How to calculate family budget table. Family budget: tricks and secrets

Saving the family budget is a hot topic for almost all of us, insofar as it is much wiser to save money than to go into debt and take out bank loans. After all, keeping personal accounting is not as easy as it seems at first glance, and saving personal funds helps to optimize expenses and income. The most effective way to optimize your expenses is to keep a log of expenses and income, for this you can use one tool - an Excel spreadsheet. True, not everyone knows how to properly manage a family budget in Excel, let's try to understand this topic.

Where to begin

First of all, if you are interested in the question of how to keep track of expenses and income at home, then you must take into account one most important fact, only one of the whole family should deal with financial issues and distribute funds for the needs of all family members. Accordingly, the first step to start planning your budget is to discuss the personal needs of each family member. If this issue cannot be resolved, then, accordingly, there can be no talk of any accounting and economy. Money loves the account, or to be more precise, in this case, accounting.

By the way, if you have a large and friendly family, it will be much more difficult to control income and expenses, because not all family members will be ready to support such an idea. But in fact, without home bookkeeping, it is almost impossible to put things in order in financial matters, therefore, the primary task is to motivate all family members and make sure of the need to keep a journal.

How to install an Excel spreadsheet

Even if you are not a confident Internet user, it will be quite easy to install an Excel spreadsheet on your computer. The instruction will look like this:

find the Microsoft Office folder in the menu of your computer, open Microsoft Excel in it;
after the table opens, click the "File" button;
select the "Create" line in the menu;
in the window that opens, from the left column, select the link "Budgets";
among the proposed options you need to find "Family budget for the month";
click the Download button.

That's all, the table for your accounting is ready. As you can see, there are already several lines in it that you can easily adjust, that is, delete unnecessary expense items and add new ones. To carry out this action, it is enough to move the mouse cursor over the line, click on it, then by pressing the Backspace button delete the expense item you do not need, and enter the necessary values \u200b\u200bon the keyboard.

However, we will analyze how to use the table and how to properly keep track of the family budget a little later. I would also like to say that if such a scheme seems too complicated for you, then you can easily download a ready-made table. There are enough resources on the Internet that allow you to download an Excel spreadsheet with a ready-made template of a family budget for free, in order to find a suitable option for yourself, enter the query "download an Excel spreadsheet family budget" in the search box, then you are faced with the task of choosing the most understandable and convenient option for yourself.

Please note that in order to download a spreadsheet in Excel, you need Internet access, among other things, you will be presented with a lot of options, from which you can choose the most intuitive for yourself.

How to fill in the expenses and income section

So, after your table is ready, you are faced with a new task - this is to fill in all the fields correctly, that is, in each family, expense items can vary significantly among themselves, so first, think about what you usually spend your money on ... By the way, the table contains ready-made options, these include items such as food, utility bills, transportation costs, tuition, loans, personal needs, entertainment, and more. That is, for each individual family you need to create its own list of basic expenses.

Advice to Excel users! You should not write too many lines with expenses, so that you do not get confused in the future, some categories can be combined into one, for example, you pay separately for services such as gas, electricity, water, home phone, Internet, etc., together they create one category - utilities.

By the way, it is always worth remembering that each family member has expenses that he bears exclusively for his own needs, or in other words - this can be called pocket expenses. Be sure to display this in your account. In fact, every family member should have free funds, including children, if they have reached at least school age. At the same time, the pocket expenses of each family member should correspond as much as possible not only to his personal needs, but also to the total income of the whole family.

Example table

Maintaining the income section, of course, is much easier, because the main task is simply to indicate in the table the income that the family has. By the way, the family income includes absolutely all funds that, in one way or another, fall into the family budget, for example, salaries, benefits, alimony, pensions, additional earnings and much more.

It is on this principle that you can manage your family budget. A table of family income and expenses in Excel will only help you find the answer to one simple question that everyone probably asks himself - where does the money go. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find an adequate answer to such a question if you do not take into account all your income and expenses. However, even a simple Excel spreadsheet will not help you fully answer this question. Let's consider in more detail how to understand what you are spending your money on.

By the way, for each month you need a new accounting, or rather, a report. To do this, it is not necessary to create several documents; it is enough to start keeping records on a new page in Excel every new month. That is, create several pages and fill in a new one for each month, after a certain time you will be able to conduct statistics on your income and expenses.

How to properly distribute funds

So, if you decide to keep track of your family's income and expenses, then you should probably understand what you are spending money on and what you are wasting it on, that is, in every family there will certainly be expenses that could be avoided. Moreover, even the cost of such an item as food is not always justified, because the issue of choosing products and drawing up a diet for the whole family needs to be worked out.

Advice! If you cannot adequately answer the question of where you put your money, conduct a simple experiment: for two weeks or a month, collect receipts from stores so that at one moment they carefully examine and cross out, those purchases that you could easily do without, count the amount of rash expenses, for sure, the result will surprise you.

So, insofar as the main item of expenditure for each family is food, the main task of each housewife is to correctly distribute money to her. First of all, there are many secrets on how to save on food and at the same time not worsen the quality of your life. If you can extract unnecessary food and other purchases from your expenses, then you can easily save on food while doing absolutely no harm to your health.

If you find the right approach, you can save on absolutely everything. In addition, if you carefully record all your expenses, then after a certain time you yourself will be convinced that you are spending much more money than you could have spent if you approached the issue of expenses more thoughtfully. By the way, do not create a table that is too complex with many rows, so as not to waste time filling it out.

By the way, it should be said that expenses are divided in turn into two categories: planned and actual. That is, for each month you can independently draw up a plan for your expenses, that is, allocate the amount of funds for certain needs, for example, for paying utilities, food, entertainment, loans and other items of expenditure. As the spreadsheet fills out at the end of the month, you can see how effective your plan has been and whether it needs improvement, especially if your actual costs are significantly higher than planned.

Among other things, you can learn how to spend your funds in such a way that by the end of the month you will still be in the black. That is, after paying for all your needs, you may have an amount of free funds that can be sent to a savings account in a bank or spent on something necessary for the family.
Interesting! In practice, there are people who, after taking into account the family budget, gave up such a bad habit as tobacco smoking, after calculating how much money they spend on buying cigarettes a year.

Why you need to keep track of your family budget

First of all, the task of every family is to optimize their income and expenses, that is, to reduce debit to credit. Surely everyone is familiar with the situation that two different families, having the same income, distribute funds differently, respectively, some live in prosperity, while others constantly need additional funds. By the way, even with a small income, you can completely get rid of debts and not get into loans, because, as practice shows, maintaining a family budget allows you to save significant funds.

The table of income and expenses allows you to clearly understand where the money is going and for what needs, basically, you spend it. If you carefully analyze the statistics of your expenses, you will definitely find those expenses that can be completely avoided. In the next reporting period, you will be able to more efficiently allocate your budget to certain expenses minus all expenses that you consider useless.

After a certain time of keeping your family budget, you will be able to most sensibly approach family budget planning and learn how to spend personal funds in such a way that they are enough for all needs, plus there is some balance left that can be spent on savings or a large purchase.

To summarize, the table of family income and expenses is necessary first of all in order to learn how to properly and wisely manage your finances. The main task is to correctly record all the income and expenses of the family in order to adjust the shopping plan in the future so that all expenses are reasonable and deliberate.

How to plan your family budget correctly? How to start planning your family budget? There are many questions regarding family budget planning. This is not a difficult science, this can and should be learned.

Let's look at a simple example, you need to build an enterprise: Which enterprise? Of what? Where to build? How? What means? How many employees should be employed for construction? This is a small part of the questions you can imagine how difficult it is to plan the construction of a huge enterprise or plant.

A family is a small business, in order to correctly plan a family budget, you need to correctly approach each figure of income and expenses.

How to plan your family budget

Think back to the expenses of the previous two or three months and analyze them to plan your family budget.

Remember and plan expenses for birthdays in the family, birthdays of relatives, do not forget about the main holidays: "New Year", "Twenty-third of February", "Eighth of March".

In the summer months, utilities and gasoline begin to rise in price.

In order not to forget all this, you can draw a small plate for yourself from January to December and indicate there the main events and dates.

When you plan your budget for the new month, look at this table and make changes.

Family budget components

There are six components of happiness, if one component stops working, happiness in the family disappears.

What is included in these six components: income, expenses (which does not exceed income), own housing, savings or reserves, contributions, joint values \u200b\u200bof the husband and wife.

How to manage a family budget

The family budget consists of income and expenses. Income includes: cash income, income in kind and benefits.

Income table

Example of income for a family of four

Income table

This family is home to four family members, father, mother and two children. The family's income is the father's salary of 35,000 rubles and the mother's salary of 15,000 rubles, one child goes to kindergarten, the second child goes to school. The total family income is 50,000 rubles. This family has no additional sources of income.

The income is spent on essential goods and services for the whole family. After receiving the money, income turns into expenses.

Expenses include all expenses spent on a family for a certain period of time, for example, a month.

How to distribute your family budget

It is very important to distribute the family budget for a month so that it is enough for all expenses, and so that it does not exceed income.

There are two types of expenses: compulsory and optional.

Cost table

Consider the expenses of a family of four

Cost table

This family is home to four family members, father, mother and two children. Family expenses are included in the table.

Put your income and expenses on the scale

Example one:

Income 50,000 rubles Expenses 50,000 rubles

Your family's budget, your balanced income is equal to your expense.

Example two:

Income 50,000 rubles Expenses 60,000 rubles

You have a budget deficit in your family, you do not have enough money, you need to revise the items of expenses of the family budget.

Example three:

Income 50,000 rubles Expenses 40,000 rubles

Your incomes exceed expenses, you get a surplus of cash or an accumulation for future expenses.

The main point of drawing up a family budget is to learn how to make a balance between incoming income and outgoing expenses. We need to learn how to draw up a family budget so that expenses are always less than income.

Family budget for the month

An example of a budget for an average family with two children

Let us analyze the table of the family budget for an average family consisting of four people, two of them are children, we see that the family income is 50,000 rubles. The family has no additional sources of income.

The amount of the expense corresponds to the amount of income and is equal to 50,000 rubles. The costs include all the necessary cost items:

utilities;

fare;

payment for kindergarten;
clothes, shoes;
child's education;
medicines;

Pay attention to the most important article, it is called cumulative.

In every family, when planning a family budget, first of all, it is necessary to take into account that expenses are less than income, and include an item in expenses and plan money there, this item is called accumulative.

This item of expenses should be 20% as a percentage of wages, if you can't postpone 20% the first time, start with 10% and review your expenses again.

It is very good if you have more than 20% deposited in a savings point, it can be 30%, 40% and even 50%.

The funded part can be saved up and spent on vacations, large household appliances, winter and autumn clothes, and so on.

The rest of the expenses may vary in amount, some item or item of expenses may be more than presented in the table, some may be less.

Savings from managing a family budget

Considering the presented family budget for a month, for a family of four we received an income of 50,000 rubles and an expense of 40,000 rubles, from which we get a savings of 10,000 rubles per month. You can spend this savings on the purchase of large household appliances, winter clothes and shoes, on vacation with the whole family.

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Conclusion

It is very important that the family's income is always more than the expense, learn to plan correctly, reconsider the family budget, do not waste money, because they just exist, create a monthly funded part, and you will never need money. We wish you good luck.

Instructions

Make it a habit to record all your expenses. At this stage, you analyze your spending, compare it with income, and draw conclusions.

Find a reserve for savings. Any family budget spent in three directions:
- Obligatory payments (taxes, utility bills, education)
- Operating expenses (food, transport, clothing, mobile communications)
- Free money (entertainment, rest, gifts,)
You can cut costs on any of these points. For example, by insulating an apartment, you can save on compulsory expenses. You can spend less on food if you do not go to the supermarket on an empty stomach and have products that you need to buy with you.

Do not carry a lot of money in your wallet, otherwise you will be tempted to buy everything. It is especially common for a person to spend a lot on the day of receiving a salary. Try to determine for yourself the amount you should spend every month on daily needs: lunch, travel, various little things. Divide it by the number of days. It turns out that you have to meet in a day. And if one day you overspend it, then the next day you will have to do something.

Make two lists, in the first list the things that you are not going to give up (balanced meals, gifts for your family), and in the second, what you can save on (use a taxi less often, spend less on cosmetics).

Get a separate wallet for your change. Pour small coins there without counting. Someday this "bank" will help you out.

Put unexpectedly generated "extra" money in a bank or mutual fund. Let them work for you, after a while you will feel the effect of such an investment. Not without reason: it is not the one who has a lot of money that is rich, but the one who has enough of it. Pay attention to money and you will have enough.

Types of family budget

The family budget can be divided into 3 types:

joint
separate or independent
mixed, equity or joint and several

Joint and separate family budget

We traditionally use the first category of the family budget. Working family members pool their income and take money from this total for all expenses that arise. Recently, the trend has changed somewhat. Families with independent or solidarity budgets are increasingly common.

It is not always the same person who earns and manages money. On this basis, the joint budget is divided into 4 subspecies:

There are two people in the family who earn and share the expenses
Only 1 of the family members earns, but two share the budget
The budget consists of the income of two people, but one manages it
One person brings money to the family and 1 distributes it, and the manager is not necessarily the one who earns

The benefits of a shared budget

This kind of housekeeping has its advantages:

There are no secrets about the financial condition of the family. Everyone knows how much can be spent before the next receipt of funds
Convenient to save up for large purchases or create stock
Closer, trusting relationships are formed

disadvantages

In families that have chosen a joint method of budgeting, the problems arising against this background are no exception:

If earnings are very different, there may be dissatisfaction with the distribution of costs.
When two people are in charge of finances, it is sometimes difficult to make a common decision.
There is no way to accumulate an impressive amount on your own in order to spend it on a gift to your spouse

In addition to the above, there is a possibility that the one who earns less will not strive to increase his personal income if his needs are fully met from the general fund.

Separate budget

In this case, everyone disposes of the budget at their own discretion, while financially not dependent on each other. This model is typical for Western countries. The decision to pay both family and personal expenses is made by each independently according to the circumstances. They can agree on large expenses
The advantage of such a budget is that there is no reason to quarrel over financial matters. In addition, based on their income, everyone spends on himself as much as necessary.
At the same time, the level of income should be significant, but even in this case, if it is unwise to spend money, then it is unlikely that it will be possible to make large purchases. Again, the cost of children, home maintenance. Here, too, is fertile ground for disagreement.
There will be no reason at all for disputes around the financial issue if the incomes of both are stable and not particularly limited in size. With a haphazard approach, costs only increase

Equity or mixed budget

This type of budget is a combination of the first two. At the same time, spouses allocate some part of the money for general family expenses, and the rest spend on their own needs. The share of each, as a rule, is negotiated in advance.

This type is an intermediate link between joint and separate budgets. People who support parents, children from a previous family, relatives, a mixed budget is more suitable than others.

Rational family budget. How to save family budget?

A budget is called rational, in which the expenditure part does not exceed the income. This balance is achieved only through planning. There are certain planning rules, of which 3 main ones can be distinguished:

Know exactly how much money goes into the family. It's easy to do, just take a notebook and a pen and perform simple calculations of the net profit of each family member
Determine monthly expenses as accurately as possible. These are usually categorized as required and optional. The first group includes payments for utilities, loan repayment. Secondly: buying clothes and other goods, paying for repairs and refueling a car, purchasing food
Properly manage the remaining finances - buy something that allows you to receive additional funds in the future or put it in the bank

If the balance between income and expense turns out to be negative, you will have to give up something. Mandatory payments are obligatory for that, that they cannot be delayed in any case, otherwise there will be negative consequences.

Family budget items

An optional part of the costs will have to be revised. Start with big purchases planned for the current month. Consider if there is an opportunity to postpone them
First, you should make a list of all the necessary expenses, determining the order of the location of each action or thing in terms of importance. At the very end are the names of things, the purchase of which is optional.
If there is a choice between purchasing an electric oven at a cost equivalent to the amount allocated for a week's meals, then the second is definitely priority. The oven can be collected gradually by adding up the amounts remaining at the end of the month. Otherwise, having spent all the income on the oven at once, you will find that you simply have nothing to put in it, because there is just no money left for food
You can save on unexpected expenses if you don't buy new things thoughtlessly. When a washing machine or vacuum cleaner breaks down, try to take them in for repair - this option is the most rational
Calculate how much you need to leave to buy products, especially expensive ones. It has been proven that it is better to make purchases for a period of a week or more, instead of restocking every day. Ideally, don't go to the supermarket at all until you've finished what you intended to use in a week or two.
Although expenses for clothes are secondary, they cannot be avoided - children grow up, we ourselves gain or lose weight, something goes out of fashion

How to properly manage your family budget?

buy wardrobe items only necessary
attend sales
use coupons and discounts
be interested in prices because discounts can be higher in retail outlets than in other stores

Allocate money for recreation, entertainment

Nothing brings a family together like a carefree time together.

Put it off just a little, but regularly just in case. At all times, and especially in a crisis, one cannot be completely confident in the future, but it is in your power to make it a little easier if you have some reserves.

Video: How to save money?

How to plan and save your family budget in advance: tips

The generator of ideas for improving life and well-being in most families is a woman. Sometimes they are very keen on saving, deny themselves a lot, and there is still no money left until the next salary. Therefore, it is worth listening to advice on how to rationally make purchases in the supermarket and save money in other situations:

Make a list in advance and take from the shelves only what is on it. Impulse purchases are unnecessary.
Buy more often in online stores, many things are cheaper there.
Don't take a large amount with you
Try to buy products that are stored for a long time, as well as household chemicals, not retail, but in bulk - in large packages. It will cost a lot right away, but in the end it will be cheaper
Do not waste money in passing yourself and teach the rest of the family to do so. Even the daily purchase of such trifles as magazines, juices, chips, seeds is ruinous for the family budget.
Be sure to count the change and the total in your wallet. Without accurate knowledge of the amount of funds available with you, it will not be possible to spend them deliberately
If you or other family members visit clubs, gyms, clubs, then it is more profitable to buy a subscription for a year. In this case, the cost of an individual lesson will be reduced by 4-5 times. Sign up for a group, it is much more economical than individual lessons
Replace all bulbs with energy efficient ones. They are more expensive, but last longer, and energy consumption is reduced by up to 5 times
When buying a refrigerator, choose class A. Install it away from heating appliances to consume less electricity
If there is an electric stove in the kitchen, keep the burners clean and in good working order, otherwise the electricity consumption will increase by 2 times. Do not overheat by switching off the stove periodically for 12 minutes.
Proper use of household appliances also contributes to saving money. Even if you make it a rule, when using an iron, first to iron things that require a low temperature, and then increase the temperature and iron the rest, then the savings will be noticeable
Install water and gas meters. Make sure it doesn't drip anywhere

Be responsible for planning your family budget. Act consistently in one direction, and you will avoid most of the problems, both financial and in terms of building a strong family, where relationships are built on trust.

Video: Family Budget Planning

Updated: 23.10.2018 Oleg Lazhechnikov

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I often come across the fact that people do not know where they spend their money, do not know how much they spend on food, for gatherings in a cafe with friends, for clothes, for unforeseen expenses and so on. At the same time, they borrow money, complain that there is not enough money, and so they want to go somewhere, or buy a laptop / bicycle ... The question immediately arises, do you really want to? Or, what you want more, to squander money on beer on weekends, or go to the sea? Of course, at sea, but I spend so little on entertainment, there will be an answer. In reality, a person does not know that some of his expense items in total for several months or a year are a trip to the sea.

I in no way urge you to save on what is important to you. But it’s better to know and understand how much money it actually takes from you so that you can make an informed choice. No less important is the knowledge of your real desires, your real dreams. I wrote about this in the article.

You have a lever of pressure on your family members :) For example, a wife comes to her husband and says, here we are not buying me anything, we are not pampering me, and you bought yourself a MacBook for 50 thousand, ay-ay. Silently, the husband opens the budget, makes a sample for the year and shows that, besides the MacBook, he only bought a couple of T-shirts for himself during the year, while the wife has already gathered 100 thousand clothes for herself for the whole year, just not everything at once, but gradually , periodically.

pros

In general, the budget is a great thing for understanding how your spending stacks up. In fact, many people think that you will think only 1000 rubles more, but in fact, these thousands of rubles for the whole year (and for someone in a month) so much accumulates that you can buy a car! Toy :) In fact, I'm not kidding, saving the family budget is the only way it develops - from little things, this is the main feature. 1000 rubles saved \u003d 1000 rubles earned. Recently, I calculated that my smoking friend spends about the cost of a good laptop on cigarettes a year. That is, if he did not smoke, he could change the laptop once a year.

But I beg you not to confuse economy with beggarly. Trying to increase your earnings is a necessary and obligatory desire, and in no way contradicts saving. As in business, there is always an accountant who optimizes costs. And, if you go in two directions at the same time, earning, and deliberately filtering out unnecessary spending, you can come to your goal much faster.

I sincerely do not understand the situation when requests grow faster than income. That's the point of spending everything and getting into debt / loans, for what? Isn't it better to postpone or invest to gain financial independence and freedom? Otherwise, you can earn millions, but still "beg".

So, pluses point by point.

Control. You always clearly know what you are spending your money on. There are no questions about where half of the salary went and who spent it.
Conscious choice. After a couple of months of budgeting, you really know how much each item of expenditure is, and you may very well want to adjust it (decrease / increase). Thus, unnecessary waste is eliminated.
No debt. Getting into debt / loans is minimized, because you can calculate everything in advance and avoid it.
Easier to plan your purchases. Whether you want to buy something big or go somewhere, it's much easier to plan with a budget. You can find out in which month you will have a sufficient amount, which is very convenient, or how you need to change the structure of spending in order for this amount to appear.
Useful for long journeys. You can always plan ahead for how many months the money will last.
Convenient for getting fired. You can find out how much time you have and calculate when it is time to start looking for a job.
Disciplines. And in terms of spending, and in terms of life in general.

I've been budgeting since 2008. I tried it once and I liked it. Thanks to the budget, it was possible to plan more than one trip, or rather to understand the possibility of its implementation in a specific month under specific conditions. He also helped me a lot after my dismissal in 2010.

I then immediately calculated how many months of free life I can get, which countries to go and what things to buy. Accordingly, I knew in what month the earnings would have to appear or when I had to go to work (in case of failure).

In general, I like the feeling of security / safety the most, when you can plan everything in advance (for 3-6-12 months) and be calm.

Minuses

There are much less of them (for me).

Noting spending and planning a family budget takes time. With the right approach, very little, but it takes. But sometimes it’s even nice to take it, but write a plan for the next six months and bring in useful purchases and long-awaited trips.
There is a chance to get stuck on the economy and go over some acceptable boundaries. Or otherwise, become a curmudgeon, starting to save on everything in general. It should be understood that everyone has their own boundaries, that for one saving, then for another - squandering.
Addition to the previous point. There is a chance to get stuck on the current income level and focus only on saving. Or otherwise, "not allowing" to have more money, you can get a kind of psychological barrier.

How to manage a family budget

As I wrote above, the basic principles (well, or pluses) are spending control, making a conscious choice and eliminating unnecessary expenses. And the budget is built on this: you plan spending for the required period of time and then stick to it. Also, in the process, you need to mark these expenses in order to correlate the actual expenses with the planned ones.

How strict to do all this, everyone decides for himself. At first I was very strict about everything in order to understand where and what was going, and then I relaxed, began to round up and lead everything approximately. The result is a floating budget, in which the main thing is the absence of unnecessary spending, the correspondence of expenses to income (needs and opportunities), and not strict compliance and savings for the sake of saving.

There are items of income and items of expenditure. The number of articles there and there can be absolutely any, the main thing is that it is convenient for you. I started out with a lot of detail and then simplified everything and consolidated many articles. If you don't know where to start, then start with any articles, usually after a couple of months of budgeting it becomes more or less clear. Although I still correct it sometimes.
In my opinion, items of income and expenses need to be written such that you will then analyze, or for which you need to track the dynamics. If this is not important to you, then in general you can make one item of expenditure and one item of income. And in general, the entire budget can be reduced to a paper envelope, that is, put into it at the beginning of the month the amount that you are going to spend, and then there will be something left to watch or not.
I write down expenses every day, it's more convenient, and it only takes a couple of minutes. But basically the application on the phone does everything for me, recognizes sms and writes them to the database. And when you need to plan something serious, for example, wintering in Thailand, then you can sit for half an hour.
Both husband and wife can manage the budget, both together, and someone alone. As you agree, in general. Or rather, who will like it more. True, when they lead together (both celebrate and plan), it will be easier to discuss something than if someone distances themselves from it.
Whether it is worth keeping a joint or separate budget, I will not say. There are different opinions on this matter. I personally accept both. When in a couple, both are self-sufficient and earn money, then, firstly, everyone is more calm and confident in the future, and secondly, they will only be glad to have a separate budget.
You can keep a budget without planning at all. That is, it is easy to mark income / expenses and check if everything is in order there (control). Some applications and online scheduling services do not.
The essence of spending control is that you have a positive balance (reserve), that is, a positive difference between income and expenses. Let not every month, but in a quarter or a year. Well, so that a tendency is visible, whether you live in the negative or in the plus. This reserve can be accumulated or spent on something useful.
Usually in all smart books it is advised to put 5-10% of income in the financial buffer or invest, regardless of goals. 5-10% is, in fact, the amount that is practically invisible for any income. I do not have such strictness. Sometimes I climb into the buffer (go into negative territory), sometimes I postpone even 50%.

Family budget programs

How to choose a program

Some services have their own site-service and a mobile application, some have only an application, some have only a website. In my opinion, the option is more convenient when it is possible to use both the application on the phone and the online version on the website from a laptop. This was one of the reasons why I chose Drebede money at one time and have been sitting on them for many years.

You can also write it down on a piece of paper in the old fashioned way. However, there is a risk that this piece of paper will be lost at one fine moment, and it is much easier to correct something in the electronic budget.

How did I choose a program to manage my family budget? I went to Google Play, downloaded about 5 android applications that I liked from the screenshots and descriptions, and started trying them. About 10 minutes for each application. As a result, there were two that were more or less clear to me, or in other words, where the logic of budget management suited me. It is important that my principle of conducting in my head coincided with the intention of the author of the application. Otherwise, it will take a very long time to delve into, but how to do what. No, everything should be intuitive. Then I tried to mark expenses for a couple of days in order to understand whether it was convenient for me or not.

From 2008 to 2013, I kept a budget in Excel. You can download a simplified template for my budget. Or here's my budget (more complex file), taking into account different income / expense channels (cards, electronic money).

One sheet in Excel is one month. The monthly budget is scheduled for 2-3 months in advance, no less. To plan six months in advance, you need to create 6 more sheets named "monthYear" (for the formula to work), and so on.

Each month there are two columns - planned spending and actual. The first column is for planning, the second for current spending.

In my file (especially in the second one) there are formulas, if you are not friends with them, then it is better to try to do something of your own or use ready-made services. Otherwise, you will have to figure it out. In short, in the second file, you can mark expenses by day, depending on how you spent them: cash, electronic money, cards. And the balance is then calculated in exactly the same way for all these places of storage of funds.

Drebendengi service

Since 2013 I have transferred the budget to the site and am very satisfied. Now I mark all expenses from my phone, and plan on my laptop online.

Many operations are automated, for example, all expenses on a bank card fall into the budget themselves. Thus, if you practically do not use cash (and I just try to minimize it), then there is almost no need to mark anything. Read a separate post and their phone app, because it takes too long to tell.

So a simple Excel spreadsheet is good just for a start, test it so to speak. And after you have decided what the budget will be, you can switch to services, including paid ones.

P.S. Do you manage your family or personal budget?

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