Recent studies have shown that over the past 10 years, the costs of raising children have doubled. Even if the child will undergo free treatment, attend state educational institutions, go to the budget department of the university to raise him, parents will need an average of 3 million rubles. In such a situation, family budget savings come first. The tips presented in this article will help you plan and correctly allocate funds.
Training
Today, huge amounts are spent on food, treatment, clothing and education. Many families barely reach salaries. The secrets of saving the family budget are to reconsider your lifestyle and limit the cost of entertainment and recreation. On the other hand, parents are not ready to save on their children. Therefore, you need to learn how to properly distribute funds without radical restrictions for family members.
Saving Your Family Budget: Tips
To live better, you need to either earn more or spend less. Not everyone can cope with the solution to the first problem. The second goal is quite attainable. Consider the main ways to save the family budget.
Observation
Before reducing costs, you need to understand exactly where the majority of the money is spent and how you can save. For this, it is necessary to record every penny spent within a month. According to the results of the first week of keeping a diary, it is possible to identify items of expenditure that literally "wash out" money from the wallet.
In order to correctly distribute the family budget, it is very important to record everything, even the smallest expenses, not forgetting to indicate chewing gum, cigarettes, chocolate and sweets in the expenses.
Analysis
After a month of research, you can summarize the first results. To understand how to save the budget next month, you need to distribute the costs into groups:
- how much money was spent on housing and communal services;
- how much money was spent on paying loans;
- how much expenses were necessary food;
- how much money was spent on clothing, hygiene products;
- how often were unplanned spending on gifts, entertainment, taxis.
Cost reduction
It will be necessary to constantly monitor expenses and income now. Proper budget planning is to allocate costs to priority and future. When recording purchases, you can carefully calculate the consumer basket and refuse unnecessary things.
Mandatory payments will not work. But some articles can be reduced. Most foods are bought for pleasure, rather than maintaining the body. Saving in the first place is on those purchases that you can do without. Refusing chocolate snacks at work will only benefit health. It’s worth to refuse processing, if you have to get home in the evening by taxi. And if you can’t live without your favorite magazine, then instead of the paper version, purchase an electronic one.
How to save on products?
For a family with a modest budget, a spontaneous dinner in a public place can be painfully expensive. Of course, one-time visits to catering establishments are allowed. But if you have to change your home dinner daily at a cost of 150 rubles per serving of pizza, then such trips need to be planned in advance. It is advisable to draw up a nutrition plan for the week. Special online services allow you to prepare a weekly menu depending on employment, working conditions, lifestyle.
How to save on electricity?
One of the most expensive items from the list of utilities is the cost of electricity. Modern household appliances make life easier. But if they work all at the same time, they consume a lot of energy. The following simple tips will help reduce costs.
Use energy saving lamps
Such lamps cost two times more than usual, but they also last longer. They practically do not heat up, all the energy goes to lighting. The average service life is three years; annual savings are 600 rubles. Dust can “eat” up to 20% of the light. Therefore, it is worth periodically wiping shades and bulbs.
When leaving, turn off the light. In order not to forget about this simple rule, you can write a reminder and hang it on the front door.
Buy class A + household appliances and use them strictly according to the instructions
Modern equipment of class A + or A ++ consumes much less electricity, but only on condition that it is properly operated. If you put the refrigerator in the kitchen next to the stove, then it will work in heavy mode to maintain the required temperature. A similar situation arises if you try to cool hot food. Timely defrosting will prevent the formation of ice on the walls of the chamber and reduce electricity consumption by an average of 15%.
Computers and TVs are actively used only a few hours a day. The rest of the time they are in standby mode, actively absorbing electricity. It is not enough just to turn off the device with a button on the power supply. You need to disconnect it from the power source.
Periodically repair
Light wallpaper and a white ceiling can offset up to 80% of the sun's rays. For comparison, the light output from black is only 9%. But before gluing the wallpaper, you should check the quality of the wiring. Sometimes, increased power consumption occurs due to wear on the wires.
Install heat-reflecting screens
Heating devices in the autumn and winter period absorb a lot of electricity. If you install foil or polystyrene on the battery, you can increase the temperature in the room by 2-3 degrees. To insulate the room even more, it is worth replacing wooden frames with metal-plastic ones, or at least close up the cracks.
Planning and Reservation
The distribution of funds for the next month should be carried out in advance. This is the saving of the family budget. The advice of financial gurus says that accumulating funds for long-term goals is not so difficult. It is enough to save 5-10% from each payday to the piggy bank. This reserve fund can be spent on expensive purchases, such as a car or an apartment.
Well-considered purchases
Shopping only during promotions is not the best way to save your family budget. Rather, the opposite. Frequent shopping leads to high costs. It is best to shop once a week, for example on a weekend, and make a list of the necessary goods in advance. If possible, go shopping without children. This will reduce unplanned expenses. What then is saving the family budget? Advice:
- Disposable items save time on cleaning, but take a lot of money. Replace paper towels with fabric towels, and instead of bottled water, buy tap filters.
- You need to participate in promotions only if you know for sure that you will use all the goods. It’s not worth buying a fabric softener at a 50% discount just because it comes as a gift to a pack of powder that has never been used before. But you need to keep track of seasonal discounts in order to manage to buy clothes on sale on time.
- Whenever possible buy food in the same shops. Today, all supermarkets offer discount or savings cards to regular customers.
- Shopping in stores should be done after meals and in a good mood.
Time for shopping
Some are used to purchasing all the goods necessary for life immediately after receiving a salary, while others distribute these expenses into several parts. Everyone decides how to save a budget. On the one hand, a one-time payment of utilities, the purchase of goods from household chemicals and food products allows you to immediately stock up on goods. The risk of wasting the required amount for recreation and entertainment is minimal. On the other hand, durable goods should not be bought as far as possible, but in bulk, at low prices.
Use envelopes
If expenses are paid in installments, then it makes sense to reserve funds for them from the moment you receive your salary. For this purpose, you can use multi-colored envelopes. For example, to save from each paycheck part of the money for utility bills in a red envelope, insurance payments in green, leisure and entertainment in yellow. In this case, even if unplanned expenses arise, you can always pay off the debt on obligatory payments and save some of the funds for long-term purposes.
Organization of rest
Not everyone can afford an expensive trip. And it is not always appropriate to save money for it for half a year. Most often, the purpose of travel, especially family, is to change the atmosphere and have a good time. And for this it is not necessary to fly to the other end of the world. You can go on an excursion to a neighboring city, visit historical museums, exhibitions or just go to the forest. Bowling, a water park and playgrounds without attractions have also not been canceled. Families with children should consider home entertainment. Board games will help to relax and spend time.
Buy used goods
At auctions and online sites you can find a large number of second-hand goods of good quality and at an affordable price. Of course, family saving should not be reduced to second-hand only. But sometimes it makes sense to buy a bike or scooter through an auction.
Compare rates
There is huge competition in the telecommunications market. Therefore, companies periodically hold promotions. From time to time, you need to view the tariffs of the company whose services you use and competitors in order to switch to a more profitable package in time.
Use the services of a bank
Tips for saving your family budget during a crisis often include a recommendation to save money on a bank deposit or keep it on a card. Both options have a right to exist, but only with a reasonable approach.
Bank deposits are designed just to save funds, and not to increase them. The rate provided for such deposits usually does not exceed the rate of inflation. But if you try to withdraw funds from the account before the expiration of the contract, you can lose some of the investments. Moreover, during the crisis period, fearing the outflow of capital, Central banks impose temporary restrictions on early deposit breaks. And in institutions with a very difficult financial situation, they at all introduce a temporary administration. That is, the term for the return of funds invested on a deposit is constantly postponed. But this does not mean at all that the funds have been lost forever.
If economic news does not portend major changes in the next few months, you can safely arrange a deposit at any commercial bank. and not worry about the safety of funds. In other cases, it should:
- to make a deposit in state financial institutions, for example, Sberbank;
- carefully read the contract with the bank;
- open a deposit, and not acquire a savings certificate ;
- open a short-term deposit with the possibility of prolongation.
Payment by credit card eliminates the possibility of losing money. But recent studies have shown that psychologically it is easier for a person to part with invisible numbers than with real pieces of paper. Therefore, the constant use of plastic can lead to loss of control over costs. To avoid this problem, activate the SMS informing service or download the mobile account management application to your phone. Only in this case it will be possible to visually track every penny spent. Does the bank not provide a detailed breakdown of each payment? Make it a habit to study every number on the check.
Finally
The tips presented for saving your family budget during a crisis should not be taken as a direct guide to action. These are just recommendations for reducing costs. It will take time to get used to even the simplest manipulations. But the result is worth it.