The Family Financial Workbook: A Family Budgeting Guide by Larry Burkett is a 144-page workbook from Moody Publishers, built around one goal: getting a family’s finances onto paper so a couple can see where the money is actually going.
Burkett was one of the most widely read voices in Christian personal finance until his death in 2003, and this workbook reflects decades of counseling families through budget problems. It isn’t a book you read cover to cover so much as a tool you work through, with worksheets for tracking income, fixed expenses, savings, and giving. The premise is simple: a budget isn’t a restriction, it’s a plan for managing what God has already provided.
The worksheets are laid out clearly and don’t require an accounting background to use. Burkett repeatedly ties the practical steps back to Scripture, including Proverbs 21:20 on storing up resources rather than spending everything as it comes in. The tone throughout is that handling money well is part of faithfulness, not a separate category from it.
Where this book is most useful is as a sit-down exercise for a couple: filling out the categories together, seeing the numbers side by side, and making decisions about savings and giving as a team rather than in isolation. It’s not flashy, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s a workbook, and it does what a workbook should: give you a concrete structure to follow instead of vague advice to “budget better.”
If you and your wife have been meaning to sit down and actually build a budget instead of just talking about one, this is a solid, no-nonsense place to start.
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