How to Create a Family Budget and Financial Goals in 2025

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Learning how to create a family budget and setting financial goals is important for many families, especially in 2025 as we’re navigation the difficult waters of significant inflation. This is true for dual income families, but especially difficult for single income families.

In 2025, our family has changed from a six-figure household to a one income family. It’s an adjustment, but I want to share with you how we are setting our family budget and financial goals in case you are a single income family, plan to become one soon, or want to set meaningful goals for your family’s financial health in 2025.

The concepts of setting a budget and financial goals go hand-in-hand. If you are going to create a family budget, financial goals need to be part of the process. Having a goal anchors us to following through with our intended budget. I talk more about how to stick to a budget in this post, so give that a read if you are confident on the HOW to plan, but struggle with the follow-through!

1. Conduct an audit of your family’s current financial state

Before you create a family budget, you need to have an idea of where your money has been going the past few months. When performing an audit you’ll want to review the following:

• How much are we spending on necessities such as the mortgage, food, gas, utilities, etc.?
• Do we have any debt? How much?
• What are we spending on non-essentials, such as recreational fun, coffee runs, subscriptions, etc.?
• What is our usual income every month?
• Are there any costs we can reduce or remove from our current habits?
  • These would be quick wins, such as multiple streaming services.

2. Confirm Your Family Values

Being confident in your family values will give you a cornerstone to come back to every time you consider your budget or financial goals. Consider what is most important to our family in this season. Here are some examples below:

• Financial Security – Maybe in this season of life, you really just need to become financially secure. For each family, this definition may vary. For us, financial security was equivalent to six months of savings secured in case of a job loss, especially since my husband and I were planning for me to become a stay at home mom.
• Financial Freedom – Similar to security, the definition may differ depending on the family, but many consider “freedom” to be a state of not needing to careful calculate every purchase and simply living a certain way without being tied to a specific budget.
• Ability to Become a Stay-At-Home-Mom – Maybe you are growing your family and have decided you want to become a stay at home mom because you value raising your children yourself over sending them to daycare. (If this is you, be sure to check out this post that shares practical tips for becoming a secure single income family).
• Paying off your mortgage or buying a home – With shelter being a necessity, many families strive towards a goal of paying off their mortgage to more quickly achieve financial freedom or they want to purchase a home, which is a great investment for their family.
• Retirement – Maybe you’re in a season where all your debts are paid and you are financially secure, but need to focus on planning for comfortable retirement years, especially if you are an adventurous family.
• Planning a Major Purchase – Maybe you need to save up to pay cash for your next vehicle because you prefer to live debt free or you value adventure and quality time so you’re ready to plan your next family vacation.

3. Set ONE realistic goal with your partner based on your family’s values.

Why only one? I’d highly recommend you check out James Clear’s post that discusses the scientific argument for mastering one thing at a time. The consensus is that “the best way to change your entire life is by not changing your entire life. Instead, it is best to focus on one specific habit, work on it until you master it, and make it an automatic part of your daily life.”

Related side note: If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you read Atomic Habits by James Clear. You’ve heard of this book and it truly is such an impactful read for anyone!

Goal Criteria:

I personally lean towards S.M.A.R.T. goals whenever I am setting any sort of goal. If you aren’t familiar with SMART goals, this post is

• Specific – What are we striving for and who is involved?
• Measurable – We need to be able to measure our progress to know how and when we’ve achieved our goal.
• Achievable – Your goal should be slightly difficult, but achievable with discipline.
• Relavent – You need to be confident in your why (your family values).
• Time-bound – This allows you to gauge your progress and holds you to some level of accountability.

Example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal: Our household is going to set aside $500 every month for the next 4 years, so we can purchase a used, but new-to-us car with $24,000 cash 4 years from now.

4. To create a family budget is to dictate where your money goes every month.

If you do not tell your money where to go, it will later tell you where it went. Money is going to be spent either way, so it’s best that you direct its path rather than it taking you down a road you’d rather avoid. Plus, if you pre-plan out the budget, you’re more likely to stick with it.

My free printable financial planner is a great resource if you need something to get you started with creating a family budget and tracking your expenses.

5. Keep track of expenses weekly, not monthly.

Time tends to get away from us too quickly and before you know it, you’ve overspent and it’s too late to correct before the month ends. You need a constant pulse on your spending habits, in case you need to pivot your habits the remainder of the month.

As you review your weekly spending, consider the following questions:

• Why did we buy that?
• If it was a necessity, how would we rank that on a scale of 1-10, 10 being we can’t live without and 1 being “this probably wasn’t actually a need at all”?
• Was it an impulse purchase?
• Did that purchase add value to our lives, and if so, how?
• Was this purchase simply an item that’s going to add to our clutter in the long run?

6. Reflect monthly on your budget and spending habits.

When reviewing your spending for the month, consider the following:

• Did we stick to our budget?
  • If not, where did we deviate and why?
• Where did we succeed?
  • What were our wins?
• Where are there areas for improvement?
  • Where did we overspend or fail to save?
  • Were we unprepared for specific expenses? If so, how can we better plan for those in the future?
• Do we need to make any adjustments as we go into the next month?
  • Do we need to budget more or less in a specific area?
  • Do we need to eat out less or go out less to save on groceries or gas?

Bonus Tip: Use a PAPER budget tracker when you create a family budget.

While I think it’s important to use a budget tracker regardless of method, either paper or digital. I’ve used them all and while I love the convenience of an app that syncs with my bank account, I’ve found that I am more conscientious of our spending habits when I write things down.

Ultimately, I’ve realized the following:

• Writing down your budget and goals makes you more likely to stick to them.
• Writing down your purchases causes you realize how many transactions are taking place each month, giving you the opportunity to reflect.
• You’ll spend less because you won’t want to write as much down. (In rare instances, laziness can come in handy!)

You can purchase a paper budget planner off Amazon (I’ve liked this budget planner from Clever Fox) OR if money is tight and you simply need something free and printable for a binder, you can access mine below for FREE.

Pin These Tips and Free Printable Budget Tracker for Later

Pin this post and save it for later. Feel free to come back and reference these tips any time you need a refresher or encouragement!