5 tips on how to properly allocate a family budget

The topic of today's article will certainly be of interest to couples who are running a joint farm, because we will talk about how how to correctly allocate the family budget of .

I will point out the mistakes that you may allow, I will tell you about the experience of managing my married girlfriend's family budget and give some useful advice on this issue.

Why you need to know how to correctly calculate the family budget?

One day one of the subscribers rebuked me for giving too much attention to the topic of money.

Like, but what about the soul, art, high matter?

I do not mind either the soul, art, or high materials, but I know for sure that a stable financial situation contributes to the inner calmness of a person, and the expansion of his interests, and his passion for the same art.

While constant lack of money kills all aesthetic impulses, making you think only about how to survive. Of course, much depends on the person: not all businessmen visit the theater, opera or museums, but some intelligent old women with a beggarly pension try not to miss a single exhibition in the local museum.

How to make a lot of money?

But nevertheless you will agree, to lead your own or in our case the family budget should be so that you have enough and to meet natural needs( somewhere to live, eat, wash), and to more pleasant things( travel, hobbies, gatherings with friends).

That's why today we again talk about money, or rather about the correct allocation of the family budget.

How did my friend comprehend the wisdom of the proper allocation of the family budget?

Several years ago, my friend Marina married and among the various difficulties that lie in wait for the newlyweds in the first year of life, she was confronted with the fact that they did not manage to adjust the family budget.

Her husband, Sasha, seems to have earned well, Marina was also not a drone, she worked, yes, she earned less than her husband, but still - they had two salaries, which together amounted to a good amount.

And still not enough for anything.

Marina( purely feminine 🙂) began to blame Sasha.

This he, they say, is to blame, because he continues to spend money on her flowers, sweets, fruits and even invites restaurants. Of course, it is he who breaks the gap in their family budget.

Puzzled Sasha stopped doing all this, but for some reason their family budget did not improve, and money still was not enough, and even romance passed away.

And then Marina for the first time seriously thought about how to ask how to calculate the family budget to finally patch all the holes.

It took her six months to stabilize the financial life of her family.

She was able to do it with the help of 8 envelopes system, which she kindly shared with my readers.

How to properly allocate the family budget: 8 envelopes system

Determined to deal with the confusion in its family budget, Marina acquired 8 net envelopes and signed them:

1. Communal payments.
2. Mandatory purchases( food, household chemicals, cosmetics, clothing).
3. For daily expenses.
4. Entertainment.
5. Investing in the future.
6. Unplanned expenditure.
7. Summer vacation.
8. Large purchases( household and computer equipment, outerwear, etc.).

How to draw up a financial plan: 5 tips

Since Marina and Sasha received salaries twice a month, and, with a difference of one day, my friend decided to calculate not a monthly but a two-week budget and distribute the amount they receive every two weeks( which is 10 000 hryvnia), according to the corresponding envelopes.

Here's what it did:

1. Utilities( Marina has 800 hryvnia + 800 more with the next salary).

   Here everything is simple: everyone knows how much he pays for an apartment or a house.

   This amount should be postponed first and do not touch it.

2. Required purchases( food, household chemicals, cosmetics, clothes).

   Marina allotted UAH 4,500 for this.

3. For daily expenses.

   Marina estimated that they had enough for two of 150 hryvnia a day to go to work, eat lunch, well, and have a small sum in the purse for every fireman.
   150 х 10 working days = 1,500 UAH.

4. Entertainment.

   1 000 was left for entertainment.

5. Investing in the future.

   7% of the amount of income, that is - 700 hryvnia.

   For this purpose, a separate bank account was opened.

6. Unplanned expenditure.

   Diseases, machinery breakdowns, dirty trick of neighbors with murderers from the tapping water and other troubles breach the family budget.

   In order not to walk in debtors, postpone little by little on such spending.

   Marina decided that 300 hryvnia would be enough.

7. Summer vacation.

   Hryvnia was postponed here 600 times every two weeks.

8. Large purchases( household and computer equipment, furniture, outerwear, etc.).

   Another 600 hryvnia from the family budget Marina began to postpone for large-scale purchases.

How to calculate the family budget: the main mistakes

People who can not put things in order in their family budget, often make banal mistakes:

1. Do not postpone from their incomes for large-scale purchases or to the insurance fund against minor troubles.

   As a result, they run after a loan if the washing machine goes out of order or gets into debt if, for example, someone from the family falls ill.

2. Do not think about your future, so do not invest in it money.

   Look at how people live abroad: they just got married, and already have separate accounts for "home", "studying children," "old age," etc.

3. Spend large sums on the day of receipt of wages even before they paid utility bills or purchased products.
4. Spend on entertainment, expensive clothes, smartphones and other ponty more than they can afford.
5. Incorrect distribution of cash receipts, allocating too little for food or for repaying a loan.

We also recommend to watch an interesting video about how

effectively distributes cash flows in the family:

5 tips on how to calculate the family budget

I understand that managing a family budget is not easy, so I want to give you some more tips that may facilitateyou this task:

1. Do not spend more money than you earn.

   Avoid debts or loans if it's not about really important issues( operation to a native person, opening a business, etc.).

   Live within your means!

2. Tirelessly look for new sources of income, additional benefits that will facilitate the process of allocating your family budget.
3. Call to the aid of all will power, when counting the family budget.
4. Forget about:
   • Oh, come on, I'll take a little money out of the envelope "Unplanned Expenses" to the night club.
   • This month it is possible for a summer vacation and not postpone, it's only November, it's still a long time.
   • These boots are worth it not to pay communal to this month and other stupid things.

5. Do not be afraid to reschedule your family budget if the situation changes: your income has decreased or one more expense item has been added.

   For example, the other day Marina and Sasha found out that they were expecting a baby, and my friend had already bought several clean envelopes: "Doing pregnancy", "Childbirth", "Baby" and began to count everything.

6. Do not throw everything halfway.

   Marina claims that it was hard for the first 5 months, and then everything went on a rolled-up system.

I know that some of my readers will begin to whine: "It's good for your friend and husband to be clever, how correctly to distribute the family budget of , with incomes of 20,000 hryvnia per month, and they would live at a minimum wage."

Dear ones!

Well, who makes you sit on this very minimum wage?

Maybe it's time to move rolls, find another job( or - a few) and also start making money normally?