How to learn how to spend money correctly in order to feel confident in the future? How to properly plan family expenses? How to profit from expenditure items of the budget?
Family budget and material and household level of compatibility
Historically, the function of providing the family with material benefits is entrusted to the man. However, time has made its own adjustments to this model. The modern woman has every opportunity to contribute to the material well-being of the family. Possible options for models of compatibility of material and household relations:
Budget replenishment options
A man earns, a woman does not. A man earns more than a woman. A man and a woman earn the same. A woman earns more than a man. The woman earns, the man does not.
Budget spending options
The man is in charge of the money. The woman is in charge of the money. The decision on any spending is made jointly. The money earned is divided into three parts - the total money for spending from which a joint decision is made and the personal money of each spouse.
There are a total of twenty options for budgeting models. It doesn't matter which model the spouses choose - the main thing is that this model suits both.
Algorithm for maintaining a joint family budget
Each of the spouses starts a notebook in which for at least a month he writes down all the expenses he has made, keeping receipts, if possible. Each waste is marked with the heading "general waste" or "personal waste".
Then the spouses jointly form the monthly expenditure part of the budget according to the items of regular spending. Regular spending items: housing payments and com. services; spending on clothes and shoes; spending on food; spending on transport; spending on training; spending on recreation and entertainment; any other regular spending. The number of expense items should be equal to the number of regular spending. This amount is multiplied by 10%. Then the spouses write down all the major expenses that they plan to make within five years: the birth of a child; buying a car; furniture / large household appliances; a trip to the mountains, to the sea, abroad; buying an apartment / summer residence, etc. These expenses are divided into categories - one-time and regular. Purchase of furniture / large household appliances, apartments, summer cottages; a vacation trip for cash is a one-time expense. Having a baby is a regular expense. Buying a car for cash refers to one-time expenses that entail regular expenses (gasoline, maintenance, repairs). Any purchases made with a mortgage / loan are regular spending. It should be noted that the purchase of an apartment for cash refers to one-time expenses that entail periodic expenses for repairs. All large expenses are added up and the amount is multiplied by 10%.
Then spending is divided into general and personal. Going to the sea on vacation is a shared waste, and the desire to learn scuba diving is a personal waste. Shared spending takes precedence over personal spending. Then the expenses are divided according to their priority and further in descending order. The priority of the order must be the same for both spouses, otherwise the conflict is guaranteed. Joint family budgeting is a litmus test of compatibility.
In total, there are four types of spending: one-time, regular, periodic and unforeseen. The multiplication of expenses when calculating by 10% is an account of unforeseen expenses.
Then add up all your five-year spending and divide it by sixty. You will receive the total monthly income required to fulfill your planned budget. Now calculate the income part of the budget. These are salaries, scholarships, pensions and other regular payments. Compare the family's real total income with the planned expenditure. If the receipts are equal to the expenditures, you have a zero budget. This is a risky option. If the income part exceeds the expenditure part by 10%, you can consider yourself sufficiently well insured against surprises and start executing the budget. It is recommended to revise the expenditure side until a 10% excess of revenues over expenditures is reached.
After adjusting the budget and accepting it for execution, it is necessary to control the execution of the budget. Usually women deal with this more easily. Men are focused on more global goals. It is necessary to start a notebook for budget execution and keep it weekly comparing actual expenses with planned ones. If you find a trend in the budget to go into the negative, you need to adjust the budget together.
Be especially careful about small, regular spending. Practice shows that it is here that "black holes" are lurking into which the entire budget can go without a trace.
Take the week as the unit of budget execution. Then the monthly budget will be easy to adjust.
At the end of the budget year, jointly review budget execution. During this year you will learn a lot and the budget for the next year will be more competent.
The psychological effect of the proposed model is that joint goals and joint activities bring spouses closer together and make the family union stronger. A competent attitude to family finances increases the personal responsibility of each spouse for the family.
Now there are budget management programs on the Internet. Advice - do not use them in any way. Keeping notes by hand, you "appropriate" them to yourself, it is not for nothing that experienced directors force the actors to rewrite the text of the role by hand. By keeping records in the program, you alienate them from yourself. In addition, the percentage of screen text perception is only 30% of the paper one. Family finances are not a topic where such a frivolous attitude can be tolerated.
The material and household compatibility level is one of the nine compatibility levels. Conditional compatibility can be likened to puzzles. The harmony of the overall picture of marriage depends on the degree of compatibility of each puzzle. Therefore, in order to avoid unnecessary family dramas and broken destinies, it is reasonable to clarify compatibility at each level before starting a relationship.
