What information does the family need to do a budget?

The family will need detailed information about their income and expenses. Most families won’t have this all to hand, so you may need to develop a plan for collecting this information.

 Some strategies for collecting information include:

• Collect pay slips
  
• Keep bank statements or access them on the internet. If bills have been paid by credit card or on the internet or income is paid directly into the bank, bank statements will give a lot of useful information
  
• Write down all expenses over a set period
  
• Keep all receipts for a set period (this could be easier for parents who find writing and spelling hard)
  
• Collect bills for phone, power, water, child care and other regular expenses
  
• Check annual expenses such as insurance or car registration
  
• Use your knowledge of the family’s circumstances to help generate a budget eg how much do they give other family members in Australia or overseas, how much does dad’s methadone cost, what do they pay for informal child care?
  
• Ask other people how much they spend on items, to see if there are any unusually high expenses.