Contents
Hello, friends! Almost everyone has experienced financial hardship in their life. Especially often this situation is repeated when two people come together and they have a common family budget. In this article I want to talk about the main ways to regulate financial flows within one family. I will also share various services and applications that will help you not to starve while waiting for the next salary.
Preparatory stage
Planning is the basis for competent home bookkeeping. It is optimal if all family members take part in this process, otherwise strict adherence to the rules adopted by one person is necessary.
Cost planning includes several rules:
- Analyze income and expenses for the last period (approximately 2-4 months). This will help to understand the objective material picture of the family. Start writing down all your expenses, even the smallest ones, as well as income. Income includes not only wages, but also presents in the form of tea or shampoo from colleagues — because in the end you do not spend money on them. This data will help you optimize spending or find new sources of income.
- Plan your income. This includes wages, alimony, deposits, social assistance, and more. Also plan your expenses. They should include the total expenses for the family as well as the individual needs of each family member.
- In the event of savings, funds should first be allocated to pay off debts. Further on the primary needs of the family: utilities, food, medicines, etc. Then it is optimal to set aside some of the money that you will not take for life. This must be done every month. Having even a small capital, you will be calm in case of unforeseen situations. Last but not least, money is spent on pleasure.
- Plan large purchases: household appliances, car, repairs, vacations. Also seasonal spending: new boots or sunglasses, special cosmetic and medical products. Avoid spontaneous shopping as much as possible.
After the main expenses and incomes are planned, it is necessary to proceed to the direct implementation of the plan.
From planning to execution
When you have beautifully painted everything in a notebook, your expenses and income have optimally converged, the most difficult moment comes — following the intended path. To make sure everything works out the way you want, use a few recommendations:
- Record all expenses and incomes in a special notebook, collect all checks for purchases. You need to do this every day, as long as you remember what you spent even a small amount on. And this should be done by all family members.
- You can optimize the fixing of expenses using electronic documents or mark everything in Excel. So you make it easier for yourself the task of monthly calculation of finances, consisting of many points — the table does everything automatically. In addition, the program makes it easier to find costs for the past months, because there is no need to flip through a lot of notebook sheets.
- At the end of each month, a budget review should be carried out. If the money remains, then the plan has been successfully completed, and you can afford to spend money on entertainment and pleasure. If the expenses again exceeded the income or you went to zero, you need to analyze the mistakes made and look for what exactly caused the failure of the plan.
- After the analysis, be sure to plan the budget for the next month, taking into account the mistakes made.
- Take care of psychological motivation. After all, if there is no goal where to spend the money that has appeared, then the most correct and planned budget will not help, since no one will comply with it. Your task is to make up expenses in such a way that at the end of the month you can afford the fulfillment of your desire with the amount saved. To begin with, it can be getting rid of debts, and then buying gadgets that optimize work, which will give you more time and energy.
- Use a variety of computer and mobile apps to manage your spending. You can also ask your bank if they have similar services.
Remember that you need to keep track of finances on an ongoing basis. In the modern world, there are many options when there is no need to keep in mind all the plans for the month and the expenses made during the day.
Programs, services and applications for successful planning
Among the virtual assistants for doing your own bookkeeping, the choice is quite large. Each person can choose the necessary functionality. Remember that each program has its own advantages and disadvantages, both from a technical point of view and in terms of the area of use. What works great for a financial manager is unlikely to be needed for a housewife. And for those who are more important to plan purchases, applications with fixing spending are unlikely to come in handy.
To choose the best, you should learn a little about the most popular:
«Drebedengi»— a program for counting expenses for the whole family. It takes into account both the total budget drawn up and the individual expenses of each family member. You can configure alert functions, as well as a convenient currency.
Zen Mani is also a family app that takes into account both individual and shared expenses. In addition, it can be synchronized with online payments of banking services and electronic money, which automates the recording of expenses. Also, this application is available both on a smartphone and on a desktop computer, which provides the possibility of constant access.
Toshl – works with almost all currencies, as well as cryptocurrencies. The program itself reminds you of the need to make expenses and synchronizes with the site. For those who are bored with money transactions, there are special helper monsters. For those who value stability and clarity, the application has reporting features in PDF, Excel and Google Docs.
«Home bookkeeping» — works on a desktop computer and in telephone applications. Created to record the expenses of all family members, while each individual record has its own password.
Great programs for shopping planning and to-do lists are Evernote, Google Keep, or Microsoft One Note. They resemble a kind of diary, focused not only on business, but also on spending.
Conclusion
For more information on finance, you can read our article here.
If you write a financial plan and download the right application, this does not guarantee you the stabilization of the family budget. Although the sound of reminders will definitely make you remember the goal. Follow all the tips in this article, and then in the coming months you will be able to forget about debts, and possibly buy something that you could not afford for a long time.
There are many interesting and useful articles ahead of you. In order not to miss them, subscribe to the blog.
See you soon! I wish you financial well-being!