Salaries are paid regularly, but there is never any money. Many of our compatriots will agree with this statement. What is the problem - in the low level of remuneration or in the inability to correctly distribute personal funds? We will try to figure out how to conduct home accounting and learn how to control the finances of your family.
Pros of Home Financial Planning
At first glance, doing home bookkeeping may seem like a boring and routine job. Constantly collecting all receipts and recording expenses is unusual for those who have never before thought about their own expenses. But in fact, financial planning is the key to stability and prosperity. Starting to record your expenses and income, you can quickly enough find an answer to the question: “Where does the money go?”. A rational distribution of funds and savings will help you save up for large purchases and get rid of debts. Home budget is an affordable financial planning tool for everyone. With its help, you can learn to save money, abandon spontaneous acquisitions and gain financial independence. How to conduct home accounting correctly and efficiently?
Common Family Budgeting Options
The most common are three forms of family budget. This is a shared, partially shared, or split budget. The classic version of the distribution of funds in many families of our country is general family money. This system assumes that all earned funds are stored with one of the spouses, he is also responsible for their distribution and spending. Most often, with such a budget organization, the wife manages the money. The main disadvantage of this option is the increased liability (for the distribution of funds) of one of the spouses. At the same time, most of the most part of household duties falls on the shoulders of the person who controls cash flows. A separate budget is often chosen by young couples. In this case, each of the spouses manages their personal income, while allocating a part for general needs. The option is not bad, but only if both husband and wife work and have a stable income. The most democratic form of the family budget: partially general. There are two varieties of it. In the first case, the majority of the money earned by the spouses is added to the general piggy bank and spent in accordance with the needs of the family. At the same time, everyone has enough finances in their personal management. In the second case, the largest of the spouses' salaries is spent on basic household expenses. The money earned by the second of the pair (lower salary) is postponed. Both options are a very suitable basis for sound financial planning. How to conduct home accounting, who should manage the money in the family? Each couple should find the answer to this question directly for themselves. All of the home budget options described above are acceptable and have a right to exist.
Home Accounting Tools
How to conduct home bookkeeping: in a notebook, in a computer program or in your personal smartphone? It all depends on your lifestyle and personal preferences. The classic format is ledger. This is a notebook, notebook or barn book, previously lined up for the number of expense items. In this case, the budget is filled in by hand. You will need pens (it is more convenient to use at least 2 colors). It is useful to keep your ledger together with a calculator for simplicity and speed of calculation. An alternative option for maintaining a home budget will appeal to fans of electronic documentation. The well-known Microsoft Office Excel program is designed specifically for working with tables. It’s not difficult to master it even for an inexperienced PC user. How to conduct home accounting in Excel, are there any nuances? No, everything is just the same as in a paper notebook - you only need to create a table of a suitable size. Today, private financial planning is a hot topic. If you wish, it is easy to find special applications for PCs and smartphones, as well as online services designed to keep your home budget. To many users, they seem incredibly convenient. Often such programs really have nice additions in the form of shopping lists, reminders, automatic summing up of the month.
Basic rules for maintaining a home budget
What you need to know about accounting for the successful application of its principles in everyday life? The first rule is regularity. Record all expenses regularly. Not all of us have the opportunity to fill out financial tables daily. However, at least once every 2 days to do this is necessary. If you keep records less often, you will most likely forget a significant portion of the minor expenses. Specialists in financial planning recommend not to miss a single trifle. Often such "small" expenses, such as paying for public transport, ice cream and coffee on the way home, make up a significant part of any item of expenses.
How to fill in the income section?
The first and rather important section of the household budget is family income. All funds received by family members are recorded here. These are salaries, social benefits, interest on investments. Do not forget about one-time income. Bonuses, personal financial gifts, compensation payments must also be recorded. Even if you won the lottery or accidentally found a bill in the street, be sure to write down the amount received in the income section. It turns out that all
sources of income can be divided into stable and one-time. Of course, financial planning should be based on the first category.
Main expense items
The most significant expense item is monthly payments. Each independent person pays monthly utility bills, Internet and telephony, education. Usually these are fixed amounts. If we conduct home bookkeeping, all regular monthly payments can be made out in one column. Many modern people spend personal finances on additional education or self-development. Should I include in the monthly payments section the cost of a subscription to a fitness center or language courses? If there are no more than 3 items of such expenses, it is logical to write them in the same section. With more paid educational services, it makes sense to put them in a separate column. The next extensive section of the home budget is food. How many total columns should be in the table, how to conduct home accounting correctly? It all depends on the needs and habits of the family. Standard expenses for most items: home, clothes, household chemicals, medicines, entertainment, hobbies, gifts. If the family has children or pets, for each of them it is also possible to allocate a separate section of expenses. How many total sections should your budget have, you will understand as soon as you start to keep it. Do not forget to make the column “Miscellaneous”. It will be possible to record in it all forgotten expenses, as well as expenses that are not amenable to the selected classification.
Will the home budget fit?
It is enough to record your expenses for 1-2 months, and you can understand where the funds go in your family. Most of our compatriots, unknowingly related to the
home economy, can only name the amounts of monthly payments with confidence. And this is already important data for analysis. If utility bills and other mandatory monthly contributions exceed half the family’s income, this is an occasion to think about finding a part-time job or changing your main job. In cases where this is not possible, you should try to apply for subsidies. For many categories of beneficiaries, social discounts are provided for paying for utilities and children's education. Be sure to regularly summarize the budget and analyze the rationality of spending. You already know how to do home bookkeeping. A PC program designed to control personal expenses can read all entered data in an automated mode. If you keep your home budget in a notebook, you will have to use a calculator.
Principles of Rational Savings
Doing home bookkeeping allows you to be more conscious about spending. How to save without compromising the quality of life? One of the extensive items of expenditure is food. It’s really possible to save on food if you always draw up a sample menu and lists of necessary purchases in advance. Compare prices in various stores, make purchases at wholesale bases. You can also save money on purchasing clothes by visiting seasonal sales and giving preference to things from past collections. Try to refuse impulsive purchases, try to plan in advance each trip to the store.
How to keep home bookkeeping in a notebook: sample fill
We bring to your attention a sample template for conducting home accounting in paper form. You can draw the same table in your ledger or modify it a little. According to some experts, it is much more convenient to arrange fixed items of expenditure in the form of vertical columns and fill them in as financial transactions are conducted. This is only one of the options for how to conduct home bookkeeping in a notebook. The example at the beginning of this paragraph is best suited for a young family or sole financial planning. If the budget is drawn up for spouses with at least one child, the vertical arrangement of the columns is most relevant.
Conclusion
We tried to tell you as much as possible what home accounting is. How to conduct, a sample sample table, options for organizing a family budget - all this is presented in our review. Maybe it's time to start recording all income and expenses today?