Hello dear readers! You've probably noticed that low-income families manage to buy expensive things, regularly go on vacation, and save something else. On the other hand, families with a decent income do not constantly get out of debt, they constantly pay off some kind of loans and constantly complain about the eternal lack of money. How so? Secret, v. Let's take a look at the most effective (and at the same time, the most affordable) tips for saving your hard earned money.
1. Accounting for income and expenses
You need to start with this. You must have a clear idea of how much you are getting and how much you are spending, and most importantly what you are spending on. Most people do not even know what all their money is spent on, it is just that by the end of the month they have nothing left on their hands from the earned.
2. No credits
If you still cannot save up for the thing you like, then what's the point in order to give back the same money + gigantic overpayments in interest later. The exception here is loans that help increase your earnings (for a business, for a car for work) or very expensive, such as a mortgage.
Usually, 30-40% of all your food expenses go to all kinds of unhealthy foods: chips, beer snacks, sweets. After analyzing, you can delete it from your diet, or replace it with something more useful or cheaper. As a last resort, if it will be really hard for you without it, reduce the consumption of unhealthy (but so tasty) foods.
10. No petty expenses
I bet you didn’t know, and didn’t even realize that buying a new mobile phone costs you less than various small expenses: snacks in a cafe while walking, various chocolates, books on the road, coffee from vending machines.
It seems that these are small expenses, but they occur on a daily basis. And they steal from your family budget every day. A rather large (or, more precisely, a very large amount) accumulates in a year.
As a rule, all of this can be abandoned, if not all, then more. There is nothing complicated, go for a walk, take a bottle of water with you and be sure to eat before leaving. You constantly buy coffee from a vending machine at work - buy yourself a can of coffee, sugar, cream. Love to read - buy yourself an e-book.
11. Extend the time horizon of purchases
Plan ahead for expensive purchases. During this time, you can decide in advance on the characteristics of the purchased product, you will find where you can buy it cheaper. Thus, you can buy a thing for another 10-20 percent cheaper than in a nearby store.
12. Before leaving their home unplug all electrical appliances(light, computers, etc.). Of course, now most of the devices work in the energy-saving mode, but again a pretty penny for a year runs into a decent amount.
13. Eat at home.
Expenses for snacks, dinners in cafes, and even just buying a glass of juice or tea steal a fair share of your budget. Of course, if you cannot do without it, then add these costs to your family budget and try not to go beyond the allocated funds.
14. Buy only expensive and high quality
Remember the proverb “ Miser pays twice". This is just our case. Buying expensive and high-quality things, you will be sure that you need to change them every year or carry them for repairs.
Advice... Going to extremes and buying expensive branded items is also not worth it. Why overpay for a name. You can find a cheaper (BUT QUALITY) analogue.
15. Buy tomorrow
If you saw a product at a super discount in a store or you came across a thing, and it seems to you that you just need to buy it, postpone the purchase until tomorrow.
According to statistics, up to 70% of all spontaneous purchases, as a rule, are not used by customers in the long distance (after one or two weeks) and then gather dust in the closet.
You will have time to think, and in the morning it may turn out that you do not really need it (or even do not need it at all).
Using these very simple tips, you can more efficiently manage your family budget. You will see that, in principle, it is not at all difficult to set aside money to buy a new TV, or save up for a family vacation. You will learn to control and manage your money and they will become under your control.
Hello dear readers! Sometimes it seems that money is flowing away like water, although it seems that you do not allow yourself anything superfluous. This is especially noticeable in the decree - spending has increased, and the total income is less, most often twice! Willy-nilly, you think about ways to save your family budget. In I shared how I save on a child, in this I will also talk about 15 ways to save 40-50% of your money! Only useful life hacks with specific numbers and links are waiting for you. I use all these secrets myself - some for many years, and some recently introduced. Trust me, the difference is palpable. I really hope that you will not just scroll through the article, but read it carefully, or at least add it to your bookmarks, since there are simply no analogues of this page on the Internet. Your money is only in your hands! And it is not beneficial for anyone but you that you save your budget.
There was a time when I did not look at the prices of goods, carelessly putting them in the basket ... Now, on maternity leave, I finally learned the prices of food and began to notice yellow price tags. An experienced eye already automatically determines whether a product is an acceptable price or not.
Savings on stocks
It is probably no secret to anyone that the cheapest products can be bought in Dixie, but the choice there is scarce. Therefore, I began to use the services of the Crossroads. And it turned out that the Crossroads are also not so expensive! And the quality of the products is one level higher. In every category, there are sure to be discounted products, and in such a large store, the choice is huge. Let's say I need to buy cottage cheese and milk. Well, I'll take today not “33 cows”, but “White City”, since there is an action on it. You will hardly feel the difference, and if so, it will be your experience. Also watch carefully - maybe there is similar products are even cheaper than promotional, it's just that the eye does not cling to them as much as the yellow price tags. As a rule, cheap analogs are no worse than expensive ones on the same shelf.
We save the budget on points at the Crossroads
Also in the Crossroads there is an interesting scoring system, which you can pay up to 100% of purchases... To do this, you need to have one of the cards. I have the simplest one, and it gives a discount of about 1% in the form of points. There is a payment card x2 - if you pay with it, you will receive 2 times more points for purchases at Perekrestok and 1 point for every 10 rubles in other stores. There are debit and credit cards Tinkoff-Perekrestok and Alfa-Bank-Perekrestok, they give 3-4 points for every 10 rubles, as well as many interesting bonuses such as instant crediting to an account of 4000 points (400 rubles), an increased number of points on Birthday and for your favorite foods. In general, if you are interested, I can describe in more detail, or study the conditions yourself. The system is very interesting and, most importantly, it works and saves the family budget.
At the moment, I have accumulated 7600 points, which is 760 rubles. So I plan to go to the store for free the other day and thus really save our budget :). Upd. 11.18: Already 8900 points, i.e. 890 rubles for which I successfully bought groceries!
And Perekrestok has about a hundred partners who also award points. What does it mean? The fact is that if you decide to buy something online from one of the partners (and they are all well-known and reliable), Crossroads will award you a certain number of points for your purchase. For example, I recently bought books in the book24 store for 1200 rubles. and I got 1300 points on the Crossroads map(130 rubles). To do this, before making a purchase, you need to go to this page, find the store you want and go to the partner's website by entering the Perekrestroika card number. Points are credited within 40 days, but usually much earlier.
How to save money at the Crossroads online
By the way, now I'm trying order groceries online and I really like this service at the Crossroads. For convenience, download the application of the same name. Firstly, the application is much clearer about which products are cheaper - you can sort by price. Secondly, there you will find all the promotions and their conditions. Thirdly, The crossroads donates 1,500 rubles- 500 rubles for the first three orders from 3000. To receive this special offer, follow this link. So, I ordered groceries for 3050 rubles, and paid only 2550 rubles. Delivery from 2000 is free, if you do not need to specify a specific interval. And finally, convenience - everything was brought, sorted into categories, so that all that remained was to shove one bag into the freezer, another into the refrigerator, and the third into the bathroom. And the courier was nice and friendly: -D. In general, I am still delighted.
If you are uncomfortable using the services of the Crossroads, check the promotions of your store. Trust me, nobody wants you to save your family budget. Therefore, you need to get to everything yourself.
Total: since we spend 15,000 rubles a month for groceries, with the help of Crossroads points we can save from 1 to 3% or from 150 to 450 rubles per month plus points from other stores. It is difficult to calculate, but in the process I will update the article and you will get the most complete picture of the savings at the Crossroads. Subscribe to the comments at the bottom of the page!
Upd. Over the past two months, Perekrestok has awarded me 7,500 points, or 750 rubles (including for the purchase of books in book24, which I have successfully spent on groceries.
2. We save the family budget on household goods and appliances
Do you still buy mops, organizers, phone cases and kitchen gadgets from hardware stores? Or in Auchan, which is even worse (in a large store there are many temptations to buy too much!). I have been doing this for a long time Aliexpress... A cover for an iPhone cost me 100 rubles there, despite the fact that it is so beautiful and has been serving for six months already. Here the same ones are sold for 500 and above. And there you can find incredible gadgets that you won't find here. For example, for 500-1000 rubles on Aliexpress, you can collect a whole bunch of different kitchen accessories.
I also bought an iron here (2,500 instead of 5,000 rubles in Russia) and a video baby monitor (1,500 rubles instead of 10,000 rubles or more). Here I order children's clothes, yarn, toys, nail polishes, and gifts. In general, I do not risk taking adult clothes here, but my husband buys it, and it is successful. The downside is long delivery, up to 60 days, but if you have nowhere to rush, be sure to use it. The equipment is usually delivered within a week. If the goods do not arrive, money is returned in 99% of cases.
In addition, on Ali at a certain time there are some discounts, they need to be monitored. If I'm not urgent, I drop the item into the cart and wait. There are also different games and roulettes that give coupons - recently I paid with such a coupon for 150 rubles for an order of 900 rubles, it turned out 750. In general, Aliexpress constantly comes up with something, and you can save up to 70% of your money.
Over the past year, I have bought goods from Ali on 25,000 rubles and saved at least the same amount.
3. How to save the family budget on books and studies
Our family is obliged to study or read all the time. Live and learn! I used to buy books in paper form - sometimes I really want to look through real paper and smell the ink ... But when there were so many unread books that they occupied two huge shelves, I completely switched to e-books. This way, they will save not only money but also space! And somehow I got used to it, and even more convenient, tk. I read at night in the dark, from the phone. My husband has a backlit reading room. By the way, it costs 5,000 rubles and pays off in 10-15 books... Consider it paid off a long time ago.
Therefore, now I buy books on Liters - and not from the application, but from the site, so the prices are somehow cheaper. She sat down and considered now that e-books are about 60% cheaper than paper books... Politics is now bitter, so finding the right book to download for free can be difficult or even impossible if it's new. Plus, all the same, the work of the authors should be paid, so I prefer Liters. Their application is very, very convenient, it is pleasant to read and leave notes. Books are stacked on a virtual shelf - you can always return to them from any device, sort them into folders. By the way, now they have a permanent promotion - every three weeks you can download one book for free... They are chosen randomly, but you can often find books with good ratings and it's great to expand your horizons! Therefore, with enthusiasm I go to Liters to check the book of the day - suddenly there is something interesting there. And it was already three times.
One e-book will save a lot of space and money on buying paper
But sometimes you have to buy paper books- especially if it is children's literature, encyclopedias and tutorials or gifts. Some of my friends and parents cannot get used to reading from electronic devices, so if I want them to read a book, I buy it in paper form. I do this in the well-known Labyrinth store - discounts of up to 30% are often held there.
Total: I buy about 2-3 books a month and I save the family budget by 1000 rubles per month!
With regard to training, then you can study on maternity leave - remotely and for free... It seems that I'm talking nonsense here, right?) Free cheese only in a mousetrap!
However, over the past year, I have already completed several courses, the quality and usefulness of which is beyond praise! I gained new knowledge in the field of physics, financial management, and attended courses on finding purpose and interface design from leading Russian universities, such as the Higher School of Economics and MEPhI. There are also a huge number of courses from foreign universities, up to Cambridge. Perhaps not all of them are free, I did not recognize. But I haven't paid a penny yet, since I don't need a certificate, only information. Well, well, all of this can be found on the Coursera website. As a rule, courses are presented in an interactive format - video lectures alternate with tests and text materials, there is a forum where you can communicate with fellow students. In general, you are involved in the process, you can even contact the teacher. Feeling as if you are sitting at a desk, but at the same time you are at home and you can press pause at any time. And yes, it significantly saves the family budget!
4. We save the family budget on clothes
I am often asked where I buy clothes, and I advertise my favorite network to everyone. wildberries... In general, it’s surprising to me why so few of my acquaintances still don’t use this service. Probably bad PR ... Our family has been shopping there for 4 years and saves a lot of money from the family budget thanks to a personal 15% discount and constant promotions.
What's the point? You go to the wildberries website, find a catalog and choose clothes online. Everything is presented with pictures from different angles, reviews, ratings, dimensional grid. They bring your clothes home or to a pick-up point (free of charge), you try them on, and if something doesn't fit, don't take them. You can send a courier on your way and you won't owe anything. The main thing is to fit in with the fitting in 20 minutes, so do not collect a lot of things - it is better to split them into several orders. At first I had a lot of refusals, but then I got the hang of it and already clearly know my size and my styles. Therefore, as a rule, the brought clothes fit me perfectly. And the percentage of the discount depends just on the percentage of your redemption. As far as I know, maximum discount - 17%... In addition, it can be combined with other promotional offers. Again, there is sorting by price, discount, filter by color, composition, company ... And no more shopping! How much time I saved on this, and you can’t count. Just recently I bought a dress for 250 rubles in 10 minutes. The dress, by the way, is gorgeous. The husband estimated it at 1500, tk. sewn with high quality, fits perfectly. He liked it so much that he asked to order more, in a different color :).
I bought my favorite dresses at wildberries at quite affordable prices.
And recently, for the first time, I used an analogue of my favorite store called lamoda and bought a swimsuit there for 1,500 rubles instead of the expected 4,000 rubles.
Total: I buy clothes on average for 20,000 per year, or 1,600 per month and save at least 17% on this (and sometimes even 70%!), I.e. not less than 3400 rubles in year.
5. We save with an Active citizen
For several years now I have been able to call myself an active citizen! :-) To do this, I installed the Active Citizen application and go through the polls organized by the government. With the help of the popular response, important urban issues are resolved - transport, educational, construction. We can influence the life of the city, hurray! Perhaps this is just an illusion, but still nice. Unfortunately, the application is available only for residents of Moscow.
How can you save your family budget with the help of an Active Citizen? The fact is that points are given for passing the vote, which can then be exchanged for different rewards:
- Subway rides
- Parking points
- Tickets to theaters and museums
- E-books (remember point 4 and read it for free)
- And souvenirs - sweatshirts, blankets, baseball caps, notepads, passport covers, T-shirts and much more.
Everything with the symbols of the project looks quite worthy!
If you go through all the polls, evaluate new items and share it in all 4 social networks (facebook, twitter, VK and classmates), you can earn about 600-700 points per month, and these are two e-books, or 100 parking points, or a visit to 1-2 museums, or almost a T-shirt :).
According to rough estimates, I received goods for 3800 rubles there - these are two cozy sweatshirts for me and my husband, a T-shirt for my daughter, a selfie stick, a passport cover and a notebook. By the way, the cover is very cool, with the inscription, I'm just proud every time I get my passport))).
Total: nice savings on 300-500 rubles per month+ participation in the life of the city.
Active Citizens in Prize Sweatshirts
6. How to save money on the purchase of cosmetics
Many people still buy cosmetics offline - in local stores, in Letual, Ile de Baute, Yves Rocher, and so on. Certainly, some things like perfume and lipstick are better to "try on" on the spot, but most of the personal care products require only your knowledge of the type of skin - dry, oily or normal. In addition, most of the creams in these stores do not have a good composition. But the price is awesome! For over a year now I have been shopping at the iherb organic cosmetics store. So far, out of several dozen ordered products, I did not like one - this is toothpaste, from everything else I just eat! Based on reviews and ratings, it is easy to choose what is right for you, also in the description for each product you will find the full composition. The price is also pleasing - it takes me only 4000 rubles for a dozen funds, but in order, sorry, a high-quality organic eye cream or the best bb-cream in the world. In addition, you will receive a 5% discount if you enter the code VAS3760 in your shopping cart, and after each order, the store credits you with 10% bonuses that you can spend on your next purchase. In addition, iherb regularly hosts promotions that give an additional discount to the two above. Usually around 10-15%. Total you save 25-30% of your family budget on cosmetics, and not at the expense of quality. What's the catch? You just need to know and track all these discounts. The first time I had no idea about them and paid the full price! Now I have perked up so much that I can give master classes :).
By the way, on iherb my friends order not only cosmetics, but also vitamins, nutritional supplements, as well as delicious delicacies, for example, coconut chips. Their price, however, is rather high, but I have not tasted anything tastier, honestly ... I just trudge from them! Moreover, they are not harmful, like local chips, but completely natural.
So, I am saving with iherb roughly RUB 625 per month.
My last order for iherb
7. Saving the family budget for beauty salons
Are you still doing your nails in the salon for big money? Yes, it is definitely pleasant when you are courted and done professionally. I also went to shellac for some time - this was my only way to escape from the house from a baby)). And also so lucky - I got a good master who did everything beautifully and accurately, and it was nice to chat with her! But another time she was not there, and I went to another. This woman cut out a piece of my finger with the apparatus (I'm not kidding!), Did not even apologize and took to work 1500 rubles... I didn't really want to swear, I thought that a small cut would heal soon. But I couldn't do anything normally with my right hand for two weeks! Of course, I went to the salon and described the situation. Then I was offered to do a manicure next time for free. I was delighted - there is justice in the world! The next day, another "specialist" was waiting for me - an Asian-looking girl who constantly doubted whether she was doing, did not completely remove the remnants of the manicure, and her work lasted less than two days (shellac). And the saddest thing is that she cut three of my fingers. For about a month I walked with terrible hands covered with sores. And by the way, the administrator took her words back and demanded to pay at least 50% this "manicure". Dear ones, but after all, a manicure should decorate a girl's hands, and not disfigure! Seeing my condition, they did not demand money. I also had to spend 400 rubles to remove this beauty, already in another salon. But now I do the manicure myself.
Nobody can do better than you! You may not know all the tricks, but now you can learn everything from youtube. In addition, you will do a regular manicure for free, minus the materials - varnish, nail file, stickers, base, cuticle sticks, nail polish remover - all this will cost you 500 rubles and will last for six months. For shellac, you need to buy materials and a special apparatus - about 3,000 rubles. In the salon, a manicure costs no less than 800 rubles, but it is enough for 3-4 days. Shellac costs from 1200 rubles. and will last for a couple of weeks. The savings in the family budget are colossal! I forgot to say that after three shellacs my perfect, hard nails began to bend, break, exfoliate ... It's terrible. My mom has been making shellac herself for a long time, and everything is fine, although initially her nails are worse. When my nails are back to normal, I will also buy the necessary materials, learn the basics of shellac from video and do it myself.
Total: 80 rubles per month instead of 1500-3000 (also a pedicure!) and 3000 rubles one-time - saving 97%.
8. We save on clothes repair
Since we have touched on the topic of independent work, I will also tell you about the repair and tailoring of clothes and how you can save on this.
If you have a sewing machine, then God himself ordered learn to hem pants... I recently learned, and it turned out to be not difficult at all! We saved 600 rubles. Little by little, you will be able to save large sums and not run around in the atelier again. For example, if you need to sew or hem something simple - bed linen, curtains, a children's T-shirt. The plus is that you can get a thing from the right color and material, because the choice of fabrics is much more than ready-made things! And also, economy and pride in yourself. I recently made a pouch for an electric plane, it only took an hour and a half and a piece of fabric. You can cope faster if the machine is "on the move", ie. it does not need to be taken out and threaded.
Also last year I repeated my sewing lesson at school and sewed myself a skirt. I sewed on ready-made patterns in the evenings, it took about a week for 30-40 minutes. I learned how to sew in a zipper, make a belt, remove a pattern on tracing paper, and process the edges. And most importantly, I got a perfectly fitting skirt! I love her.
If you have children, you will be constantly hemming and darning, at least once a month, or even once a week. Unless, of course, you buy a new thing as soon as it cracked. Then saving the family budget is definitely not about you :).
Total: 0 rubles instead of 500 rubles per month... You only need threads (buy a set of all basic colors once).
9. We save on doctors and analyzes
Once I, like many others, believed that doctors in paid clinics are better. Until I began to meet familiar faces in them - from the clinic. Yes, most of the free doctors do just that - in the morning they are admitted to the city hospital, in the evening - in a paid one. And the only difference is that they will smile at you wider and do the tests a little faster. And in such clinics they like to carry around unnecessary tests in order to rip off more money. Even if you go to VHI - then they rip off from the insurance. What can I say, if I was offered three times anesthesia in childbirth, so that the epidural was paid for. By the way, read mine - perhaps you can avoid some mistakes and believe that there are natural births in the hospital. The main thing is awareness and a little medical knowledge. By the way, I gave birth for free- while in the same maternity hospital, the girls took contracts for 150,000 rubles and lay with me in the same ward. And they were observed by the same doctors.
It is the same with the clinics and our ailments. Today we MUST figure them out ourselves. Because doctors are sitting in order to refer you to another specialist or to prescribe tests. Also, God forbid, they will be able to prescribe medicine. Often, by the way, and without tests, they do it "on the ditch". Alas, this is so. Therefore, I use doctors if I need something. I go and ask for a referral for tests. What are needed - a more narrow-profile doctor will say, they usually know a lot about their business, so first you need to go to a therapist and ask for a referral to him.
So, recently I for a week passed tests for 5000 rubles and went to a free specialist, whose appointment at a paid clinic costs 1,500 rubles. And in every clinic there is always a good doctor. Many of my acquaintances during pregnancy were observed in a paid clinic for a lot of money. But if there are no pathologies in pregnancy (and this is 90% of cases), then this is not necessary. Our local clinic is quite friendly, and most importantly an adequate and intelligent gynecologist, especially since I finally got pregnant with her! And all that calmed me down and prescribed folic acid. Others dragged along the tests and prescribed all sorts of nasty things - as if the cooler the name of the pills, the higher the qualifications.
Prices for pregnancy management in the nearest clinic. Why, if it's free?
By the way, if your clinic is completely useless, just attach to any other... Now this is done without any problems and even remotely! You may have to go there. But 50 rubles for a bus is much cheaper than thousands and tens of thousands of rubles for medical expenses.
And even earlier I was too lazy to go to the polyclinic for tests - it’s a queue, they do it for a long time, I need a referral. But still it is 350 rubles for the OAM and 600 rubles for the UAC! And if you still need additional ones - bakseeding, Nechiporenko, biochemistry - you will be ruined altogether. They also calmly give directions for an ultrasound scan - the other day I did almost all the organs. Is free! I don’t know how in the regions, but in Moscow now you can rarely get into a large queue. Take a direction - 15 minutes, the next day come from 8 to 11 in the morning and take tests in 10 minutes, get in three days, and not after one, as in invitro. If it’s urgent, then yes, there’s nowhere to go. And if you have time, you can greatly save your family budget!
Total: up to 100% savings, or from 950 rubles per month to infinity. Over the past six months, we have saved about 8,000 rubles.
10. Saving the family budget on coupons
A few years ago, coupons burst into our lives like something supernatural. We bought them cautiously and were afraid of deception. But now only the lazy does not acquire them! I can no longer count on my fingers how many times I have used them. Basically, I buy coupons for entertainment (trampolines, quests, wind tunnel, archery, contact zoos, bowling alleys, water parks, art parties, etc. - yes, I bought all this :) or in a cafe. Coupons usually provide big discount of 50% and more or already include this or that event. The service is not always of high quality, as well as at the full price. But it saves the family budget well! And using this link you will also receive a 5% discount on the coupon itself.
So, if you go out with your family at least once a month, you will save about 50% of your entertainment budget. I save on coupons on average about RUB 10,000 per year or 800 rubles. per month.
11. Independent travel as a way to save the family budget
Do you still take all-inclusive tours from travel agents? Don't want to bother with visa and ticket purchases? This is understandable. I still can't get through to my parents how much cheaper and more interesting it is to travel on their own.
We ourselves began to practice it in 2014, and for the first time we went to Spain ourselves. First time there and in general in Europe. Therefore, of course, it was scary. And terribly interesting! We were driven (well, me) by the thirst not only for savings, but also for adventure, new knowledge. I myself collected the documents for a visa, bought tickets myself, booked hotels (one on booking, one on the hotel's Spanish website), even bought tickets for buses and to Port Aventura online - all for the first time. It turned out that everything is not so difficult! Anything is now possible with the help of the Internet.
True, the first time we found ourselves in a foreign country without much knowledge of English and even more so Spanish, we were confused and searched for a bus stop for an hour: -D. But I remember this moment with warmth. In Spain, we went further - and did not take a single excursion, everywhere we rode buses and the metro. But we visited places where tourists usually do not look, but in vain. They avoided queues and bustle, walked at their own pace, planned trips based on their interests. By traveling on your own, you will learn much more and absorb because you think more. You don't have to think on the sightseeing bus. They will take you, bring you, feed you - and therefore the trip is practically not remembered. A man needs to think! And if you also remember about 50 people on the bus and stops at attractions for 5 minutes ... Is this a trip? In general, I can talk about this for a long time, sorry)).
Now, in fact, about saving the family budget. How much can you save by going on vacation yourself? According to my calculations, from 30 to 50%. And given the usual cost of a ticket, this is a lot. This is especially true with regard to Europe - this is where it makes no sense to take "all inclusive". In Europe, the transport network works great, besides, it is inexpensive, a lot of cafes, hotels - you can stop at any time where you want. Why limit yourself? For example, thanks to an independent travel, we first lived 10 days away from the hype at sea, then went to Barcelona for 4 days, and explored this city and its surroundings thoroughly and at the same time slowly. It cost us about 1.5 times cheaper than the tour... We also went to Paris, Montenegro, Nizhny Novgorod and Sochi. It turned out much cheaper than the package tour. For example, in Paris we spent 1000 euros, while my parents spent 2000 there. And recently our friends went to Italy, where they spent only 900 euros for two in 10 days. Friends who went there on a tour in the same year paid 4,000 euros! Moreover, the first ones have more impressions, since they really had a trip - they moved on bicycles, respectively, they could stop wherever they wanted. Unless a vacation in Turkey is not profitable in this regard - it is better to take a last minute ticket. So, decide for yourself - to have or not to have :).
It is most profitable to order tickets yourself on the aviasales website or similar aggregators:
Total: savings from 30 to 50% or from 90 to 150 thousand rubles. in year(1 or 2 independent travels to Europe).
12. We save with cashback
Oh woe! Only recently I learned what cashback is. Previously, this word was completely unfamiliar to me - sinful me. How did I live without it ?!
As you already understood, most of my purchases (and even groceries!) I make over the Internet. And I pay too. And just for people like me there is cashback - a small part of the money that is returned for online purchases. I am currently using an iPhone app CashFoBrands and in a month has already withdrawn 350 rubles to a mobile phone. All you need is to go to the app before buying and go through it to the store of interest. The application receives a percentage of your purchase for attracting a customer, and you get a part of this money - that's all they attract. Benefit to all. And you will also get an increased cashback for 2 weeks using this link.
Therefore, use it, my dears, and get some of your money back, thus saving your budget. At least enough to pay for the phone or even the Internet.
Total: saving about 5%, or 350 rubles per month(when buying goods on the Internet for 7000 rubles.)
13. We save on cafes
I used to go to cafes very often, and a decent part of the family budget was spent on this. This is especially true of my favorite sushi ... To go to Yakitoria or Yaposha, I had to put aside 1,500-2,000 rubles! Therefore, sushi was a rare treat. Now, on maternity leave, I can afford sushi every week: -R. And all thanks to such institutions as Sushi wok- takeaway sushi. It is not difficult to drive into the nearest such store with a stroller and wait 10 minutes for the order. And the benefits are huge. So, my favorite set of 26 rolls (700 grams) costs only 400 rubles. This is enough for two. And they also have discounts and promotions, for example, a free drink from 800 rubles. In general, sushi is now not as far away as it used to be)).
Sometimes I still go to a cafe, but not to eat there, but to have a cup of coffee and chat with a friend. What is really there - on maternity leave you start saving so much that you drag a container of homemade food with you! :-D Yes, now I rarely spend 1000 rubles for lunch.
Total: saving about 70% or 1000-1500 rubles per month(if you don't go to a cafe once a month :)
You can eat tasty food and inexpensively if you take food to go
14. Saving the family budget with Foodil
If you haven't installed the Foodil app yet, do it! It will help you find great deals in different stores. How did I live without him? For example, diapers are out - you open Foodil and see which store has a discount on them now. Some must have it! The application also allows you to get cashback from the purchase of certain products. In general, an extremely necessary piece for those who are trying to save money.
Also in Foodil there are always coupons in cafes and grocery. For example, now in Shokoladnitsa the second drink is free, and in Perekrestok there is a 12% discount for purchases of 3000 rubles or more.
Saving: from 10 to 50%, the absolute value depends on your consumer basket.
15. Knitting is another way to save money
For those who are engaged in knitting, it is no secret that you can quickly and inexpensively knit any thing. It is especially beneficial to knit hats, socks, mittens and, as I recently found out, swimwear. For all of the above, only one ball of yarn is needed, and this is 150-200 rubles, there is also little time. For example, a hat in a store now costs about 1,000 rubles. And the quality loses, tk. in stores now you can rarely find a hat or socks made of wool, or for fabulous money. And how many of these hats are needed for the whole family, you also have to change periodically!
I also knitted children's things - a woolen sweater, a plaid, an elegant dress, toys. But big things come out not too cheap in price, often much more expensive than the mass market, but the quality is of a completely different level. Also recently I knitted myself a swimsuit - yarn cost 150 rubles, time - a couple of weeks, the price of an ordinary swimsuit in a store is 1500-2000 rubles, and such a knitted one is generally exclusive: -R. By the way, now knitted things are back at the height of fashion!
Lovely things I tied for my daughter
You can knit both a winter skirt and a swimsuit - both cheaper and 100% exclusive
If you do not know how to knit, decree - it's time to learn this! It's nice to do something for your loved ones, and for yourself, of course. And descendants, perhaps, will be proud of your creations and cherish them.
Total: saving about 70% or from 800 to 2000 rubles for one thing.
How much can you save?
Oh, well, and it turned out to be a long article (how good it is to be able to type with ten fingers!)). I have been writing this article for several weeks, and I hope it was not in vain. Perhaps you have learned something new and put at least some of my advice into practice, because it really saves the family budget! At the same time, it does not at all deteriorate the quality of life. Below you will find out how much can you save in general, if you use all of the listed methods:
We can save so much if we use the above methods of saving the family budget. The amount is impressive - RUB 21,415 per month, or 257,000 rubles. in year! I promised to show you the ways by which you will save 40% of your funds or more. Indeed, if earlier our family spent 70 thousand rubles a month, now we are trying to keep within 35-40 thousand rubles. Recently, I have been very passionate about the topic of saving and I believe that in fact we do not need so much to be happy. Vice versa, the less we spend, the more we value what we buy, less waste of food and less clutter in our home.
I hope my article was useful to you! Please share it with your friends on social networks using the links below and subscribe to blog updates.
Wish you all the best!
Your Blogomommy - Ekaterina Ulyanova Economical complementary foods: to cook by yourself or to buy?
"Advice and Love!", "Live happily ever after" - the main wedding toasts, as an option: "We wish you family well-being and prosperity!" "You have more children!" - any second cousin Sima will definitely attend to the continuation of the family.
The designation of tactics and strategy of the family economy basically boils down to a game of distribution of responsibilities (with the obligatory option “I will spend money!”) And a playful struggle between mother-in-law and mother-in-law for the right to nurse or provide for grandchildren financially (sliders and money act as attributes).
How to plan family budget, and even more so, how to save it, no advice is usually heard. And in vain, because after a couple of days this issue comes to the fore, and unprepared newlyweds, faced with a problem, can overnight forget all the wedding joys, along with the joys of family life.
Even with good earnings for both spouses, but in the absence of a common strategy, they risk finding that they literally have nothing to live on and run a family household. In order for this not to happen and you need to master.
What makes up the family budget
In a friendly family with a stable income, the most acceptable option is joint budget... This means that the money after receiving the salary is added together, and from these total funds you will distribute them among the items of expenditure.
If for each family member an important point is at least partial preservation of independence, then the option is suitable for you share budget... That is, each of the spouses will “spare” exactly half of their income for needs.
In this case, the items of expenditure in planning will be somewhat different. In particular, the item on the purchase of cigarettes, or any other personal belongings, will not be included there - you will make this an item of personal expenses and will finance half of the money you have left.
Idyllic option - full content family with one of the spouses who earns very well. Then your family budget- this is his earnings, and your personal money will remain for you "for pins" and other pleasures.
There is also an option separate budget... This is such a scheme when, in fact, no one adds up anything, but simply defines the articles according to which one spouse always pays and according to which the other. At the same time, all personal finances are in undivided personal use and, in addition to the stipulated articles, are spent at the request of the owner.
In the west, this is practiced quite often, in our country it will be difficult, I think. As psychologists say, the notorious mentality is to blame for everything.
So, we choose the option, put all the money in a pile (literally or, preferably, in the form of a record of the total amount of family income on paper) and proceed with the distribution.
Family budgeting: about flies and cutlets
Actually, the main strategy is to correctly and clearly define the items of expenditure, as they say, flies - separately, cutlets - separately.
"Cutlets", in our case, are the main items, the amount of costs for which is known and does not change significantly from month to month. So one of the first points will be utility bills, obligatory payments on loans, a garden or a circle for a child, etc.
Another item should take into account the cost of transport (travel, gasoline for the car).
Be sure to take into account holidays and birthdays as well, because something like this happens literally every month.
Family budget planning would not be complete without the article "Accumulation". This item must be included in the list, indicating the amount equal to 10-20% of the total budget.
Thus, you will save some amount every month, which you can then spend on buying a large item, on a vacation trip, or on your child's education. However, you can open a bank account for education, then your list will be replenished with another article of mandatory contributions.
Perhaps you will come up with some more mandatory points, the main thing is not to miss anything, otherwise all the work will go down the drain.
Now about the "flies". Oddly enough, cutlets, in the literal sense of the word, in this case refer to "flies". These will be such items of expense that are difficult to advance. For example, you guessed it, foods. We will also include household chemicals and other purchases necessary on the farm there.
As another item, we will record entertainment, trips to the hairdresser, etc. And at the end we will add the item "Miscellaneous", where you will send money for unforeseen expenses.
So, the plan is drawn up, it's time to distribute funds.
Family budgeting: distributing money
Pundits from economics and finance advise to distribute funds in such a simple way:
60% - basic expenses, and monthly business expenses;
10% - savings that will go to large purchases or trips;
10% - savings with a long-term perspective (education, pension, etc.);
10% - entertainment and pleasure;
10% - miscellaneous, unforeseen expenses.
In fact, there are many schemes and programs by which you can master family budget planning... There are even programs on the Internet that make it easy to do home bookkeeping and calculate expenses.
What we have considered now is just one of the options, the most understandable and simple.
You can also choose a different way of distributing funds as a percentage, if, for example, you have your own business, and you are required to pay taxes monthly or quarterly.
And, finally, for those who more or less cope with the monthly distribution of money, the option of drawing up a family budget for a year may be of interest.
Family budget planning, of course, this is a necessary and very useful thing. It certainly helps to avoid many problems, and keeps you hungry at the end of the month.
But sometimes there are times when planning alone is not enough and you have to tighten your belts.
And then the question of how to save the family budget becomes relevant.
How to save your family budget
Popular wisdom says: "Having drunk on vodka, you won't save on matches." In a more "combed" version, the thought will sound like this: if you happen to make a large purchase that practically reduces family budgeting to zero, it is useless to take half measures in the form of saving on the purchase of handkerchiefs or other types of toilet paper.
The main thing here is to understand that to saving family budget will have to approach, so to speak, globally, that is, to cut costs on all possible items.
It is clear that we cannot voluntarily reduce the amount for the payment of insurance, kindergarten or school lunches. Refusing these services is not an option.
But we can quite significantly reduce the payment for utilities. For example, an invention such as water meters greatly facilitates the task. Of course, if they are not there, then it will not be possible to put the devices in such a dashing time as the period of total economy.
But you are quite capable of switching to energy-saving light bulbs. In the first month, the counter will confirm the correctness of your choice.
The main concerns when it comes to saving family budget, causes a cost item for. And then there are a few tricks that experts say can help you. For example, it is recommended to give up the bad habit of constantly chewing something (chewing people call it the humble word "snack"). Thus, you can save not only money, but also gain a slimmer figure.
Also, a considerable part of the money is taken away by catering establishments. This is especially true for those families where it is customary to regularly dine or dine outside the home. Cooking in your own kitchen is much cheaper.
We'll have to give up some delicacies for a while, but nothing can be done, it is necessary. In the end, the more seriously you approach the issue of saving the family budget, the sooner your financial affairs will improve, and you will be able to enjoy your favorite dishes again.
You can buy groceries not only in expensive supermarkets, but at wholesalers and small wholesale stores - this is another discovery that you have to make if you seriously decide to save.
Clothes and footwear, of course, are also a decent item of expenditure. It's good at least that we don't need to change our wardrobe every month. During the period of economy, it will be useful to give up the habit of looking into the store every day after work, and buy yourself a T-shirt "just like that, for fun." It's hard, but that's the strategy saving family budget.
As for the cases when buying clothes is necessary, here economy experts advise you to pay attention to inexpensive things from their collections of the past season. They are not inferior in quality to the clothes that you are used to wearing, unless you lag behind the "fashion wave" a little.
If you think carefully, you can find a lot of answers to the question,. Reducing the cost of mobile communications, transport and much more is suitable for this. The main thing to remember is that total economy is a temporary measure, and soon everything will work out.
However, a very useful lesson can be learned from this situation, in particular, learn how to reduce costs where it can be done easily.
And then, at family budget planning, you may find that you can easily save more money for entertainment or unexpected expenses, which will help you avoid disasters next time.
Alexandra Panyutina
Women's magazine JustLady
Hello dear readers! Probably, each of you noticed that if the morning was good, then the whole day will pass perfectly well. And if on the contrary, then already the day will go wrong. What are the effective methods and secrets of a successful start to the day, how we can start our day correctly, this is what we will talk about today.
04 July 2019 6 Comments
Hello dear readers! Today I would like to touch upon the topic of the well-known chickenpox disease. I had this infection at the age of 17. And, probably, I was lucky, I transferred it quite easily, although most adults tolerate chickenpox harder than children. Chickenpox is an acute infectious disease caused by the Varicella-Zoster virus or herpes type 3 herpes. Chickenpox is considered primarily a childhood infectious disease, but adults suffer the disease much more heavily. How many days do adults have chickenpox, typical symptoms, how to treat the disease - that's what we'll talk about.
May 29, 2019 7 comments
Hello, dear friends! The hot, almost summer time does not give me the slightest opportunity to write, but I will still pull myself out of the hustle and bustle and tell you what interesting and simple origami crafts can be done with children. We will make a rabbit or a bunny, whatever you want to call it, and an origami carnation, albeit with a delay, but such a carnation can be useful for making a postcard for May 9th.
April 15, 2019 2 Comments
Hello my dear readers! The bright Easter holiday is approaching, probably everyone has already found wonderful recipes for Easter cakes, and is also thinking about what to cook for this bright day. Today I want to offer you simple paper crafts for children that they can do with you for Easter. If the children are very young, an adult can help them cut out details, if older, then just give them a little hint and direction.
03 April 2019 6 Comments
Date: August 28, 2015
Probably our grandmothers and great-grandmothers who passed the hungry war years of the 20th century could tell more about how to properly plan a family budget. However, I really hope that we will not have to follow their recipes as long as we proceed from the current situation and today's opportunities.
As one comrade said, accounting and control is the main principle of socialism, we will supplement it - as well as the main principle of economical management of the economy. After analyzing expenses, it is important to plan expenses so that income does not fall below expenses. At the same time, budgeting (at least sketchy) is part.
For analysis and planning, we will conditionally divide family expenses into categories:
- Public utilities and other fixed payments (telephone, television, internet).
- Food and drink, snacks at work.
- Pharmacy (medicines, vitamins, etc.), medical services, swimming pool, fitness, etc. - health expenses.
- Transportation (gasoline or family car service).
- Keeping children in kindergarten, school (parental payment, parental fund and purchase of stationery and household goods, paid services).
- Clothes, linen, footwear.
- Hairdresser, cosmetology.
- Expensive household items for long-term use (what we call fixed assets in enterprises - a car, TV, washing machine, etc.).
- Gifts (usually for birthdays, new year, March 8, February 23).
- Rest (expenses for the maintenance of the garden and summer cottages and trips to nature, vouchers).
- Household. expenses and household items (washing utensils, detergents, light bulbs, etc., plumbing repairs, etc.).
- Cultural events (concerts, museums, cinema, etc.).
Now, point by point, how and where I optimize.
1. Kommunalka - while we pay on the basis of meter readings, I trust the calculation of our HOA, our costs are lower than in other apartments of a smaller area due to the effective work of the HOA and the fact that tenants control costs. My phone is the simplest one - without the Internet, since the Internet is available at home and at work. Perhaps this is not the most convenient option (for example, there is no navigator and Double-Gis or the ability to check mail and watch something on the Internet while on the street or in public places). But since it takes 40 minutes to get from home to work, this is not critical for me.
2. Food, drinks - this is one of the main items of expenditure, as it turned out during the analysis (we wrote down spending in a notebook and watched where the money went, which, it would seem, should be enough -))) The rise in prices for cheese and fish made their purchase available once a month. Instead of beef, we started buying more chicken. Snacks at work are a lot, since buying them is often an attempt to please yourself on workdays and diversify what you are used to cooking at home. And at home there is neither the strength nor the initial products themselves to experiment with new dishes. In principle, if you bake cookies at home in advance or wash and peel carrots, it will be more economical.
Juices have risen in price very much, so we rarely buy them, instead of juices I want to buy compote mixture and rose hips more often and cook compote. If there is, I add berries that are frozen in season (currants, cherries, etc.).
3. In terms of expenses for maintaining health, our medical services were a very significant item when my son started going to kindergarten and was often ill. A lot of money was spent on ENT services in a paid clinic (at the municipal children's clinic we simply did not have ENT at that moment, and after the operation due to otitis media I had a strong fear of recurrence, and I did everything not to get into hospital). Last year, I worked out my fears with a good specialist (I will call him a psychologist), and since January, after chickenpox, my son has been going to kindergarten without ARVI. If snot appears, this is quickly resolved due to the minimum visit to the doctors.
I think one of the factors in improving my son's health was our relationship, which improved thanks to my acquaintance with the theory of attachment (Olga Pisarik's LiveJournal blog, meeting Daria Dombrovskaya at one of the webinars, and Lyudmila Petranovskaya's book about the "secret support").
4. Transport and maintenance of the car - we bear the expenses in the family after the fact. Here I can only optimize by choosing a tram instead of a minibus, usually on the way back it works. But here the savings are very insignificant. Walking on foot is a long way and a very inconvenient route, perhaps someone has a completely different situation.
But even here there is an opportunity to save the family budget, if at the stage of acquiring a car you take into account the price of ownership. Ownership price is a forecast of all expenses for maintenance, fuel, spare parts. In addition, it is probably better to refuse to buy a car on credit if it does not generate income, but only leads to additional expenses for the family and at the same time such a purchase is to the detriment of health, that is, when for the sake of it you have to significantly limit yourself in nutrition and health costs.
5. Maintenance of children - also upon request from the kindergarten. Saving is possible when buying a large batch of stationery on a joint shopping site or an online store (I buy it straight to the kindergarten, home and for gifts for children - for example, goods for creativity, books). I plan to sew costumes for the holidays myself (a bunny costume for the New Year, of course, is far from a masterpiece, but in the eyes of my son and husband, it was a success).
6. Clothes, underwear, footwear - joint purchases greatly help to save the family budget (there is any free time for choosing, there is no need to spend on visiting shopping centers, significant savings in money, although, of course, there are also small risks).
7. Barber - she used to cut her son until she was 4 years old - with a clipper and scissors, now he is already big (5 years old) and wants to be cut in a barbershop. I myself go there once every 2 months, I try to take care of my hair, now I am growing it, there is no need to dye my hair, so I get good savings on this cost item. I don’t go to a beautician, skin health, in my opinion, depends largely on nutrition and health. If I notice that I am becoming gray from stress and fatigue, seasonal ARVI, I drink vitamins for beauty and ask for a good expensive (by my standards) cream as a gift for the next holiday.
8. Expensive household items - now we cannot afford - we need to save up. I really don't like being owed, so I never took out a loan for these needs. In my opinion, a loan is advisable for the purchase of something that is associated with further income (if baking cakes for sale, then a new oven is justified, or working at a computer at home - then a computer and office equipment can be bought, since they will pay off directly). On this topic, I also found advice from Mikhail Delyagin in a book about how to survive the crisis, it was written in the 2000s, but I found there very relevant ideas for myself.
9. Gifts. My husband and I disagree about the best gift budget. It was customary in my family to give good expensive things, essential, for birthdays, New Years and March 8th. Gifts are my love language, in the terminology of Gary Chapman, "Five languages of love", and my husband's family used to give small gifts, for example, on New Year's Eve it is still difficult to buy gifts together or allocate money for an anniversary to someone, and I began to prepare gifts ahead of time for all occasions. Perhaps it is my fear that I will not be able to find a good option closer to the event, or there will be no opportunity to buy it. Joint purchases, which I mentioned earlier, also help out. There I buy everything for children, for the DR of my family and friends - clothes, toys, books, everything for creativity, etc.
Three and four years ago I had barely enough money for gifts for the New Year (I was sitting with my child at home on maternity leave), I baked gingerbread cookies, decorated them and packed them for all relatives and friends, some with gingerbread Christmas trees, some with a gingerbread house, and another year - I made sweets from dried fruits and nuts at home. Everyone was delighted. I also gave knitted gifts before, when there was more free time for creativity. There are many options for homemade gifts for those who are a master in needlework. And there is also a wonderful project "Draw" - even without experience in painting, you can draw beautifully, arrange and present to friends, relatives, lovers of beauty.
Well, the financing of current expensive needs or wishes, familiar to everyone, I will jointly at the expense of relatives (for holidays, vacations, tickets for a concert, etc.). The last time we bought summer tires from gifts (our relatives - four families, gave them a wheel to my husband in the DR, it happened in the end). Another example - in our family several times the idea has already been used to give a ticket to a concert or a play by bundling, when the price by our standards is quite high and you just can't buy it.
10. Recreation - my husband is a specialist in the search for discount plane tickets and route planning. There are many sites for the selection of the best tickets. If you choose an on-line card payment method, it may be cheaper. The exception of Russian Railways - it's the other way around - is more expensive, as I understand it. It is cheaper to buy railway tickets at the box office if there is an opportunity for half a day to break away from other things and spend them in line. On vacation, we save money when we do not buy sightseeing tours, and even at the stage of planning a trip, we choose a route and go by public transport or rent a car and drive to interesting places ourselves. We had an unforgettable vacation in Greece a few years ago, when we ourselves went to Athens (6 hours at night on the train), to Meteora (in a rented car).
And now we have an anti-crisis option for recreation, probably for the next three years - this is a garden. Last year, our family bought a garden with the money that could be used to go twice to the sea. We put an inflatable pool there and are planning to make forays into the forest and the river. I hope we don't have to grow potatoes there, but if that moment comes, we already have a place to do it -)
11. Households. expenses - again joint purchases, although the savings are not very big, but if you make large purchases and navigate the discounts in large stores, you can choose a more optimal option. In any case, I try to have a supply at home and not have to buy at exorbitant prices at a convenience store or pharmacy on the way home (shampoos, hygiene items, etc.).
12. Cultural events are now a luxury for me - we go out once every half a year - a year. We have a tea club in the city and there are interesting meetings - for a symbolic fee (in support of this project, which cannot be compared with the price of a ticket for a tour), you can talk, listen to songs or poems, discuss picking herbs and so on, as well as drink delicious green tea. In winter, the need for "going out" is filled with 3-4 trees that we visit with the child.
So, the task of how to plan a family budget is economical. And the most important thing in any planning, in our case and in saving the family budget, is to remember the priorities. For us, in terms of everyday expenses, this is the physical and mental health of all family members and the education of the child. Remembering the recommendations of the World Bank - what is called investment in human capital.
And God bless all moms-dads, grandparents, health and good luck in creating the best conditions for family happiness.
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