How to calculate your budget. Planning and calculation of the family budget. Special programs and applications for family accounting

Many people say that money is like water - it quickly flows away to nowhere. If you can’t remember what you spent an impressive amount on, it’s not clear where your salary goes and why it ends in just two weeks, you can’t save up for the desired thing or vacation, it’s time to carefully calculate your income and expenses. Planning a family budget is the first step towards fulfilling your material desires.

Household bookkeeping: the first stage - income

Each family builds its material well-being according to its own scenario: someone seeks to earn more, someone insists that all family members follow the principles of reasonable spending. The main thing is not to go to extremes, but to find your own the right way. This issue becomes especially relevant in the family with the advent of children, when family expenses increase significantly. There are several methods on how to plan a family budget, what principles to follow.

The first step in any of these methods is to determine the items of income and expenses of the family. Income should include:

• wages;
• social payments;
• income from bank deposits, from renting an apartment;
• part-time job;
• cash gifts.

It is clear that the first 3 positions are constant, the amounts of these incomes are known, and it is from them that the basis of the income part of the family budget will be formed. Part-time work and cash gifts may or may not be, so you should not rely on them, but use them as bonuses for pleasant spending.

The second stage - expenses

The second stage is the calculation of expenses in various areas. Few will be able to immediately say how much and what they are, so it is important to keep track of your expenses for at least a month or two, even in small things. Then it will become clear how much the family spends and on what. How to keep an account? Personal finance experts recommend writing down all daily expenses: food, travel, entertainment.

Costs, like income, can be divided into several broad categories:

• obligatory payments;
• food and travel expenses;
• spending on updating the wardrobe;
• spending on entertainment, recreation;
• unforeseen expenses for treatment, repairs, etc.

Mandatory payments include:

• utilities;
• payment mobile communications, the Internet;
• insurance;
• payment for circles, sections, additional classes for children.

Food expenses should also be divided into categories:

• dairy;
• cereals;
• meat, fish, poultry;
• vegetables;
• fruit;
• sweets, juices, pastries, etc.

In the first months of maintaining a family budget, experts recommend making a table and advise you to write down all the costs of food, down to the smallest detail. Sometimes, from such trifles as buying 200 grams of sweets, cookies, a cup of coffee, significant amounts are accumulated in a week and a month. All family members need to learn how to remember and write down their expenses, so that later they can correctly plan the family budget.

Stage three: comparison of income and expenses

Do you want to learn plan a family budget but don't know where to start? Get a notebook, an Excel file, an account in an online service or download a special program? What will be easier and more convenient for you, how to find out?

In order not to get lost in a variety of tools and methods family budget management, let's try to put them on the shelves, from simple to more advanced. In this article, we will look at common budgeting techniques (no tedious calculations!) and templates for budgeting in Excel (or other spreadsheets).

Part 1. 3+ Simple Techniques

To begin with, let's analyze three extremely simple schemes, which allow you to very quickly and without much time plan a family budget. Most likely, later you will need more details and opportunities to analyze your budget, then you can move on to more advanced tools (such as a family budgeting program) or develop a more complex one based on these simple schemes that suits your financial situation.

By the way, the authors of these schemes unanimously suggest save 20% from each income generated, so the sooner it becomes a financial habit, the better. Another point on which they all agree is that the goal is to reduce the share of obligatory (necessary, essential) expenses in the total amount of family expenses, which will improve the standard of living.

1.1. The author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, Andrew Tobias, offers the following simple and effective solution to the budgeting problem:

1. Step 1. Destroy credit cards(get rid of loans and debts).
2. Step 2. Save and/or invest 20% of income (never spend this money).
3. Step 3. Live on the remaining 80% for your pleasure.

Simple, right? Just remember put off first 20% but only then we spend, otherwise at the end of the month it may turn out that there is nothing to postpone at all. By the way, if 20% seems too much, try starting with 10% or even 5% to develop a habit and create an initial savings fund (family reserve fund). To strengthen this technique, you can also add what remains after spending at the end of the month to the reserve fund.

1.2. In All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, the authors argue that in order to achieve financial success, you need to keep three areas of your finances in balance. Therefore, they propose to divide the total income into three parts:

1. 50% to spend on necessary things (food, rent, transport, insurance, basic clothing, etc.)
2. 30% to spend on desired things ( cable TV, fashion, jewelry, going to a restaurant, theater tickets, books, hobbies, etc.)
3. 20% to put on savings (including debt repayment).

Thus, you simultaneously save a fairly large amount (get rid of debts along the way, if any), and live for your own pleasure (30% of income from entertainment and amenities). It is not a fact that at the current level of income and expenses, your family can easily "fit" into this scheme, but you can consider it as a kind of ideal.

1.3. The 60% rule, which was proposed by the author of articles on the MSN Money website, Richard Jenkins. We have already talked about this scheme in the article on the envelope method for family budgeting. In short, Jenkins proposes to divide the total income into 5 parts, of which about 60% goes to operating expenses.

1. Operating expenses - 60%.
2. Retirement savings - 10%.
3. Long-term purchases and payments - 10%.
4. Irregular expenses - 10%.
5. Entertainment - 10%.

For more information about the 60% method and other methods of budgeting in envelopes, see the article Making a family budget: the envelope method and its variations.

Part 2. 4+ Spreadsheet Budgeting Templates

The second way, more advanced, proceed to family budget management in a spreadsheet (Excel, Google Docs, etc.), where the basic formulas for budget analysis have already been entered.

2.1. Sample Pear Budget. This is a free, beautiful and thoughtful template (Excel) for managing a family budget, designed for one year. It has a couple of disadvantages: firstly, you cannot use more than 30 categories of expenses / incomes and it is completely on English language, including instructions and an example.
Download budget file (179 Kb)
latest version available at www.pearbudget.com.

2.2. simple budget for a family for a year, in Russian. Several categories of expenses and a pie chart by expenses. The author tells on his website how to fill out a file and analyze expenses.
Download budget file (19 Kb)

2.3. In the MoneyTracker community article LiveJournal Family Budget in Excel, I gave a couple more links to template collections:
office.microsoft.com - a collection of templates (12 pieces) from the official Microsoft website (for downloading, you need to authenticate the installed MS Office)
docs.google.com - 30 different templates, ranging from deposit interest calculation to family budget calculation. They look modest, but you can start with them.
After downloading, you will have to think over your system of categories in the budget, or at least translate what is in these Excel templates (most in English).

2.4. Maintenance Template personal budget for Google Docs by Gumoza: Budget. A rather simple and convenient tool, always at hand if you have Internet access, in Russian, customizable. Author's description here: gumoza.ru

Decided to start planning a family budget? Several useful tips do not interfere :-).

1. Remember why you decided keep a budget. Don't do it just because you think it's necessary or someone says so. Realize for yourself the reason, for example, “spend less than you earn” or “cut expenses by 10%.
2. Set the exact goal(s) you want to achieve. For example, “to save 150 thousand rubles for repairs. this year"
3. Keep accurate records of income and expenses to make sure that the numbers in the family budget are correct.
4. Open a savings account to save money, preferably a deposit without the possibility of withdrawing cash. Consider how the family reserve fund will be formed.
5. Be realistic. Don't promise yourself to become the "superman" of the family budget in a month, just start small and go for it.
6. It is highly desirable to get support from the family or, for example, start budgeting in parallel with a friend / girlfriend (separate :-), of course)
7. Do not be afraid to revise the budget, even radically. Be flexible, choose what works for you. There are no fixed numbers once and for all, we are changing: we earn more, we spend more, we get sick, we have a rest, we have pets, etc. etc.
8. Set small but achievable goals that will motivate you for more global achievements.

Based on the article

The family budget is the totality of income and expenses of any family, maintaining their balance. It is based on three pillars: accounting, control and planning. Let's try to figure out how to properly manage a family budget, manage income and expenses.

Why is it important to consider income and expenses?

Many families sooner or later face a situation where there is not enough money to pay, and where they have gone is unknown. Consider managing your family budget. This will allow you:

• control all expenses;
• always have funds for unforeseen expenses;
• get rid of debts and loans;
• save the family budget without causing significant damage to the usual way of life;
• fulfill your dream.

The very first and most important step- goal setting. Answer the questions: why did you decide to take into account expenses and income, what do you want to get in the end? If you do not have a specific goal, then you will finish maintaining the family budget in a couple of months at the most.

After setting a goal start tracking family expenses, collect all checks. Record all expenses every day: from a large purchase to a cup of coffee drunk. At first, it’s better to do this in a notebook, since sometimes the computer is just too lazy to turn on.

How to make a family budget

The second stage is planning: we record all incomes and distribute them according to expenditure items. We control costs, do not allow unnecessary spending.

With the planning of the revenue part, there are usually no difficulties. All sources of income must be taken into account:

• wage,
• rental income,
• pensions, benefits and other social payments,
• different kinds temporary income.

If the salary is not fixed, then the average value should be taken.

With the expenditure side, the situation is somewhat more complicated. You have been fixing your expenses for a month, or maybe more. Now they need to be organized:

1. Emergency ration. Immediately upon receipt wages or any other income, set aside 20% for a rainy day. Spend this part of the budget only in the event of some kind of force majeure: illness of a relative, breakdown of the necessary household appliances or furniture, etc.
2. Mandatory expenses: utility bills, subscription fees for telecommunications services, food fees, loan repayments. Their share in the family budget should ideally be 50%.
3. All other expenses: recreation, entertainment, clothing, household, etc.

Such a ratio will not immediately turn out, at first there will be some distortions. But be sure to set aside for unforeseen expenses, if not 20%, at least ten or even five. Remember, this is your "airbag".

Pay special attention to food expenses, as they usually hide the biggest and most unnecessary expenses. In no case do not go to the store with a feeling of hunger. Always take a list of planned purchases with you and stick to it.

Analyze your expenses, look for what you can do without. For example, one stop can not go by public transport, but walk. You can also refuse daily trips to the cafe after work.

If, despite the strictest regime of saving the family budget, expenses exceed income, it is worth thinking about the possibility of additional income.

Ways to do home bookkeeping

1. The first and most archaic way is to keep a budget in a notebook. It is most recommended at the first stages: we enter all the items of expenditure in a notebook, and add checks for purchases there. But this method is not entirely convenient: to find some record, sometimes you have to shovel through several pages.
2. The second way is to keep a family budget in Excel. The method is more visual than the first one, with the ability to automate the calculation.
3. The third way is to manage the family budget in specialized programs for managing the family budget. They are paid and free. There are online services and installation programs, mostly paid, their cost is about 10-20 US dollars. They differ in functionality and interface. The most common family budgeting programs are Home Bookkeeping, DomFin, Family Budget, Home Economy, AceMoney, Family 10.

Regardless of which way you will keep the family budget - in a notebook or in a specialized program, remember that everything depends on you, on your accounting, planning and control.

An example of maintaining a family budget for a month

The example below is a summary table of income and expenses for a family of three. The “Plan” column is filled in taking into account the previous month, “Fact” is transferred from the notebook, taking into account the expenses incurred.

Be sure to calculate the percentage of expenses to identify which share is the largest and try to optimize them. Below is an example of maintaining a family budget table for a month.

Table for income accounting family budget

Table for accounting for family budget expenses

Learn to manage your finances, everything is in your hands, let your money work for you.

Many mistakenly believe that budget planning is done only by those who are very limited in funds. No one wants to be known as such a person in the eyes of others. This is a false stereotype that needs to be eliminated as soon as possible. Such an attitude to one's own money leads to the fact that they will always be missed.

An ordinary person spends a fifth of his income on things he does not need. Wouldn't it be better to refuse them and direct this money to new beautiful clothes or save it for a vacation? It's all about prioritization. This is the first step towards financial freedom.

Cost accounting

Cost accounting is boring and routine work, but it must be done. You should not go to extremes and count how many potatoes you ate in a month, otherwise you will soon get tired of keeping records and you will return to old life. Everything is good in moderation. Just create a spreadsheet in Excel where you will record your main income and expenses. You need to do this regularly.

Payday

You just got paid. What will you do first? If you are determined to plan your budget, you should immediately set aside some amount. This will be your personal capital, which will not only help you in an unforeseen situation, but also increase your budget for the next month. Some save money at the end of the month, but this method is too unreliable. They may simply not be left.

Reducing Major Expenses

It makes sense to pay attention to large expenses and, if possible, reduce them. Only they significantly affect the budget, while small ones almost do not matter. You can’t save much on refusing lunches, and stomach problems will definitely appear because of this. As a result, you will spend more on a doctor.

50, 30 and 20

Bestselling budgeting authors recommend spending 50% of your income on essentials: groceries, transportation, utilities, and so on. 30% should be spent on satisfying your desires, buying fashionable clothes, jewelry, electronics. 20% of the salary must be put into your own savings. This simple technique allow you to enjoy your life without much effort.

Today there are many ways to plan your budget. You need to find the one that's right for you. Do not demand immediate results from yourself and allow yourself to break down sometimes. There is nothing special about this, it is quite difficult for a person to acquire good habits. For greater effectiveness, ask your relatives for help.

For the planning period (it can be a week, month, quarter, year, etc.), it is also called the reporting period.

Someone will say - “it's so simple”, but for another person it will be an almost impossible task. And both of them are wrong. This is indeed not an easy task, but it is possible to solve it.

How to get started

The degree of complexity of family budget planning is determined by the following factors:

• planning period, the shorter it is, the easier it is to plan a budget
• the number of budget participants, a personal budget is planned much easier than a family budget, and the more participants, the more difficult the planning process is, because it is necessary to take into account the opinions and desires of all budget participants. Here it will be useful to familiarize yourself with the topic of the Psychology of maintaining a family budget.
• the number of financial goals set, the more goals, the more difficult it is to plan
• the urgency of the set financial goals, the longer the goals, the more difficult it is to plan

So, family budget planning consists of:

• Income planning
• Cost planning
  • mandatory
  • targeted
  • the rest
• budget balance sheet

You can make a simple conclusion that you need to learn how to plan a budget, ideally, on planning a personal budget, for 1 quarter with the task of achieving the only set financial goal during this quarter, for example, to buy in 3 months new phone, or by the fall to buy a new fur coat.

However, such ideal conditions are rare, so you can start with a family budget and with several goals - the main thing is to start with the maximum simple option and make it more difficult as you get better.

It is necessary to start budget planning some time before the start of the reporting period, and it is important to finish planning the same way before the start of the reporting period.

Where do you get the numbers from?

If we are planning a budget for the first time, then the initial data will be our ideas about our income and expenses.

If we plan on a regular basis, then the initial data may be the results of a preliminary analysis of budget execution.

Income planning

Income planning is the simplest thing in the budget. Because these sources of income, for some reason, are not very many. And if you don't, then I'm just happy for you.

So, when planning income items, we determine what amount for the planned period will go to the family budget.

That is, if we are planning a month and you have a final payment on the 10th, and an advance payment on the 25th, then this advance payment should be considered the receipt of the next month. This reduces the likelihood of so-called "cash gaps" when expenses are planned and they need to be borne, but the money that was planned in the budget has not yet been received. And you will not be so dependent on small delays in payments.

An example of a planned budget, income:

• Dad's salary - 40,000 rubles.
• Mom's salary - 35,000 rubles.

Total - 75,000 rubles.

With regular receipts, you still plan the full amount of your salary for a month and practically do not notice this nuance.

But if the receipts are not regular, then you need to make an effort on yourself so that the money planned to be received in the second half of the month is considered the receipts of the next period, but gradually you get used to it and it will be the norm for you.

Cost planning

We will divide the planning of expenses into several stages.

First we plan everything compulsory expenses The ones we can't do without. This is, for example, payment utilities, paying off loans, paying for a kindergarten, paying for parking, spending on gasoline, and so on.

We will then plan the costs associated with achievement of goals, because for this we started maintaining a family budget. For example, it can be saving for a vacation, or early repayment of a loan, or payment for any courses.

And only after that we plan everything other expenses that we want to control.

Mandatory expenses

When planning mandatory expenses, it is important not to forget anything. It is not necessary to create your own budget item for each type of expenditure. It can generally be one: “Compulsory expenses”, but in this case it is advisable to decipher what it includes in order to be sure that nothing has been forgotten.

Example of mandatory spending planning:

• Products - 15,000 rubles.

Total 50,500 rubles.

In this section, you must account for all costs from which can't refuse for objective (external) reasons, for example,

• products - you want to eat,
• utility bills - you live in an apartment and do not want to be evicted,
• loans - once money is borrowed, then it must be repaid

What will happen additionally to be included in the list of mandatory expenses is the subject of agreement between the budget participants.

For example, dad would like to include the cost of a weekly visit to the bathhouse, and mom - for a manicure visit. And this is normal, but it is important not to overdo it and it is better to start with what is really vital.

Expenses to achieve goals

An example of articles allocated to achieve the goals:

Total - 7,000 rubles.

Here we fix the articles that will allow us to achieve our goals. As I already wrote, you need to start with a small amount and, preferably, short-term goals.

Other expenses

And here we are planning everything else. And here budget items can change every period, depending on what it is important for us to control the reservation of money for.

In the very simple case here is one article "Other expenses" and it remains:
75,000 - 50,500 - 7,000 rubles = 17,500 rubles.

So, in our example, it turned out:

• Bath - 2,000 rubles.
• Sports - 1,500 rubles.
• Other expenses - 5,000 rubles.

Total - 14,500 rubles.

But if, for example, approaching academic year and it is important that there is money for school uniform, textbooks, a backpack and shoes, then the corresponding article may appear - “preparation for school” - 6,000 rubles.
If dad wants the family to go to the bath every week, then the article “Bath” will appear - 2,000 rubles.
If mom wants to keep herself in shape, then there will be an article "Sport" - 1,500 rubles.
And so on.

This remaining part of the funds, which we will conditionally call “free”, is very quickly “understood” by budget participants for their needs. And it is she who requires the most attention, since the conciliation process can be very difficult.

The item “Other expenses” is a very important item and must be included in the budget, and at first significant amounts can be allocated to it, because we either cannot predict (we are just learning), or we do not want to detail our budget too much.

This article includes all the expenses that are not very important to us and we don’t really want to control them, but they still exist and we need to allocate money for them.

Budget balance

At the end, we summarize - we consider all income and expenses and get the so-called budget balance.

In our example, this is:

• Income - 75,000 rubles.
• Mandatory expenses - 50,500 rubles.
• Expenses for achieving goals - 7,000 rubles.
• Other expenses - 14,500 rubles.

Budget balance: 75000-50500-7000-14500 = 3000 rubles.

In our case, the balance turned out to be positive, this is not always the case, the balance can turn out to be negative if the planned expenses exceed the income.

If the budget balance turns out to be positive, then this means that we have free funds that we can additionally distribute among budget items.
If the balance is negative, then we have an overspending and this means that some budget items will have to be reduced in order to bring the balance to at least zero.

This completes the family budget planning, as a result, we received the following document:

• Dad's salary - 40,000 rubles.
• Mom's salary - 35,000 rubles.

Total - 75,000 rubles.

Mandatory:

• Apartment - 10,000 rubles. (communal, overhaul, guarding the yard).
• Transport - 8,000 rubles. (car parking, gasoline, car wash 2 times)
• Children - 8,500 (kindergarten, school lunches, dancing, tutor)
• Products - 15,000 rubles.
• Mortgage repayment - 9,000 rubles.

Total 50,500 rubles.

Achievements of goals:

• a new phone for mom - 2,000 rubles.
• early repayment of the mortgage - 5,000 rubles.

Total - 7,000 rubles.

Other expenses:

• Preparation for school - 6,000 rubles.
• Bath - 2,000 rubles.
• Sports - 1,500 rubles.
• Other expenses - 8,000 rubles.

Total - 17,500 rubles.

Budget balance - 0 rub.

Good luck and achievements.
Best regards to you and your finances, Andrey.