Family budget: how to plan expenses and achieve financial goals

As soon as we talk about the need for family accounting, most often the same excuse is used: why do I need it when there is nothing to distribute? Our family barely makes it from paycheck to paycheck! Meanwhile, experts are unanimous: meticulous accounting of income and expenses allows not only to live up to the salary, but also to save 10-15% of all expenses!

Start planning

There are only two ways to increase the amount of money in your wallet - reduce expenses and increase income. So the first place to start is to get serious about these items.

Planning both electronically and on paper is a regular balance sheet with two columns - income and expenses for the month, and the totals in both columns should match. The column "income" includes the salaries of all family members, including allowances, payments for children, pensions, scholarships, bonuses and other.

Determining with expenses, first of all, it is necessary to take into account the mandatory monthly expenses that can not be canceled. These are utility bills, TV and telephone bills, loan repayments (you remember that the share of loan payments should not exceed 25% of income, right?), travel expenses, etc.

A special item in the column of expenses is food, on which Ukrainians, according to statistics, spend every second hryvnia earned. According to calculations, a family of three spends about UAH 3 thousand per month on food.

Children make a significant amendment to the mandatory expenses. Payment for kindergarten or school, school lunches are not all expenses. For example, payment for a cell phone to a child is more than obligatory: after all, if an adult can get by without money on the account by calling the necessary number from a work phone, a child without communication in our turbulent times may find himself in a desperate situation.

Similarly with buying clothes and shoes. Not all adults buy themselves new clothes every month, but if the family has a child who regularly grows out of old things, these expenses can be counted as monthly expenses! By the way, it is much easier to save money if a person understands why he does it. It turns out that all the variety of purposes can be divided into three large groups: achieving financial goals (opening your own business, expensive purchase, etc.); unforeseen expenses; recreation and entertainment.

Money thieves: find and neutralize!

Practice shows that unreasonable spending in their budget will easily find every family. Some of them are so widespread that it is time to call them the real thieves of money: gambling, alcohol and cigarettes, eating out, excessive use of water, electricity, cell phones, purchases made under the influence of a momentary impulse, satisfaction of momentary childhood whims, the desire to keep up with a neighbor, boss, friend, etc.

Calculate how much money you could save each month by reducing at least some of the above expenses and multiply the result by 12. The amount of potential annual savings will impress you greatly! Very soon you will be able to save up money for what you have been dreaming of and feel real joy rather than the primitive satisfaction that you are now "as good as anyone else".