Successfully reaching the end of the month requires a lot of cunning on the one hand and the spirit of sacrifice on the other. But to save money, you don't need to spend less. Spending better is often enough.
First, you need to understand what a family budget is. If you don't know how much you can spend and what your fixed costs are, you are unlikely to be left with money in your pocket at the end of the month.
Budgeting family expenses is much easier than it sounds. All the data for filling it out is actually already at your disposal.
1. Calculate your income
To calculate the total, you must add the income of all household members. Are the kids already involved in making a profit? Then you will also need to calculate their monthly contribution; if they have a fixed-term contract or precarious work, they and you can count on extra money in the family. Finally, add additional passive income, for example from renting an apartment you own.
2. Calculate the results
And here is the most interesting thing. You can use an Excel sheet on your computer to take control of all your data. Divide the sheet into 15-18 compartments horizontally, corresponding to various items of expenditure. To do this, you will need to specify twelve fields corresponding to the months of the year. After you have entered the expense items, you will need to enter data for each month:
- Mortgage / Rent;
- expenses for the purchase of food and household items;
- taxes;
- bills: fare, telephone, electricity, gas, water, waste;
- bank: fees on current accounts and accident insurance;
- cars and motorcycles: stamp, insurance, gasoline and repair;
- school: books, notebooks, travel and additional materials, tuition fees;
- sports and health: gym and pool membership, treatment packages, spa, dentist, doctor's visit;
- public transport: bus / train tickets;
- clothes;
- holidays;
- unexpected expenses.
3. Calculate Potential Savings
Once you've calculated your total monthly income and total expenses, you just need to subtract to see what your ability to actually save money will be. The table will help you understand which of these costs you can try to cut to at least break down. The more bays you specify, the more items of expenditure will be under your control. It is up to you to decide whether to split sports and health into two separate boxes to keep track of spending, for example, for the dentist. Don't forget to include a contingency item in your budget: this is your lifeline in all those situations that require immediate costs (breakdown of something or natural disaster)
4. Install the dedicated application
Apart from using the appropriate devices at home, another way to control costs would be to install one of the many dedicated mobile apps. There are many such telephone assistants today. Look for them in the "Finance" section. They send you notifications, help you make a list of what you want, and save yourself the unnecessary. These include: Mint, Cets, Card, Money Wiz, Monefy, and so on.
