In fact, keeping track of expenses and income is always a good idea to plan your family budget. Nowadays, such a calculation can be done not only in a notebook, but also on a computer, tablet and even a smartphone. It remains only to choose a more convenient option for yourself.
Calculations in a notebook
This is the best option for those who are "you" with a computer or simply do not have one. Take a regular squared notebook and line each sheet into two columns. In one, you will record income, and in the other, expenses. And so every day, putting down the date over the records.
Once a week, you need to take stock. Take a calculator and calculate how much you earned and how much you spent, as well as estimate which items of expenditure can be further cut.
Pros: simplicity, low cost, the ability to narrow or expand the columns of the notebook, depending on the characteristics of your expenses and income.
Cons: to sum up the weekly you will have to spend 20-40 minutes. And it takes even more time to analyze some data, for example, how much money you spent on paying interest on loans. It is also inconvenient to plan for future expenses.
Counting on smartphone and tablet
Nowadays, many people have either a smartphone or a tablet, and sometimes both. It is very convenient to manage your family budget on these devices. You just need to install a program specially designed for this.
Smartphones
Most smartphones run on the android operating system. If you have such a smartphone, then you need to go online, go to the site for downloading applications and install the budget management application on your smartphone. If you have a smartphone with an ios operating system, then go to the App Store and download the app for keeping budgets.
Tablets
As for tablets, it is more convenient to keep track of the family budget on them than on a smartphone, due to the large screen size. At the same time, the choice of programs, like on a smartphone, depends on the installed operating system. And you need to download programs on the same sites.
Pros: speed of calculations - any of the installed programs performs the necessary calculations by itself and never makes mistakes. It is convenient to plan future expenses.
Cons: Any program costs money, and free versions are always cut back.
Counting on the computer
There are several options for programs for keeping a family budget on a home computer or laptop.
Option one: these are ordinary excel spreadsheets that are on every computer.
Pros: summing up takes only one minute, you can calculate the results of expenses and incomes for any budget line and for any period. There are many ready-made free templates on the Internet for doing home accounting in these programs.
Cons: it will be difficult for a person unfamiliar with a computer to customize the table for himself. In addition, such programs are rather boring and outwardly resemble cost accounting in a regular notebook.
Option two: even more opportunities are available for special programs for managing the family budget. They can be downloaded for free and installed on your home computer. The most popular programs are "home bookkeeping" and "home finance"
Pros: These programs have a lot more functions than a spreadsheet. You can analyze expenses for past periods and draw up an expense plan. All programs are provided with technical support. This means that if you do not know how to do something, you can call technical support and they will explain everything to you.
Cons: Most of these programs are paid.
Option three: if you have Internet access, you can use online services. Choose a service, register on it and start your own calculation table. There are free and paid services. Free ones usually have a limited number of features, but for many, they will be enough.
Pros: no special software installation required.
Cons: if the Internet is turned off, you will not have access to calculations.
