How Do You Budget for Everything?

For example, when I served in a very small congregation last year, I had a three-figure budget. I had no teachers. I had worship times that shifted. We averaged 28 in attendance, 12 of them were children. We would fall at the $420 price point. This is how I would have used my budget to purchase this bundle.

$125 from continuing education

$150 from curriculum

$50 from consumables

$75 from family resources

$20 from prayground materials

Half of these funds would come from the church's budget for children and family ministries. The other half would come from a grant I wrote and received from our conference leadership. This would have left me with about $150 for other items throughout the year.

 

Where I serve now, we average 225 in attendance on a Sunday. I have 43 children registered for faith formation. We average a combined 40 in attendance on Sunday. I have 10 teachers that rotate in classrooms, some are experienced and some are new to the craft. We would fall at the $720 price point. This is how I use my budget to purchase this bundle:

$150 from continuing education for teacher training cohort

$150 from continuing education for children's ministry cohort

$150 from curriculum

$100 from prayground resources

$100 from family resources

$70 from consumables

This leaves my nursery budget intact, and reserves 25% of my remaining budget for other purchases.