How To Properly Save Money With A Small Family Budget
It’s no secret that all people receive different salaries: some more, some less. Someone is satisfied with the amount of the living wage, while someone is not satisfied with a lot of money.
There is such a thing as a “family budget” – it is the aggregate of income and expenses of each family member; planning costs based on needs and the ability to save money. With its help, you can competently manage money, that is, in such a way that it will be enough for all your needs.
These needs include
1. Household payments. As a rule, all people pay for housing, utilities, water, electricity, gas, and taxes. Most of the money is spent on this imperative need.
2. Allocation of money for health. Usually, a certain amount of money goes towards paying for insurance, medicine, doctor’s appointments, and the treatment itself.
3. Food products. Almost every day you spend money on food, both useful and not so; various drinks, snacks, and other edible things. Often such purchases are impulsive, for example, you get hungry while walking. The house is far away, but the store is close, and you dressed up will take something useful, more likely a burger or some kind of sweetness, maybe ice cream, or chips. This is not entirely healthy, because your stomach wants to get enough of healthy food.
4. Clothes and footwear. We try to update our wardrobe and always look attractive. It is important for us that we look neat and well-groomed, beautiful, and in trend. Few can afford to shop every week. Someone walks around the store and looks at the windows with clothes only once a month because this is the only way their salary allows them.
5. Entertainment. People want to take a break from routine, annoying work and get out on vacation at least once a week, as a rule. We usually get tired and need a simple rest while lying on the couch. But sometimes you want to go to a cafe, cinema, museum or something like that. Can go abroad, and eat in another country.
Each of the above points is a must in our life, so we cannot just take and remove it for the sake of saving money. We can cut almost every one of them.
Here are some tips
When it comes to paying for government services, do everything on time. If you do not forget about timely payment, you will not have fines. You can also say that it is worthwhile to treat such resources as electricity, water, and gas.
Try not to upset such seemingly endless supplies of water, turn off the taps on time, and do not leave, for example, sprayers for your site on for the whole day, this will certainly not benefit the plants. It is better not to leave the light in a room where there is no one, because it is not even environmentally friendly. The same goes for using gas.
And what about electricity – do not leave the same TV turned on all night, as well as a radio, computer, and other gadgets.
You can’t really say anything about the money spent on paying for medicines, because health is important, and you should not save on it. Just try to dress for the weather and make sure that you are always warm and comfortable – this will reduce the risk of getting sick.
Food, as mentioned above, accounts for a large share of costs. But how to refuse something tasty, our body does not like boring porridge or soup so much. It is important to eat right, yes, but this does not mean at all that you need to completely give up junk food – this is everyone’s choice.
You can simply reduce the number of your trips to McDonald’s, at least by a few times, because it will be better for both your health and your budget. You can use ready-made menus, such as daily ones – ordinary ones, and special ones – for losing weight or for athletes. There are a large number of them, you will definitely find something for yourself. And for the use of something more unusual, you can shorten it in this direction.
At the expense of images. Now it’s important to have a few basic T-shirts, a pair of pants and a jacket in your wardrobe and you already look stylish. You can also make yourself a “sudden purchase day” – this is when you come to the store, not for something specific, but simply choose one thing that you really like, this is also useful and will cheer you up.
Try to figure out what kind of clothes suits you best, and choose shoes and accessories accordingly. Lessons on YouTube can help you with this, perhaps even just your friends or your significant other. The outside perspective is also important.
Entertainment can also be planned and saved for, taking into account how much you will spend on essential needs, that is, paying for housing and public services + health. For example, one weekend you can go to the park and have a picnic, and the next weekend you can go to some institution.
You can also watch out for discounts and sales: they are available both in grocery stores and in clothing stores. Sometimes you can save a lot of money on this.
Conclusion
Usually, the budget is made for a month, but for convenience, you can take some other period of time, for example, a week or two. It is not advisable to stretch planning for a longer period, but in the future, it is definitely worth learning how to distribute family funds in such a way as to have a so-called airbag in case of unforeseen circumstances.
When planning a family budget, it is important to take into account the needs of the whole family, teach each of its members how to spend and save wisely, control everyday purchases, and then you will succeed.