Tools for assessing your current financial situation (from Money for women only)

I wanted to post some links on here to the homework I have given these past two weeks. Anyone can use them--they are free to download from the Crown Financial Ministries website.

• 30-DayDiary.pdf

The 30-Day Diary is for you to write down ALL your expenses, to the penny. The easiest way to do it is to keep your receipts and at the end of each day, sit down and record them all in the proper categories. You do not have to write down the "budgeted amount" at this time, although you can.

We want to track what we ACTUALLY spend in order to come up
with our current budget and then adjust it from there.  Don't
forget to get your husband's expenses, too--have him either give
you the receipts or write it down himself.  (use pencil)  ;)

• FinancialStatement.pdf

We use our information from the Inventory we took last week and compile the totals for the assets (the things we OWN) and the liabilities (things we OWE) and subtract the liabilities from the assets. Don't worry about whether you are in the negative or come close to zero. As we go along, you will be able to turn it around with the Lord's help for some good changes that are coming.

Once you have completed the Inventory and Financial Statement, you can begin to determine if there is anything you have that you can sell in order to fund your emergency fund (which we will talk about this week), pay off debt, or pay for something that is a need for you or your family.