Sample Personal Budget

A Look at Family Budget Sheets Across the US

This sample personal budget information should help all stay at home moms with their family budget sheets. Budgeting is overwhelming; looking at a sample of a household budget can be a great place to start getting your family on track.

Trying to set up a budget is a challenge for anyone, especially if this is the first time you've ever tried creating a sample of a household budget for your family. For this reason, looking at a sample personal budget can be a huge help.

Taking a look at the average American family and their typical family budget sheets can give you an idea of where you're money will go and how you can best allocate funds on your own budget. Here is a closer look at the typical household of four in America, the breakdown of where their money goes, categories used to prepare budgets, and even a couple different ways you can use to organize your own budget as a stay at home mom.

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Average Annual Expenses for a Family of 4

First, before you look at a sample personal budget or a sample of a household budget, it's a good idea to get a good look at the average annual expenses that a family of four is looking at in the first places. The average family today earns about $64,000 before taxes are paid.

Incredibly, almost $50,000 of that is going out in expenditures on a yearly basis. The largest chunk of money that goes out is for housing, with most families paying about $17,000 a year for housing.

That amount includes shelter, household operations, furnishings, public services, utilities, and equipment. Another large expense for families is transportation, where about $8,700 is spent on gasoline, vehicle purchases, and other transportation expenses.

A sample personal budget or a sample of a household budget for a typical American family also includes about $6,000 for food each year and more than $5,300 for insurance and pensions. About $2,700 is spent on entertainment, about $3,000 on healthcare, close to $2,000 on apparel and services, and close to $1,000 falls into miscellaneous expenses.

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Typical Breakdown of Where Families Spend Money

Before creating your own family budget sheets, it's nice to have a good look at the typical percentage breakdown of where that money is being spent, basically allowing you to see how a sample personal budget would be laid out.

Usually the largest percentage of the average family's income goes towards housing. Housing costs for the average family of four takes up between 33-38% of their budget.

Next largest is the transportation costs, taking up between 15-19% of the budget on average. About 13-14% is taken up by the food budget. Other parts of budget are broken into smaller percentages.

Personal insurance and pensions take up about 9% of the budget while entertainment and clothing each take up 5% respectively. Out of pocket healthcare expenses account for about 4-5%, while about 4% of the budget goes to consumer loan and credit card interest each year. Other smaller percentages of the budget include 2% for miscellaneous expenses, 2% for education expenses, 1% for personal care services and products, and less than 1% for caffeine or tobacco related products and alcohol.

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What Categories are Used by Families to Prepare Their Budget?

As you take a look at a sample personal budget and a sample of a household budget, it's a good idea to see what categories are used by other families and stay at home moms on their family budget sheets.

It's important when you're creating your own budget to have a realistic look at the various categories you'll need to use yourself.

Here are a few of the most common categories you'll find used in a sample personal budget or a sample household budget by the average family today:

Housing Expenses Auto Expenses Food Expenses Entertainment Expenses Insurance Expenses Debts

Clothing Expenses Savings Child Care Expenses Medical Expenses Investments Miscellaneous Expenses

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Different Ways You Can Organize Your Budget

As you check out sample personal budget and sample of a household budget options, you'll find that you can organize your budget in several different ways that makes being a stay at home mom easy. In most cases, families use the monthly budgeting system to organize their budget.

This way they can sit down and look at how much money is coming in on a monthly basis and the monthly bills that have to be paid. Another option is to organize your budget on an annual basis, taking everything into consideration on a yearly basis. The most popular option is the monthly budget, but you can find a sample personal budget laid out annually if this is an option that you think will work better for you.

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Related Pages

Why Budget?

Organize Your Budget

The Envelope Budgeting System

Organize Monthly Bills

What to Include in Your Budget

Mvelopes Budget System

YNAB- You Need a Budget Tool

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