Proper family budgeting can help reduce expenses and allow you to save enough money for long-term goals. These useful tips will help you avoid money problems and fulfill your daily life by cutting expenses.
Start Keeping a Journal
Keeping a journal will allow you to understand how much money you spend per month and whether such expenses are justified or could have been avoided. Often we spend money on unnecessary things. Keeping a journal allows you to control your expenses, plan, and optimize them. Perhaps instead of buying food at work, it’s cheaper to take a pre-prepared meal from home. You can cut your utility bill by replacing light bulbs with energy-saving ones and turning off lights in non-residential rooms when no one is there. But do not go overboard; always stick to the golden mean.
Keep Your Finances in Check at All Times
If you are not used to keeping track of your expenses, then at first it will be difficult for you to control your finances. However, nowadays you can download an app for family budgeting, which you can find on the Internet in great numbers. You should always be aware of how much money is in the family account. How much of it can be spent now, and how much should be kept in order to reach the next paycheck.
All expenditures can be divided into monthly, weekly, and daily ones. Monthly expenditures can include utility bills, loan payments, and other expenses you pay every month. Weekly expenses can be grocery shopping, paying for a Netflix subscription, bets at tonybet, and more. Daily expenses are buying bread, paying for transportation, paying for food at work, and so on.
Stop Spending Money on Nothing
When you know roughly how much money you spend each month, you can imagine what spending could have been avoided. You need to analyze all the significant purchases made this month to see which ones turned out to be a waste of your cash. This will allow you to save significantly next month. For example, instead of spending money on gasoline, it is more economical to take public transportation. However, this is individual, and if you prefer a private car, you shouldn’t force yourself to take the bus.
Start Saving More
It’s necessary to have a sum that will allow you to exist normally at first in case of illness or dismissal from work. This will allow you to face the future with confidence, without fear of being left in complete poverty in case of unforeseen circumstances.
With every income, set aside at least $5 for long-term goals, and not touch them until you’ve accumulated a sizable sum.
How to Keep Track of Your Finances Easier
You don’t have to know about economics to keep track of your income and expenses. Financial literacy will help you plan your budget. You just need to draw a table on paper with two columns, the first to record all of even the most minuscule cash receipts for that month, and the second to divide into three more, where you will record your fixed, variable, and one-time expenses. Fixed costs are those whose amount is the same every month: Internet, phone, credit and so on.
Variable costs are payments that do not have a fixed rate: paying for utilities, buying lunch at work, money for a cab, and more.
One-time expenses include a major purchase that you make infrequently. For example, buying a car, paying for a trip, renovating your apartment, and more.
Set aside a certain amount for savings. You can use the “80/20” rule for this. In this case, 80% of all funds you calmly spend on your needs, and 20% you put away in the piggy bank. To avoid having to do this manually, you can connect an app that will automatically transfer 20% of any money received into your account to a separate electronic piggy bank.