How to Save a Family Budget: Family Budget Spreadsheet
3 (60%) 2 vote [s]Many people sometimes wonder why some of them spend their holidays in the south, while others can only afford barbecue in the country? Or why, given the same income, one buys a second car while the other takes the bus?
It's not about wealthy relatives or accidentally winning the lottery. Most likely, the reason is the ability to count the money earned and spend it. How to save your family budget correctly?
- Always plan your income and expenses. Knowing the exact numbers will help you save money.
- Refuse loans. The only exception can be loans for work, for example, for a car or for business development.
- Start a piggy bank. This is not about a "pig" for collecting little things, but about how you need to learn how to set aside 10% of your income for unforeseen expenses. This will help you save up a decent amount to buy something big.
- Buy gifts in advance. This is good advice for those who are used to getting ready for a visit at the last moment. Often you have to take the first thing that caught your eye, since there is absolutely no time left to choose.
- Don't give in to emotions. Before buying something very important, you should think carefully - is it really necessary ?!
- Divide all expenses into groups. This refers to money for "food", "transport", "household chemicals", "cosmetics", "utility bills", "communication costs" and so on. After that, you can analyze and correct the resulting numbers.
- Refuse unnecessary little things. Snacks on the go, magazines on the road, water from vending machines - all this steals a lot of money from the family budget.
- Prepare lunch yourself for work. As a rule, homemade food is cheaper than in "public catering". If there is no way to eat at home, then you need to include these costs in the family budget.
- Always buy quality items. Don't skimp on good clothes, shoes, or electronics and appliances. Most often, the price is a guarantee that the item will last longer.
- Use concentrated products in the household. Despite their price, concentrates of washing powders, conditioners and other various products last much longer and thus allow you to save on purchases.
By adhering to these rules, you can save enough money to buy something expensive or for a trip to hot countries, for example.
How to control your family budget using a spreadsheet?
How to properly manage your family budget in order to save money? The first thing that comes to mind when you need to calculate something is to take a notebook with a pen. You can, of course, draw the table yourself, but it will be more convenient to use Microsoft services and arrange your expenses in Excel.
How to make a family budget? First you need to clearly decide for yourself - why save.
The main task, calculated for a period of up to 5 years (medium term), is to reduce unimportant expenses in order to purchase something meaningful, for example, a laptop or a professional camera.
The goal can also be short-term - to pay off some small debts, or long-term - to pay off a mortgage or buy a home.
The next step is to record all income for the family. This includes wages, alimony, benefits, pensions and others.
You should also enter in the table all the estimated costs - fixed and variable. Here it is necessary to take into account the desires of all family members so that there are no misunderstandings. An example of such a table (the data below does not need to be considered a standard):
Maintaining such tables will help to identify completely unnecessary expenses and, accordingly, save the family budget.
How to plan your family budget for a month?
So that at the end of the month there is no need to borrow money from neighbors or friends, you need to follow simple, but very important rules.
1 rule. Save some of your income in a piggy bank!
The very first thing to do when the salary arrives is to postpone at least 10% and not spend under any pretext. This is a family capital, which will only grow every month.
2 rule. Learn to understand the difference between important expenses and secondary ones.
To do this, make a list of constant expenses (rent, television, Internet, communications, etc.) and some variables (food, gasoline, household chemicals and beauty products, etc.). Place all of this in order of importance - from the most important to those that can be dispensed with.
3 rule. Be sure to leave a certain amount for unforeseen (5-10%) and planned expenses.
This refers to purchases that are not constant or variable, but are also required this month. An example would be buying gifts.
This "extra" money can be spent on expenses from the "want" category.
5 rule. Adhere to a policy of economy and cost optimization.
This means that you need to get rid of unnecessary waste and learn how to purchase goods for less money. For this, sales or promotions are perfect, as well as giving up bad habits - the main eaters of the family budget.
How to save your family budget on groceries?
Food takes the lion's share of all income. And a decrease in prices for them is not expected in the near future. Therefore, it is worth learning how to save on this expense item. You can start from the very first trip to the store.
- A pre-made grocery list can save you hard earned money. Well, if the family has a developed menu for a week, then it will not be difficult to schedule the necessary purchases.
- If you buy food immediately for a week, you can avoid unplanned expenses.
- Children should not be taken to shopping, as this may entail additional off-list costs.
- A good reason to save money is to refuse semi-finished products. They are more expensive than self-prepared meals. By the way, this also applies to sliced bread with sausage.
- It is a good habit to look at the lower shelves in stores. It is there that, as a rule, the cheapest goods are located.
The correct "policy" in the kitchen will also help to save money. Each season has its own dishes - for example, in winter, you can refuse salad from fresh cucumbers and tomatoes in favor of cabbage and carrots.
And expensive trout can be replaced with pink salmon, no less tasty, but inexpensive. You can turn your attention to offal, they are as nutritious as meat, but much cheaper.
Preparing food for future use can become a good habit for the hostess. For example, greens, if cut and frozen, will stay perfectly in this form for some time and will always be able to delight with their freshness.
The same can be done with vegetables, berries and homemade dumplings and cutlets. It is always convenient to get a homemade semi-finished product and make dinner from it.
Sometimes you can find budget recipes online that you can save for yourself and include in your weekly menu. This is another reason to look at thematic sites and please your household with new dishes. For the same purpose, culinary programs may also be suitable.
And the most important rule that will help you not to waste your money is the proper storage of food in the refrigerator. Throw away spoiled food in a timely manner, put raw and ready meals in separate containers with lids, and separate meat, vegetables and various sausages in special compartments of the refrigerator. These simple principles will help you save food for longer and save your family budget.
How to save your family budget with the help of programs?
In the era of the rapid development of various modern devices, you can choose an excellent assistant in maintaining your home budget in the form of a ready-made service - Drebedengi, Finance PM or another. It is more convenient if the selected option will have not only a website, but also a mobile application that is always at hand.
How can you save your family budget with a home computer? There are free programs, such as "Home Finance 1.0.2.10" or "DomFin", and paid ones - Family 11, AceMoney, MoneyTracker and others.
It is very convenient to conduct accounting with their help, since you do not need to invent something and perform a lot of manipulations. And if you have constant access to the Internet, everything becomes much easier if you use the mobile version of such an application.
If incomes turned out to be less than expenses, you need to learn how to control both. In order not to switch to crackers and water at the end of the month, you should get into the habit of sorting out your budget on the shelves and keeping track of all purchases.
Living from paycheck to advance payment, not caring about tomorrow, is a habit of many. Unfortunately, lessons on how to manage a family budget are not taught at school, everything has to be comprehended empirically.
To some, such a science seems too complicated, they continue to waste their finances thoughtlessly, risking one fine day being left without a livelihood. Others are exploring the home economics, dramatically improving their quality of life.
There is nothing difficult in distributing personal and family budgets. To do this, there is absolutely no need to plunge into calculus with many formulas. There are only two important columns in the home accounting table: income and expense. The first is the money that the family receives: salary, pension, benefits, income from rent or securities, interest on bills. All sources of family income are taken into account in order to know exactly what the total amount is composed of.
Expenses include: payment for housing and communal services, transport, telephone and Internet bills, food, education and development of children, payment of insurance premiums, loans. It is also necessary to include the column "unforeseen expenses". A good housewife knows very well how much money a family needs "for the housekeeping" a month.
You can make calculations in a notebook, but it is more convenient if home accounting is presented as a table with two horizontal columns: income and expense.
As you can imagine, the sums in the last lines must be at least the same. If the needs are more opportunities, then some items will have to be reduced.
It is not necessary to turn family budget planning into a total economy mode, but it will not hurt to give up too much. Focus primarily on mandatory spending, calculating them for a certain period, week or month. From the remaining funds, an amount is allocated for unforeseen situations (repairs, treatment, urgent purchases), the rest is sent to the "reserve fund".
To understand which expenses were necessary and which were unnecessary, the personal finance table, which consists of two columns, will allow.
Obviously, by giving up a business lunch at work and buying newspapers, you can easily replenish your family treasury with a noticeable amount. If tabulation isn't quite right for you, check out our review article, where we looked at the top 5 of them.
How to save on "communal"
Today, utility rates are growing, and bills are capable of undermining the family budget. But we have not yet developed the habit of saving on trifles. We use the advice of Europeans who are used to living in a resource-saving mode. Here are some simple ways to cut costs:
- Give up unnecessary kitchen devices with the prefix "electro". You can cook food, boil water on a gas stove. When purchasing large household appliances, pay attention to the energy saving class, the “A” marking is more suitable for the house;
- Make it a rule to unplug appliances from the outlet at night, turn off the light in the room, leaving it. Arrange multi-level lighting in the room, it is not only economical, but also convenient. Simple tricks in a month will save from 100 to 300 rubles;
- The refrigerator consumes most of the energy, so make sure that the ice coat does not freeze, this increases the consumption. Do not set the temperature regime too low without special need, keep an eye on the tightness of the chamber;
- Increasingly, in modern kitchens, an elegant hob is taking the place of a gas stove. Such devices are more expensive for the owner, so you should not forget about saving. Use the residual heat, buy containers for cooking according to the size of the burners;
- View invoices to understand what constitutes the amount for the billing period (month, year). Do you really need an intercom if you live on the 1st floor? Or maybe you are still paying for radio or unnecessary cable TV? Look carefully and you will certainly find how you can save your family budget without much damage.
Examine your bills. When was the last time you used your home phone, although you pay 200-300 rubles a month for it? And after all, a tidy sum runs up in a year?
Shopping for groceries - how to save money?
According to statistics, Russians spend from 30 to 50% of their finances on food, therefore, considering ways to save the family budget, we cannot ignore this item of expenses. Each housewife has her own secrets of cooking, making a menu, and the feeding process itself in each family is individual.
Somewhere all households gather at the table only for dinner, in other houses it is customary to eat 3-4 times a day. Despite this difference, there are still general rules for saving. Here are the most effective ones:
- Learn the tricks of marketers so you don't fall for their bait. Try not to take children to the store;
- Go shopping with a detailed list, so you won't forget anything and don't buy too much;
- Pay not by card, but in cash, real money is more difficult to spend than virtual;
- Pay attention to the products of little-known manufacturers, they are much cheaper than well-known brands;
- Avoid ready-made semi-finished products, pre-packaged products. Often, not the best quality goods are used for slicing, besides, you have to overpay for the work of the packer;
- By replacing partly household chemicals with a natural product, you will replenish your household budget with a tidy sum. The same can be said for cosmetics. Our grandmothers used mustard and soda to wash dishes, washed glasses with vinegar. Their house has always shone with cleanliness without the use of "super funds".
Bad habits fight
Sooner or later, each of us has to think about how to manage the family budget as efficiently as possible. After all, this is an urgent need to avoid financial difficulties in the future. Even if it seems that you live quite within your means, there is always something that you can refuse without difficulty, and sometimes even with benefit.
Review your bad habits. By giving up alcohol and cigarettes, you save more than money. Smoking is harmful to your health, and it also hurts your wallet. Considering that tobacco products are regularly "growing" in price, a bad habit becomes a pretty penny. The same can be said for light alcohol. Calculate how much a daily bottle of beer costs, and then imagine what that money could buy if you put it off for a year.
Network games are considered by many to be harmless entertainment, pleasant recreation, without thinking at all that this is a well-thought-out way of "pumping out" money. Without even realizing it, lovers of all kinds of "zomboferms" leave more than one thousand on the Internet a year. What can we say about avid gamers, for whom the game is a competition.
Make it a rule to earn money for entertainment separately and spend your personal finances on it, not to the detriment of the general wallet.
Sugar is a food drug, which means that the habit of uncontrolled eating of "sweets" can be classified as harmful. The average family spends from 200 to 1000 rubles a month on confectionery. Ice cream, candy, gingerbread, lemonade and other nonsense that cannot be called food or drink. Learning to live without sweets is not so easy, but the more valuable such a victory will be. A detailed table of food costs will help to understand which foods are superfluous in the diet.
Five ways to cut costs
When you're young, active, and partying, family budgeting seems boring. It is much more interesting to jump from a state of unrestrained revelry to economy mode and back. But sooner or later, spouses start to think about financial discipline. This does not depend on the level of family income. In any case, money does not fall from the sky, but is earned, so it is better to learn not to throw it away.
Who should be in charge of family finances?
This question is important for the preservation of the psychological climate of the cell of society. Undoubtedly, the decision on what and how to save the family budget is taken together. The rest of the functions can be divided between the spouses.
For ladies, the theoretical part of financial management is easier than for men, for the stronger half, there is simply no time to waste time on calculations. But women are prone to impulsive purchases, which means they cannot have free funds. Accordingly, the wife can distribute personal finances, and it is better to entrust the purchases to the spouse.
Hold me, now I will buy
Consumerism is the scourge of our time. Buying tons of things that are essentially unnecessary, we work for corporations that produce these goods. Here's a simple tip on how to save your family budget - give up rash purchases.
Do you want a dress, a handbag, shoes like a friend's? Wait a couple of days. During this time, carefully examine your wardrobe. Most likely, the same boats are already gathering dust in the closet, and the clutch does not fit the existing things at all.
Well-defined long-term goals allow you to learn to control your personal finances.
Don't buy what you can get for free
Are you used to reading each new "Cosmo" or are you waiting for the release of Daria Dontsova's book? Planning to attend the blockbuster premiere? Why pay for something you can borrow for free? Rational planning of the family budget is a reasonable attitude to spending. The press can be read online, the novel can be borrowed from a friend, and the films appear on the Internet a week after the release.
Many people get rid of unnecessary things by giving them away or selling them for a symbolic price. Feel free to participate in similar promotions.
Penny to penny - altyn came out
Make it a rule to save 5-10% of your income every month and not spend this money unnecessarily. So you not only get free funds at your disposal, but also gain psychological comfort. Over time, you will understand that it is better to spend your personal budget on necessary things, learn how to prioritize, form long-term goals, and invest profitably.
The science of how to manage a family budget includes not only meticulous calculations of expenses, but also the skills of managing available funds. Personal finances should not lie dead. It is better to place them on a long-term deposit in a reliable bank.
Investing in securities
The topic is not easy, worthy of a separate article. It should be borne in mind that this is a risky way, even experienced brokers do not guarantee a positive result.
Having saved up a significant amount, invest it in the purchase of something of value. Purchase of real estate will increase the family's sources of income. In the future, you will receive a stable profit from its rental for many years.
Often, projects that promise dividends of 50% per month turn out to be an ordinary scam. Be careful not to fund modern pyramid builders.
You can lend your savings to friends at a small percentage - this is beneficial to both parties. Just don't forget to formalize the deal legally.
Summing up ...
Living carefree is much more enjoyable than puzzling over how to draw up a family budget and do without unnecessary expenses. But with such an irrational approach, at the first storm of life, your financial boat will not just leak, but sink.
Saving money is not shameful, on the contrary, a modern person is simply obliged to have a financial literacy so as not to become a "cash cow" for suppliers of goods, bankers, and all kinds of schemers.
In this article, we reveal the basic methods of how to save a family budget?
1. Packages.
Come to the store and forget the package. You have to pay money. 3-5 rubles for a package seems to be not so much, but you can not pay them at all. We take a large cloth bag, such as a beach bag or a large bag, roll it up and put it in a bag or backpack. Now you always have the package.
2. Magazines or books.
In life, you need to read, learn something new, because knowledge is power. In order not to buy magazines, you can register on the city portal in the classifieds section, there are also forums and free classifieds boards. Search for information about who gives magazines, books on the subject that interests you.
3. Food.
The main item of expenses is food. Look on store sites, magazines or apps for information about discounts and promotions. Go to the store with a list of what to buy. Don't go hungry because hunger triggers purchases you didn't plan on.
Stores use a clever pricing system per 100 grams, not per kilogram. And many people think that it is not expensive, but in the end it may turn out that the price for 1 kilogram of sausage is over 1000 rubles.
At the checkout, always check the receipt, because there are a lot of goods, and there are few staff and sometimes they can write a promotion, but break through at a different price, more expensive. Sometimes, at the checkout, the product that you did not buy is specially added. When you go to stores, remember the prices of the goods (you can take pictures or compare by receipts) and see in which stores the goods are cheaper. Take food with you to work, do twists for the winter.
If you watch the "Revizorro" program, then you know that in many cafes and restaurants the norms are not observed, so eat at home. When going to the park, take water and sandwiches with you, as food is much more expensive in park areas.
4. Electricity.
To reduce energy consumption, choose a chandelier for 3 shades, buy energy-saving bulbs. When buying household appliances, look at the energy saving class of the product, it is indicated by letter. The lower the energy consumption of the device, the more expensive the equipment is, but the consumption of the consumed energy will be much less. Advice -
When you leave the room, turn off the electricity.
Put a table for a student, a sofa near the window and then you can use the daylight and do your homework, read books and magazines, and turn on the electricity only in the evening.
You can refuse to use some devices. For example, a hairdryer, curling iron, hot curlers in a box - spoil the hair, so hair can be dried naturally, and instead of hot curlers in a box, use Velcro or foam rubber curlers.
Microwave ovens, electric scooters and other large appliances are all additional energy consumption and can be sold on free classifieds sites or donated.
When ironing linen, you do not need to iron panties and socks, because they are well straightened on the body. Some housewives do not iron towels, jeans, but simply fold them and put them in the closet. Knitted garments can be straightened with a spray bottle with water.
5. Flowers in pots.
You don't have to spend money on flowers. Ask friends and relatives to give you flowers not cut, but in pots for the holidays.
Propagate flowers, ask your friends, grow flowers from seeds (lemon, tangerine, avocado, dates and other fruits) and seeds. 1 bag of seeds is inexpensive, about 10 rubles is much cheaper than buying a ready-made flower. By the way, you don't have to buy land for flowers in the store, you can collect it in the yard.
6. Sports.
Cards and certificates for fitness centers are very expensive, about 40,000 rubles for 6 months or a year. Different centers have different prices. But no one knows what will happen in a month or two, perhaps you will move to another place, and the girls may be waiting for the baby.
You can go in for sports without spending a lot of financial resources: skates, skis, sledges, badminton, tennis, bicycles, roller skates and other sports equipment.
Now in many yards, sports equipment is installed, so you can practice at any time convenient for you.
7. Clothes and footwear.
If you are in the status of a mom, then for the baby you can find clothes on free message boards or special sites where they give things away for free. The child grows quickly and therefore the clothes will have to be changed frequently.
To dress stylishly, you do not have to buy clothes in an expensive store, you can look at clothes in stocks, second-hand stores, ordinary economy-class stores. Change clothes that you no longer wear with your friends.
You can give a second life to old things and add embroidery, lace, sew on pockets on old clothes and it will look different.
8. Accessories.
Girls love to complement their image with accessories: beads, bracelets, earrings - you can make them yourself. Visit our website and you will find out a lot of interesting ideas!
9. Washing the floor and windows.
There are a lot of different products on sale for cleaning windows and floors, but windows and floors are not needed at all, and why breathe chemistry? I wash the floor with a cloth soaked in water, and the windows with a newspaper soaked in water.
10. Beauty services.
Every girl loves to take care of herself:, and, tint the hair roots or. You can spend less money on beauty services if you do care procedures from individuals or do it yourself at home.
11. Cellular communication.
Watch for new tariff plans of your operator or others. Subscribe to the service favorite numbers, in which communication with these subscribers will be cheaper. If you have the Internet on your phone, you can chat for free: ICQ, whats app, skype.
12. A trifle.
Check your pockets, bag and remove money from there in the form of coins. First, it interferes, rings. Secondly, it can tear pockets. Coins can be thrown on a card for travel in public transport "troika", "arrow", buy disposable dishes, chewing gum, bread. Remember the saying: a penny saves the ruble!
13. Rest.
Holidays out of season (not in summer) will cost less. Travel by train is cheaper than by plane. Also, the money will be less if you take the top shelf in the car and 45 days before the train leaves. It will be cheaper to rent accommodation from a private person or in a hostel that is gaining momentum than living in a hotel.
14. Medicines.
Look for analogues of medicines, you can download a special mobile application for this.
15. Get rid of bad habits.
Do you smoke? Do you like drinking beer? Then take a piece of paper and a pen. Write how much money do you spend on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages per week, month, year? Impressive? And what can you buy for this amount useful for yourself and your family, if you put it in a piggy bank?
16. Joint purchases.
Many people are in groups called joint purchasing. In simple terms, you can buy, for example, a watermelon for two families and cut into 2 parts. Some shops give discounts on beauty products when buying from 5-10 pieces.
17. Discount coupons.
Use special sites where you can purchase a discount coupon.
The main rule of economy says: it is important not how much a person earns, but how much he spends. Following our advice on the site, you will have extra money that you can put in a box, save up and spend on something you need!
Content
Excessive spending of money is natural with large incomes, but they are no exception in a detailed analysis for families with small budgets. The constant making of spontaneous rash purchases is inherent in everyone. The question of how to save money in the family worries many, and for this you will have to learn how to properly distribute your budget, according to the income received.
How to learn to save money
To learn how to save the family budget, you do not need to limit your needs, but you just need to develop the ability to competently manage the available funds. To save money, you should:
- Maintain detailed cost accounting and analysis. Develop good habits to highlight priority areas that you cannot do without and refuse unnecessary expenses.
- Plan spending money according to the funds received.
- Learn to save for unforeseen expenses, so as not to take out loans during a crisis in the family - when a job is lost or treatment is needed.
rules
Avoiding unnecessary expenses does not reduce the quality of life at all. Saving money in a family is possible if the following rules are observed:
- Don't go shopping hungry or after getting paid, but spend after budgeting.
- Go to the supermarket with a prepared list of products and, in order not to buy unnecessary trifles, visit only those departments where the necessary product is located.
- For payments in the store, refuse plastic cards, and use cash. After making purchases, do their total count.
- When deciding to make a large purchase, it is better to postpone the acquisition time for a certain period and weigh well the need for this thing.
- Use discount cards and cashback opportunities to get discounts.
- It is reasonable to approach ongoing promotions, to beware of the temptation to purchase goods that are irrelevant for yourself.
- Regularly do an examination with a doctor so as not to buy medicines when a neglected disease is detected.
The ways
You can start saving money with your family in the following ways:
- The five-envelope method is designed for four weeks of the month. The entire salary is divided into five parts. Control of spending money is carried out by following the rule - only one envelope is allowed to be used per week. The fifth is provided for the remaining last days of the month and for accumulation.
- Keeping records of purchases and payments for services with subsequent analysis of expenses. You can write down expenses in a notebook, in an Excel table, or use programs downloaded from the Internet for this. Analyze the spent expenses on a monthly basis. This method helps to identify unnecessary costs, and after analysis, they can be reduced or completely eliminated.
- Refusal of loans. Borrowing on vacation, to buy household appliances or a telephone, when there are still old ones, is an unreasonable decision. It is better to save money and have a rest for the deferred funds or buy the desired thing so as not to spend money on bank interest.
How to save money in the family - table
When planning a family budget, it is necessary to distribute all the estimated expenses in descending order of their importance and include the first from the list in future expenses. All family needs are shown in the table:
What can you save on
Reasonable use of the opportunities provided is economy. You can reduce costs by:
- Utilities. It is necessary to install water and gas meters.
- Wardrobe. Buying clothes at the end of the season at sales. Do not strive to purchase a large number of clothes - you can create new outfits by combining several things.
- Household appliances. You do not need to buy a product with a large set of functions - this increases the purchase price. Only the options you want can be selected.
Food costs
Vegetables and fruits are essential for proper nutrition, so you cannot save on them. Savings can be obtained by:
- Reducing meat intake. This will not reduce the quality of food.
- Reducing the amount of sweet desserts in the diet. This will improve your health.
- Procurement of products at favorable prices in the market before its closure.
How to save energy
To save money you need:
- Buy energy saving lamps.
- Turn off the electricity when leaving the room.
- Purchase household appliances that consume less electricity - class A, AA, A +.
- Do not place the refrigerator near a heating radiator or stove, and regularly defrost it.
- Disconnect electrical appliances from the mains after use.
Bad habits
When analyzing the costs, you can find that the costs of smoking and buying beer consume several thousand rubles. A lot of money is spent on the purchase of chips, carbonated drinks, alcohol. By eliminating these costs, you can not only save money in the family, but also preserve health. Abandoning them will help to compensate for the lack of funds or use savings to accumulate.
Cheap counterparts
Large sums of money are spent on purchasing new products or branded items. There is no need to strive to buy expensive products or acquire new equipment and communication means, if the old ones are still working. Promoted brands of dairy products and cosmetics can be replaced with similar cheap products from a local manufacturer. To do this, you need to compare their composition.
How to save money with a small salary
Small income is not a sentence, but an incentive to streamline your expenses. What is the right way to save money in a family with a limited budget? It is necessary to learn how to plan expenses according to the funds received. To save money, you should:
- Refuse loans, as the payment of the bank debt increases the burden on the family budget.
- Prioritizing family needs and aligning them with income can help reduce spending.
Budget allocation
With a reasonable approach to the use of family finances, it is possible to identify reserves even with a small budget. To balance income and expenses, you can use the recommendations:
- Plan your needs for a month.
- Make up a food ration for the week and make purchases according to a compiled list. This way you can avoid the purchase of excess food and prevent them from spoiling.
- Essential products that are consumed by the family in large quantities and do not spoil (sugar, flour) can be bought for future use at wholesale prices and so save.
Financial Accounting
Registration of all expenses will help to analyze them and detect unnecessary or harmful expenses. How can you save money in a family with a small income? There are options for this:
- Avoid going to restaurants and cafes, and cook homemade food for family members and guests.
- Replace spa visits with home treatments, and paid fitness sessions with morning jogging and exercise.
- Give up harmful foods (chips, carbonated drinks) and habits (smoking).
- Rest in exotic resorts should be replaced by excursions to the neighboring region, visiting exhibitions and museums, and a trip to a picnic.
- Do not buy ready-made food and convenience foods in supermarkets, but cook yourself. Instead of packaged goods and slicing, purchase cheaper food products by weight.
- Periodically review tariff plans for cellular communications and choose only favorable tariffs that include the necessary options.
- Buy cheap things from online stores.
How to start saving and saving money
In order to understand how you can save money in a family and learn how to save, you need to define financial goals for yourself and strive to achieve them. You can save money every month for: buying a car, vacation, home renovation. Real estate capital does not benefit its owner, so savings must be used to generate additional income through investments in investment. Money can be deposited in a bank on favorable terms with interest capitalization.
Video
Found a mistake in the text? Select it, press Ctrl + Enter and we'll fix it!Advice and personal experience on family budgeting, housekeeping, interest in someone else's rational experience are becoming more and more popular.
The increased interest in saving is due to different life situations for each specific family: low income, difficulty with work in the region, maternity leave, payments on various loans and mortgages, unwillingness to "work on the toilet", planning expensive acquisitions. All of us, in general, are united by the desire to live better under the same external conditions.
Of course, in different regions of our vast homeland, work and its payment are strikingly different. In a big city, there are more opportunities to find a well-paid job, but the costs in the city are much higher than in the countryside: apartments are much more expensive, transport costs are also high, there is no opportunity to use a vegetable garden and other rural advantages. And yet, it is possible to find additional reserves for savings everywhere, if there is a desire.
Economical life position
In my life, there are several examples from relatives and friends when people with the same income ended up in very different conditions. So, for example, two married guys with the same starting conditions and salary in the same organization achieved different results after three years. The first was able to buy a used domestic car, his daughter was born, they took a modest apartment on a mortgage. The second, three years later, had two children, a loan paid for an apartment with a large number of meters, a good car, then he opened his own business.
The terms of “income” are the same, why is the end result so different?
The fact is that funds in their young families were spent in different ways. And this does not even speak so much about mental abilities as about habits and life attitudes, the ability to plan and deny yourself something for the sake of the main goal. The first young man and his wife "lived now": they dressed fashionably and expensively, the wife did not like to cook and they often bought ready-made or dined in a cafe, the guy gave his beloved stunning bouquets, every weekend they tried to be somewhere without focusing on the cost of the trip ...
The second hero of the story was thoughtful and economical, his wife supported him. On weekends, they walked a lot, at no extra cost. The wife is a good cook and could well cook simple but tasty dishes. They also dressed modestly and practically. Since we worked together, I remember how the first couple discussed the second in the sense that they are strange people. The wife does not wear heels, he does not give her good gifts. I especially remember how a thrifty guy brought flowers in a pot to his wife in the maternity hospital. Practical, but not romantic, you must agree. The second couple strongly condemned this "potty option."
And then I saw that the “thrifty couple” was not affected by this in any way, they are confident in themselves, they are very close and happy. It surprised me then. A few years later, it became clear that they had common plans, to which they gradually and decisively went. By the way, the potted flower still grows in their house!
We often look at examples of "Western well-being", but even there people are very close to an economical approach to life. Practical and pedantic. They are not ashamed of it, like ours. Friends who have lived in the Czech Republic for many years said that they are preparing to buy gifts for Christmas in advance, sometimes even in summer. Friends traveled to Germany, rented an apartment from a young family with two children. This family has external well-being: a two-story house, two nice cars and two children. To the question: "Why are you renting?" They simply replied that all this was in debt and if they didn’t save money and don’t rent out part of their housing, then all this prosperity would be confiscated from them by the bank.
Next, we propose to consider, in separate parts, how you can rationally plan family meals, the cost of clothing, gifts and entertainment, housekeeping, options for changing household expenses, consider the cost of clothing, educational activities for children, joint family vacations, and various additional options for saving. Of course, this will have to change something and even completely abandon something, making a list of "prohibited items".
Nutrition
Nutrition is an important part of the life of any family. It is important to take into account not only tastes and habits, but also cost with utility. We draw up our own individual nutrition plan for each specific family. For all calculations, we start a separate notebook or table in Excel.
You can methodically record all the food costs for two weeks or a month, including all the small ones - gum and school lunches, work snacks, and so on. This methodical option will make it possible to fully assess the volume of your purchases, identify ineffective and completely useless ones. This approach is useful in other "expense items" of the family budget.
Plan ahead for the menu for the week, including the possible arrival of guests, work lunches, etc.
Use dual-use products, that is, those from which you can cook several dishes at once. For example, drink kefir and cook pastries on its basis; boil soup or broth, and use some of the meat for another dish; cook fish soup and the second dish. This approach will help you avoid constantly throwing out unused products on time and, of course, save money.
The less often you go to the store, the more economical you get.... The fact is that this way we make unnecessary purchases less often.
It is useful for many take money back to back for specific purchases on the list.
Make various "stashes"... To do this, use "neutral products" that are stored for a long time, can be easily combined with other products.
These are various canned food, stewed meat, condensed milk, crackers with raisins, oatmeal cookies, crackers, straw cookies, “Maria” cookies, various biscuits, jams and preserves, dried fruits. These NZ can be used both in the daily diet and for the unexpected arrival of guests. Our family constantly has a similar set of "cookies", they are low in calories, do not contain a lot of sugar and fat (which is suitable for feeding children), they are also economical, and you can make quite a decent variety. Products from these stocks can be taken as a "snack" to work, given to the child to school, and taken with you on the road.
Meat (plus poultry, fish)... As practice shows, buying meat once or twice a month is more profitable than buying sausages and other semi-finished products. Plus, of course, there are no soy additives and other components of sausages in the meat, which is clearly beneficial. To calculate the need for meat, we use the compiled menu for the week. We look at how many dishes on average from meat, poultry and fish we get and buy 1-2 times a month. We immediately cut the fish (we separate the parts for the soup and the second), cut the meat into portions, roll the minced meat, prepare semi-finished products: cutlets, cabbage rolls, meat hedgehogs, etc., lay out the poultry in portions.
This also includes various offal: liver, tongue, kidneys, lungs, heart, stomach, etc. This category of products is quite affordable. But here it all depends on taste preferences.
However, our doctor friend advises not to abuse the products of the "excretory organs", since they collect all the substances that were used to treat and feed the animal (antibiotics, drugs for rapid growth, various additives).
Using freezing in the refrigerator... All the resulting semi-finished meat products, divided into portions, are frozen in the refrigerator. This significantly saves our further cooking time.
Also, many seasonal products are great for freezing in the refrigerator, such as: mushrooms, berries with sugar, sorrel, parsley, dill, onions, bell peppers, green peas, corn, grated carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, already cut into pieces, are perfectly stored , green beans and more.
Thus, you can eat vegetables from your own garden all year round (or purchased in season, containing less fertilizer than in winter, and more delicious). Plus significant time savings - just take a pinch of various vegetables from the freezer and put them in soup, salad or gravy. At minimal cost, the diet is expanded and enriched with natural flavor.
It is worth considering this point when buying a refrigerator: the freezer must be very roomy, at least two large boxes.
We buy in bulk the basis for side dishes, cereals and soups... In our family, these are: potatoes, rice, buckwheat, durum wheat pasta, cabbage. It also includes various cereals for breakfast and soups, cereals (millet, oatmeal, pearl barley, semolina, barley, corn), beans and lentils.
For a variety of flavors and naturalness, we use supplements in the form sauces, gravy instead of purchased ketchups, artificial spices, sauces.
At the beginning of autumn, our family is actively harvesting adjiki(tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, garlic). This stock goes very well with any type of meat and side dish; for spiciness, it can be added to soup. It turns out tasty, natural, economical. You can cook from purchased vegetables in season.
We also procure in the fall horseradish sauce... There are many different recipes. We use horseradish, salt, water, some milk, vinegar, sugar. It is better to freeze some of the horseradish and make a fresh sauce.
At any time of the year, you can make your own fresh spicy mustard using mustard powder from the spice section. The recipe is already indicated on the box, we are preparing according to it. It turns out spicy, minimal in vinegar, retains a fresh taste for a long time. It is better to do it in small portions, dividing the box into 3-4 parts.
We actively use various gravy made from natural ingredients: water, mushrooms, meat, our own frozen vegetables and herbs, black and red ground pepper, dried dill twigs, bay leaves, flour, etc.
What's for sweet? In our family, there is an active struggle with sweets and other sweets. It's not that we don't eat them at all, it's just that it rarely happens and we try to choose the “minimal evil”. In order not to fall for a not very healthy sweet, we use a simple rule: "No sweets in the house - no problem." Or we buy little by little and don't put everything on the table at once. Otherwise, we simply do not have brakes on them, we eat a large bag at a time.
In addition to sugar, the presence of various additives in sweets and other purchased sweets is also embarrassing. Therefore, we prepare various jams or grated berries with sugar, there are still no additives here.
Beverages... Those who drink prepared compotes have half decided the moment with the choice of the drink. In our family, compotes are not very fond of. We drink fruit drinks (we dilute jam with water), tea with dried apples, mint, aromatic herbs, chokeberry, wild rose, hawthorn.
We try not to drink purchased juices, as it is not cheap and far from useful. Various sodas were excluded altogether (for more details, see the list of “banned products”). One acquaintance works in the workshop for the production of some popular soda. He says that metal pipes, valves and valves have to be changed almost every month. the miracle water eats away at the metal. What happens to our internal organs? And, of course,
