be sure to account for weekly expenses, monthly expenses, and even one-off costs.
Budgeting can be a very effective way to save money, work toward your financial goals, and improve your overall personal finance situation. And while everyone has a somewhat different way of budgeting, planning for your weekly spending (rather than monthly spending) can be very effective.
This guide will cover everything you need to know about creating (and sticking to) a weekly budget plan. We’re gearing our money management tips toward families, but anyone can benefit from these general practices.
Is weekly budgeting right for my family?
When you research budgeting, you’ll find a lot of focus on monthly plans. You’ll see monthly budget templates, tools to use as a monthly budget planner, and a whole lot of info on how to optimize your monthly budget.
Weekly and biweekly budget planner tools get less attention, but the reality is that they work just as well as monthly budgeting. For some folks, weekly budgeting can actually work better. Why?
Well, weekly budgeting offers the following potential benefits:
It’s more approachable for those new to budgeting.
It may sync up better with your paycheck cycle, particularly if you get a weekly or biweekly paycheck. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 27% of people are paid weekly and 43% are paid biweekly.
It’s easier to track spending on a weekly basis.
You can more quickly adapt your budget or modify as needed if you’re going over or under budget.
You can use all the same tools as you would with a monthly budget, from a budget worksheet to common expense trackers.
But there are some potential downsides to budgeting on a weekly basis. For instance, monthly bills are more difficult to budget for, particularly if many fall in the same week. But ultimately, if you implement the right kind of strategies, a weekly budget plan can be very effective for your family budget.
How to make a weekly budget plan in 5 steps
Ready to get started? Here’s how you can create a weekly budget planner for your family.
1. Gather your family’s financial docs.
First, log in to your bank account, or grab your bank statements. If you use a credit card, collect your recent credit card statements as well. Finally, get your most recent pay stubs or paycheck record.
Using these documents, you can start getting key bits of your financial picture. The first place to start is your income.
2. Calculate your family’s weekly income.
Using your pay stubs or employer records, figure out your weekly income. If you’re paid weekly, this is as simple as looking at your net take-home pay after taxes and other deductions.
If you’re paid every two weeks, you can divide your paycheck amount by two to find your estimated weekly income.
If your income is inconsistent, you may need to find the average amount you take in in a week.
And if you have more than one source of income (e.g., your partner also works or you have more than one job or side hustle), you can total up all your sources of income to find your total household weekly income.
For example, say you are paid weekly and earn $650 per week, on average. Your partner is paid every two weeks, and earns $1,600 per paycheck (or $800 per week) after taxes. Your total household income would be $1,450 per week ($650 + $800).
3. Add up required expenses.
Next, total up all the 100% necessary expenses that your household has. Another way to look at this is expenses that you’re already committed to. This could include:
Rent or mortgage
Bills like electricity, internet, water, etc.
Car payments and auto insurance
Debt repayments, like credit card balances or other loans
Memberships and apps
Health insurance and other insurance payments
Kids’ school, club, and activity expenses
Basic groceries
Basic gas and transportation costs
Any other required monthly expense
You can do this on a monthly basis for now. For example, you might pay $1,450 in rent, $300 in utility bills, $350 in car payments, $200 in debt repayments, $100 in memberships, $250 on insurance, $300 in kids’ expenses, $600 on basic groceries, $100 on gas, and $100 on other miscellaneous required expenses, for a total of $3,750 per month.
From there, simply divide by four to find the typical weekly amount. In this case, you’re looking at $937.50 per week, which you might wish to round up to $950. Yes, there are slightly over four weeks in a month (because a month has 28-31 days), but for most families, it’s not necessary to overcomplicate with complex math. It’s easy enough to just round up a bit or use your rainy day fund to cover any gaps.
4. Find your family’s flexible spending amount.
Now you have two key numbers: Your weekly income and your weekly fixed/required expenses. In the case of our examples, your household income is $1,450 per week, and your fixed expenses are $950 per week.
Subtract your required expenses from your household income to find your flexible spending amount. In this case, you’re left with $500 ($1,450 - $950).
This means that you have $500 per week to spend, save, or pay down debts in a more flexible manner. As an example, this could look like:
$150 per week toward extra payments on your debt (beyond the required payments covered in your fixed expenses)
$100 per week into a savings account for future general expenses (or to build up your emergency fund)
$100 per week for dining out, coffee, and other treats
$50 per week for retirement savings
$50 per week for donations or gifts
$50 per week for a specific savings fund, which could be for future travel, birthdays/holidays, or any other goal
This amount of money can be used flexibly, or you can budget it more strictly. It just depends on your preferences and goals.
The idea here is to make sure 100% of your required expenses are covered each week and month before budgeting any money for more “optional” expenses like the ones listed here.
5. Track your spending, and adjust as needed.
You now have a weekly budget template to use for your household and rough estimates of how much you’ll spend in each category. It’s time to implement your budget and make sure things are going to plan.
To do this, you can use a budget spreadsheet made in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Or you could opt to use a budgeting tool or app. Printable budget sheets are another option if you prefer to track things manually.
Each time you spend money, track that spending. At the end of each week, add up how much money you spent in each category — and compare it to your budgeted amount. If you’re consistently going over your budget in an area, you may need to either adjust your budget, your spending, or both.
Tracking your spending will make sure that your cash flow is adequate to cover your weekly budget plan and will help keep your financial goals on track.
And as always, feel free to adjust as needed. If your current budgeting technique isn’t working well for you, you might consider utilizing guidelines like the 50/30/20 rule or a more simple method like cash stuffing.
Budgeting is what you make it
Your family may prefer a weekly budget plan. It can be more manageable than monthly budgeting, and it may better align with your pay periods. We’ve provided a step-by-step method for weekly budgeting above, but keep in mind that you can adjust as needed to suit your finances and your family.
Whatever method you use, take this opportunity to involve your whole family. Budgeting is a great way to start teaching kids about personal finances. You could even encourage your kids to build a budget of their own using their allowance money.
To really get the whole family on board, use the Greenlight app. Greenlight is the all-in-one money app for kids and teens with a debit card and powerful tools for spending, saving, investing, budgeting, and more.
Try Greenlight for one month, on us.
