How To Make A Family Budget Pie Graph

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that I’m a big fan of budgets! I think they’re essential for keeping your finances in order, especially when you have kids to consider. So I’ve talked a lot about how to make budgets in the past. But today, I’m going to be discussing how to make a family budget pie graph in particular!

Because I know that, for some people, having a visual to look at can help them cement something in their mind. And I know from experience that kids (especially when they’re small) do better with visuals. So if you want them to feel involved with the budgeting process, a pie graph is a great way to do it.

What should a family budget pie graph look like?

If you’ve never seen a budget pie graph before, it may be a bit hard to visual. Especially if you don’t use pie graphs often (and many of us don’t). So here’s a quick example of what one might look like…

As you can see, the design is really simple and that makes it easy to read. Plus, something about seeing how big each slice is, can actually help us better understand where our money is going. Particularly if you’re a visual learner.

And the good news is, it’s actually quite easy to make one of these for yourself! So let’s talk about how…

How do you make your own family budget pie graph?

Step One – Make Your Budget

Firstly, it’s important to note that you can’t make a pie graph to display your budget if you don’t have one! So before you create your pie graph, you’ll have to make a budget (unless you have one already that is).

This is probably the most tedious part of the process, but it’s worth it! To start, you’re going to need to take a look at all your usual expenses. And I always suggest that you look at least three months into the past (preferably six) to get a good idea of your average. Because things tend to fluctuate slightly over time.

Once you find a monthly average for each expense, you can compare it to your family’s monthly income in order to figure out the percentage of your funds that it’s taking up. So if you make $1,000 each month and your bills cost about $200 per month, then your bills take up 20% of your funds.

Now, one of three things is going to happen after you complete this process. You’ll find that the sum of all your “expenses'” (including savings, etc) percentages is higher than 100%, right at 100%, or lower than 100%.

If it’s either of the former two, then you need to figure out some ways to cut down on your expenses so there’s a little wiggle room. And if it’s the last option, then you can simply allot the extra percentage to something like savings or file it under “other”.

Step Two – Choose Your Preferred Method Of Making A Pie Graph

When you have your list of expense percentages in order, you can move onto the next step… Which is choosing how you want to make your pie graph. Do you want to make it digitally? With a pen and paper?

Personally, I think the simplest way to make a customized pie graph is in Canva, because they have free pie graph templates that allow you to input your own numbers and colors. In fact, that’s where I created the pie graph I used for an example in this post, and it only took me a few minutes.

Step Three – Make Your Family Budget Pie Graph!

Now for the step you’ve all been waiting for, it’s finally time to make your pie graph. And you should start by making sure you only have about five or six categories to input. Because if you add too many slices to a pie graph, it starts to look a little overwhelming.

So if you had multiple expenses that could be grouped together, do that! You don’t need a separate slice for electric, water, etc… They can all go in one slice labelled “utilities”. Or you could even combine them with your rent and call it “basic living expenses”. Similarly, if you have a lot of small expenses like eating out, buying decorations for your house, etc… then you could group those together as “random expenses”.

You should also make sure that the colors you’re using within the pie graph contrast nicely with each other, in order to avoid confusion about where slices begin and end. And don’t forget to label the slices as well!

Finally, you could either put the percentage of your income alongside the label of each expense or simply input the dollar amount. For instance, for your living expenses you could write “40%” or “$750”. But if you decide to use the dollar amount, remember to add your total income to the page for comparison with each slice.

Then all that’s left is to choose where you put your pie graph! If you made it online then you could print it out and put it in your finance binder. Or you could even hang it on your fridge so the whole family sees it regularly. Just choose a spot where you can refer to it easily.

Final Thoughts

A family budget pie graph is just one of the many ways you can go about displaying your budget, but if you’re struggling to find a method that works for you, I suggest you give it a whirl! It’s a small way to make budgeting a little more fun, so that’s always a win.

And if you’d like to read more about parenting and running a household, please consider checking out some of my other content as well! Happy budgeting!