Our Budget & Sinking Funds 2023 : Family of 4 In NZ : Single Income : Minimalist Family Life

How we Budget & Our Sinking Funds for 2023 : Family of 4 In NZ : Single Income : Minimalist Family Life
How we are budgeting during the cost of living crisis as a one income family
My Felt Store: felt.co.nz/sho...
If you would like to support my little channel you can do so by buying me a coffee ☕️ ko-fi.com/minimom
The spreadsheets I’m using are from this Etsy Store:
This is the budget spreadsheet
www.etsy.com/n...
This is the sinking fund tracker: www.etsy.com/n...

[@jowatson2607]

When I got my first part time job at 16 my mum gave me a notebook & told me to write down what I had coming in & what was going out so I knew my balance. I still use a notebook now to manage our finances as a family. We have paid off all our debt other than the mortgage & have some savings in our emergency fund & no credit cards. I hope to teach my daughter using the lessons we learned the hard way so she doesn’t make the same mistakes x

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi Jo, we are trying to do the same with the boys. I really want them to have good financial habits by the time they leave home 😊

[@TheAlicesandilands]

I hope so too Jo. We talk often with the kids about how debt choices from a few years ago still affects us today and dictates some choices we make. I hope they are listening!

[@jessicabattle1863]

I found this video super helpful! I’m an emotional spender, and often go a bit overboard for things like birthdays and Christmas, and I always end up regretting it/worrying about money. Sinking funds and a spreadsheet will help me so much! Thank you for sharing Bayley 🥰

[@sarahwhitt83]

Love this! Thank you for taking the time to do this. You are so organised! X

[@nancyesposito1020]

Thank you so much for this video and sharing. I'm definitely going to download those forms I love the simple format of it! We are just coming out of debt and I want to start off making sure that I start sinking funds for everything which I've never done before! This is so great to see it separately even though it's all going into one account. I will definitely feel like I have more control over things. Thank you so much! I love your channel. I haven't watched in a while because we just sold our home and moved to a smaller place it's been a lot of sorting and organizing and I haven't had any time to sit and relax and watch you on KZbin! Now I'm finally at the point where I can enjoy your channel again!

[@evzepz1449]

I really enjoyed this video. Are you planning on doing another one like this for 2024? It would be really interesting

[@melanievaccaro6944]

Thank you for this video, just what I need to start my budgeting journey. I have never budgeted and when Christmas and birthdays come along I get really stressed out. I will definitely look into the spreadsheets. Let's hope I have the discipline to use them every month.

[@acrobaticanna]

Dave Ramsay's 10 Baby Steps are awesome. After 15 years of going back to Step 1 a few times and setting goals, I am also debt free at 46. It's awesome!! I have chosen to be a rent-investor. I rent and live in my dream home. And I own an I investment property outright in another city that's way cheaper than where I live.

[@jamie-leewatson3565]

So good. I do have sinking funds but nowhere near as organised as you! You've inspired me to get more serious about it so that I can continue to be a stay at home mum well into the future.

[@nicoleziegler1486]

I love to budget haha. We use YNAB which is a bit expensive, but we have a sinking fund for it. I love how thorough your method is, while also being flexible for the unexpected!

[@meagannewsham6065]

Thank you so much for this video. You have inspired me to take control of my family’s money and dedicate some time to this on an ongoing basis and being realistic. Thank you!

[@DanielleHigginbottomBrown]

Great video ❤ we are also a 1 income family, and live in Canada 🇨🇦 I also have Sinking Funds categories. I am a pen and paper girl and designed and printed out my own yearly/monthly budget planner, and my husband I and sit down and have 5-10 min reviews every day or so, that way we are both on track and there are no surprises. I have Rachel Cruze book “Live Your Life Not Theirs” and have highlighted and reread it numerous times. I highly recommend it. It really puts “keeping up with the Jones’s” in perspective

[@melodyguy4252]

I've just bought this. Thanks for your recommendation!

[@bayleymadeit]

Thank you Danielle, I will see if I can find that book here ☺️

[@Renske545]

Great video. Thanks for sharing

[@mustardseed123]

Hope you had a lovely Christmas Bailey! Love this video! Reminds me to get back onto a budget.

[@louisem6176]

I budget fortnightly with an excel sheet I made. I still keep my sf in cash and we only have our mortgage to pay off. I do like your one account for it and a excel sheet idea. We've been locked in and mortgage bubble will explode in February. If you want it you save for it. My kids have their own accounts when we out some into each fortnight and they add to it throughout the year. They know it's for a big purchase when they are old... Car, travel etc. Thanks.

[@andreacobb5099]

Great video! Thank you for sharing your budget triumphs and failures. We are a debt-free (except a smallish mortgage) one income family. I've not figured out how to manage separate sinking funds within our savings. It all gets tangled up for me. Thanks, also, for sharing that you cut your own hair (with the help of your husband) We insoucre haircuts and dog grooming to keep our costs low. Perhaps a fun video showing how you do your hair trims?

[@suzanacaetano7390]

@minimom Yes, please show us how you manage to maintain such a beautiful fringe! 😊

[@isabmoir]

I love ss budgeting! Never took to pen and paper. I don’t carry cash anyway so it’s much easier for me to download the statements online and put into the spreadsheet. I haven’t set mine up for 2023 yet though as I want to revamp the sheets to effectively include transfers between accounts. I like the idea of sinking funds :)

[@OGGgirl]

No debt here either! I do the spreadsheet too, but at heart, paper and pencil for me too! We are saving for a trip to New Zealand, to finally meet my mother's side of the family. Sinking funds are the way o go! Great video!

[@bayleymadeit]

Thank you! And yay for no debt!! 🎊 I hope you are able to come to NZ soon! 😊

[@acrobaticanna]

I have just figured out what a Sinking Fund is. Great explanation after hearing about it for years.

[@larissaguy9083]

Love this video and your no debt message and honesty about being a spender. My hubby and I learnt the hard way too and we also ditched the credit cards, car loans and any debt other than our mortgage. Thanks for sharing, I love budget videos and yours gave some great tips I will definitely add to my routine.

[@Mrssupermumm]

i really like this type of video, thank you for sharing your method.

[@buryg4692]

We stopped budgeting for family gifts and instead allocated that .money to charity. We realised we don't need to be buying more stuff for each other. Time together is more important for us.

[@jacquelynmoloney6172]

I love this budget Bayley, thank you for sharing and explaining how it works. I will be purchasing this for sure. Hopefully it will be my only luxury/miscellaneous purchase for 2023. With the cost of inflation in Australia I'm going to try not to do any emotional spending. 🤞🏼

[@bayleymadeit]

Thank you Jacquelyn 😊 I hope the spreadsheet really helps you and hopefully the rise in inflation won’t go on for too much longer.

[@JOYSILVERWOOD1]

Great video much needed for me thank you

[@melodyguy4252]

Thanks for sharing Bayley. We've ended up with a big mortgage because our house needed maintenance that costed a lot more than we expected. Wish we'd bought something small and new like you. We have created a small flat using our downstairs and are in the process of creating a second using part of our upstairs and converting the attic for our bedrooms. The rental income will cover our interest while rates are high and our full housing costs (rates, mortgage principal and interest etc) once rates have come back down again.

[@sarahcroft7980]

Yay a budget video , IL get my coffee ☕ 😁 Edit: absolutely about no debt. We paid off $25k of debt in 2016 (in nz) and never looked back. Money is easy to manage but managing yourself is what takes work 🙂

[@bayleymadeit]

☕️ 😊

[@desola17]

Me too!!! 🎉🎉🎉

[@bayleymadeit]

It’s 8am in NZ right now, is it too early for a second coffee (and a Tim tam 😅) I have been up since 5am 😂

[@desola17]

@@bayleymadeit it’s never too early for a Tim Tam!!!! 😉😋😋

[@bayleymadeit]

You’re right! 👍😁

[@Untamedhearth]

No debt means I stay home with our boys too! Such a game changer! We wouldn’t have it any other way. ❤️

[@bayleymadeit]

😊❤️

[@TheAlicesandilands]

I love a good budget spreed sheet. I had total budget envy of you sinking funds one, so I made one the same. Ours was so boring and basic. It is silly how much joy it gives me 😂

[@bayleymadeit]

I feel so much more motivated when everything is set up in a way that looks good. 😂😊

[@TheAlicesandilands]

@Minimom yes definitely. I also made a pie chart of the % of where our money is going and our mortgage is quite a bit more than the 25% Dave Ramsey suggests which is an eye opener, we don't even have a fancy house to be able to downsize/grade, just a standard 3 bedroom 100sqm 80''s house 🤦‍♀️

[@kb8990]

This is super helpful!

[@mycircusmonkeys84]

I use my Collins day to page planner. I plan my menu and grocery list in there too.

[@inspiringsimple]

My husband and I were NEVER taught to budget at all. We are on a single income and have 10 children. We only have a small mortgage and no other debt and no credit cards but I think never being taught about budgeting has made me worry about $ a lot over the years. My husband has set up some sinking funds and we do obviously pay all of our bills and have some savings. BUT my husband is also saying we need to make more money to ACTUALLY get ahead. HOW to do this I do not know 😆 So hopefully in 2023 my husband will want to discuss budgeting more and I don’t stress AT ALL (in any part of my life but especially $).

[@sian_amnz]

Just in time!! I made a cuppa and all 5 kids are still sleeping haha good morning!

[@bayleymadeit]

Good morning Sian 🫖😊

[@elainefoxall8544]

love this video, the spreadsheet you use is no longer available :( do you know of any similar please? or the name of the Etsy seller x

[@hineawe]

Your mortgage payment is a dream :') Interest rates are killer!! Also love the sinking fund tracker! We want to go to Fiji this year as well!

[@bayleymadeit]

Yes, we were so lucky to lock in that interest rate. At the time we had no idea how bad it would get. We are dreading re-fixing our loan 😩

[@ANNtique]

Great video. I am not good at tracking spending and budgeting

[@amychen2504]

Yay! With you in smaller house, low fixed rate, no debt other than mortgage 🎉

[@bayleymadeit]

Yay!!! 🎉🎊

[@kb8990]

I just purchased this sheet based on seeing you use it. (You should team up and see if you can get a referral partnership. I wouldn’t have heard of it if not for you!) I’ve watched the video and I’m trying to set mine up like yours. I only want one sheet per paycheck. When I “duplicate” the original to make our second sheet for the month how do you see that second sheet’s separated logs, SFs, etc? Does that make sense how I’m asking? How do you keep your months separated?

[@Maria-mq9te]

Love the video. On another subject I remember you mentioning in a video where you got your bag from. Your every day bag. Can you please let me know as I cannot find the video. Thanks 🙏

[@sallyb4699]

I love my sinking funds. It was a game changer for our family finances. Pen and paper for me! 😊 Great video Bailey xx

[@debbielong8087]

Very good! One question. Do you actually spend 250 on their birthday? Seems a lot but I am in US.

[@EdenBaynes]

Would love to see an update for 2024

[@rexyvall]

This is so helpful. Im in Australia and we are also feeling the heat of costs rising. We also decided to to buy a super big expensive house, definitely thanking myself now for that decision 5 years ago. But both my kids are starting a private school this year, and so we need to rein in on the spending. I noticed there wasn't any mention of school fees in our budget, do you budget for that? Are your school fees private or public?

[@LisaGray1000]

School is free in NZ except for some schools. It's not that common for kids to go to private school here.

[@DeniseNZ]

I am a ‘on paper’ budgeter and a cash stuffer. But . . . It takes so much time (I think I’ve over complicated it) and I really like this set up. Thinking I might purchase it (while it’s on sale!) and give it a try. For the sinking fund page - do you have to nominate an amount to put in regularly or can you just wing it dependant on the budget that week? Thanks for sharing, Bayley 😊

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi Denise, The sinking fund page is an add on so you need to add the amounts manually. When setting up the budget spreadsheet each fortnight I can change the amount for each sinking fund category depending on the amount of money we have in each pay period 😊

[@kb8990]

Or maybe what I’m trying to say is how do you have multiple months? Do you redownload every time?

[@heathers7671]

Hi Bayley.....I found this video so helpful. I went to Etsy and got the Budget sheets which are awesome. However I have one question....how do you keep track of how much you take OUT of your sinking funds when you come to use your savings? Heather from Oz.

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi Heather, I enter it as a negative amount (for example - 13.00) on the sinking funds page. I don’t log it on my main budget sheet. I hope that helps 😊

[@heathers7671]

@@bayleymadeit That does help Bayley. Thankyou so much! I'm just off to watch you new video.🥳

[@roxanne4534]

I'm a paper and pencil budgeter but i always get fresh ideas form you. One question, you may have answered it but with sinking funds do they all go in one account and then you make the separate catagories on your spread sheet? thanks Bayley.

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi Roxanne, yes all of the money is in one account 😊

[@JOYSILVERWOOD1]

Hooray finally time to watch. My car is 2007 too... meh

[@JuliaK-H]

That's a great video, thank you for sharing! ❤️ Have you shared before how you deal with emotional spending? And do you have any tips for teaching your kids how tomanage finances? Our oldest just turned nine and I feel like it's a good time to get into that topic with him...

[@JuliaK-H]

Also, your felt store is absolutely beautiful 😍😍😍

[@bayleymadeit]

Thank you Julia 😊

[@bayleymadeit]

The biggest thing that has helped me with my emotional spending is minimalism because I just don’t want to bring excess stuff into my house. I still struggle with it sometimes and the best thing for me to do when I feel like I will impulse buy items is to stay away from stores both physical and online. I am hoping the boys will pick up our financial habits just by watching us each day. They know we have to save for things and experiences. If we don’t have the money we can’t have it. 😊

[@JuliaK-H]

Thank you 😊🤗

[@Annitzah]

Thanks for sharing! The spreadsheet is beautiful. I'm wondering how you maintain your log tab. Do you manually enter everything, or can you export your transactions from your bank website and paste them in? We use YNAB, which allows us to reconcile our accounts (to make sure we didn't miss anything) and do a bank import, but sometimes the program seems overly complicated, and I don't love the monthly fee.

[@TheAlicesandilands]

How much does it cost for that service? I enter mine manually and I definitely miss stuff I hate it! I would use DR every dollar app but we can't get it in nz 😥

[@Annitzah]

@@TheAlicesandilands it comes out to $100 per year.

[@bayleymadeit]

Yes, I have to add everything manually, I usually do it every second day. It only takes 10 mins 😊

[@bebemcgorman]

Great video and this could work for us too. My husband is good with creating spreadsheets. I wonder, does the amount in your sinking funds increase automatically each new budget or do you have to manually enter in the amount. Does the spreadsheet add up the total entered into the sinking funds for that fortnight?

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi, I have to manually add the amounts to the sinking funds spreadsheet. The actual budget spreadsheet shows the total I have deposited into the sinking funds for each fortnight. I hope that makes sense 😅😊

[@Kakapo839]

Not sure if I missed this but do you have seperate bank accounts for the sinking funds or just one bank account but know on sheets what proportion is for each fund

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi Claudia, we just have one separate bank account named ‘Sinking Funds’ the spreadsheet keeps track of the individual balances. 😊

[@hobbytime9958]

I am suprised how low your power payments are - we are Kiwis, 5 of us living in Wellington. You usually use a dryer like us, don't you? We have an infinity gas hot water. Our power is about $300 a month.

[@hobbytime9958]

I think its time we looked at the "whats my number" website again.

[@bayleymadeit]

Hi, I think the biggest factor is our house is only 70 sq metres so there’s not a lot of space to heat/cool. When we first moved in I was worried about the dryer but I use it everyday and it doesn’t seem to use a lot of power. It is a heatpump condenser dryer though so it has a good energy rating.

[@bayleymadeit]

We use Contact for our power and they gave us a pretty good contract when we signed up 😊

[@annamordijck6104]

I budget monthly as i get paid monthly. I do it using pen and paper. I use day to day accou, bills account ans saving account. Ps: its time to ho to bed :)

[@smokeytrailcottage]

I wish it was summer here. Glad to see you feeling better. I just did a video just now to show ya, kzbin.info/www/bejne/jImnpXSig7Jjiac

[@bayleymadeit]

Wow, That’s a beautiful sunset 🌅