Home accounting of expenses and income in excel. Accounting for income and expenses. I can recommend the free AbilityCash program, which I use myself, you can download it from this link

Saving the family budget is a relevant topic for almost all of us, insofar as it is much wiser to save money than to get into debt and take out bank loans. After all, maintaining personal accounting is not as simple as it seems at first glance, and saving personal funds helps optimize expenses and income. The most effective way to optimize your expenses is to keep a journal of expenses and income, for this you can use one tool - an Excel spreadsheet. True, not everyone knows how to properly manage a family budget in Excel; let’s try to understand this topic.

Where to begin

First of all, if you are interested in the question of how to keep track of expenses and income at home, then you must take into account one important fact: only one of the entire family should deal with financial issues and distribute funds for the needs of all family members. Accordingly, the first step to start planning a budget is to discuss the personal needs of each family member. If this issue cannot be resolved, then, accordingly, there can be no talk of any accounting or saving. Money loves counting, or, to be more precise, in this case, accounting.

By the way, if you have a large and friendly family, then controlling income and expenses will be much more difficult, because not all family members will be ready to support such an idea. But in fact, without home accounting, it is almost impossible to put things in order in financial matters, so the primary task is to motivate all family members and make sure of the need to keep a journal.

How to install an Excel spreadsheet

Even if you are not a confident Internet user, installing an Excel spreadsheet on your computer will be quite simple. The instructions will look like this:

In your computer menu, find the Microsoft Office folder and open Microsoft Excel in it;
after the table opens, click the “File” button;
in the menu, select the line “Create”;
in the window that opens, select the “Budgets” link from the left column;
Among the proposed options you need to find “Family budget for the month”;
click the "Download" button.

Actually, that’s all, the table for your accounting is ready. As you can see, it already has several lines that you can easily adjust, that is, remove expense items you don’t need and add new ones. To carry out this action, just hover the mouse cursor over the line, click on it, then press the Backspace button to delete the expense item you do not need, and enter the required values on the keyboard.

However, we will look at how to use the table and how to properly keep track of the family budget a little later. I would also like to say that if such a scheme seems too complicated for you, then you can easily download the finished table. There are enough resources on the Internet that allow you to download an Excel spreadsheet with a ready-made family budget template for free. In order to find a suitable option for yourself, enter the query “download Excel spreadsheet family budget” in the search bar, then you are faced with the task of choosing the most understandable and convenient option for yourself.

Please note that in order to load a table into Excel you need Internet access, among other things, you will be presented with quite a lot of options from which you can choose the most intuitive ones for yourself.

How to fill out the expenses and income section

So, after your table is ready, you are faced with a new task - to fill out all the fields correctly, that is, in each family, expenses can vary significantly from each other, so first think about what you usually spend your money on . By the way, the table contains ready-made options, these include items such as food, utility bills, transportation costs, training, loans, personal needs, entertainment and more. That is, for each individual family you need to create your own list of basic expenses.

Advice for Excel users! You should not write too many lines with expenses so as not to get confused in the future, some categories can be combined into one, for example, you pay separately for services such as gas, electricity, water, home telephone, internet, etc., together they create one category - public utilities.

By the way, it is always worth remembering that each family member has expenses that he incurs exclusively for his own needs, or in other words - this can be called pocket expenses. You should definitely show this in your accounting. In fact, every family member should have free funds, including children, if they have reached at least school age. At the same time, the pocket expenses of each family member should maximally correspond not only to his personal needs, but also to the total income of the entire family.

Example table

Maintaining a division of income, of course, is much simpler, because the main task is simply to indicate in the table the income that the family has. By the way, family income includes absolutely all funds that, one way or another, end up in the family budget, for example, wages, benefits, alimony, pensions, additional earnings and much more.

This is the principle by which a family budget can be managed. A table of family income and expenses in Excel will only help you find the answer to one simple question that everyone probably asks themselves - where does the money go? Indeed, it is almost impossible to find an adequate answer to such a question if you do not take into account all your income and expenses. However, even a basic table in Excel will not help you fully answer this question. Let's take a closer look at how to understand what you are spending your money on.

By the way, for every month you need a new accounting, or, more precisely, a report. To do this, it is not necessary to create several documents; it is enough to start keeping records from a new page in Excel every new month. That is, create several pages and fill out a new one every month; after a certain time, you will be able to conduct statistics of your income and expenses.

How to distribute money correctly

So, if you decide to keep track of your family’s income and expenses, then you should probably understand what you spend money on and what you waste it on, that is, in every family there will probably be expenses that could be avoided. Moreover, even expenses on such an item as food are not always justified, because the issue of choosing products and creating a diet for the whole family needs to be worked on.

Advice! If you cannot adequately answer the question of where you put your money, conduct a simple experiment: for two weeks or a month, collect receipts from stores so that at one moment you can carefully study them and cross them out; count those purchases that you could easily do without. the amount of thoughtless expenses, the result will probably surprise you.

So, since the main expense item for every family is food, the main task of every housewife is to correctly distribute funds for it. First of all, there are many secrets on how to save on food without compromising your quality of life. If you can remove unnecessary products and other purchases from your expenses, then you can easily save on food without causing absolutely any harm to your health.

If you find the right approach, you can save on absolutely everything. In addition, if you carefully record all your expenses, then after a certain time you will see for yourself that you spend much more money than you could spend if you approached the issue of expenses more thoughtfully. By the way, you should not create an overly complex table with numerous rows so as not to waste time filling it out.

By the way, we cannot help but say that expenses are divided into two categories: planned and actual. That is, for each month you can independently draw up a plan for your expenses, that is, allocate an amount of funds for certain needs, for example, to pay for utilities, food, entertainment, loans and other expense items. As you fill out the spreadsheet at the end of the month, you will be able to see how effective your plan was and whether it needs improvement, especially if actual costs are significantly higher than planned.

Among other things, you can learn how to spend your money in such a way that at the end of the month you will still be in the black. That is, after paying for all your needs, you may have a sum of free funds left, which can be directed to a savings account in a bank or spent on something necessary for the family.
Interesting! In practice, there are people who, after taking into account the family budget, gave up such a bad habit as smoking, after calculating how much money they spend a year on buying cigarettes.

Why do you need to keep track of your family budget?

First of all, the task of every family is to optimize their income and expenses, that is, to combine debit with credit. Surely everyone is familiar with the situation that two different families, having the same income, distribute funds differently; accordingly, some live in abundance, while others constantly need additional funds. By the way, even with a small income, you can completely get rid of debts and not take out loans, because, as practice shows, maintaining a family budget allows you to save significant money.

The table of income and expenses allows you to clearly understand where the money goes and what needs you mainly spend it on. If you carefully analyze the statistics of your expenses, you will definitely find expenses that can be completely avoided. In the next reporting period, you will be able to more effectively allocate your budget to certain expenses, minus all the expenses that you consider unnecessary.

After a certain time of maintaining your family budget, you will be able to take the most reasonable approach to planning your family budget and learn to spend your personal funds in such a way that they are enough for all your needs, plus there is some balance left that can be used for savings or for a large purchase.

To summarize, a table of family income and expenses is necessary, first of all, in order to learn how to properly and wisely manage your finances. The main task is to correctly record all family income and expenses in order to adjust the purchase plan in the future so that all expenses are justified and deliberate.

A family is a state in miniature: it has a head, an adviser, “ subsidized population", income and expense items. Planning, distribution and sequestration ( familiar words?) family budget is an important task. How to save and save without going on a starvation diet? — Create a table for recording funds received by the family and review the structure of payments.

Money– one of the greatest instruments created by man. They can buy freedom, experience, entertainment and everything that makes life more comfortable. But they can be squandered, spent in an unknown direction and senselessly squandered.

Legendary American actor of the early twentieth century Will Rogers said:

“Too many people spend money on things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.”

Has your income been less than your expenses over the past few months? Yes? Then you are not alone, but in a big company. The problem is that this is not a very good company. Debts, loans, penalties and late payments are growing like a snowball... it's time to jump out of the sinking boat!

Why do you need to keep a family budget?

“Money is just a tool. They will take you where you want, but will not replace you as a driver,” Russian-born writer who emigrated to the States, Ayn Rand learned from her own experience the need to plan and budget her own finances.

Unconvincing? Here three good reasons start planning your family budget:

Calculating a family budget will help you figure out long-term goals and work in a given direction. If you drift aimlessly, throwing money at every attractive item, how will you be able to save and go on a long-awaited vacation, buy a car or make a down payment on a mortgage?
Family budget expenses table sheds light on spontaneous spending and forces you to reconsider your purchasing habits. Do you really need 50 pairs of black high heels? Planning a family budget forces you to set priorities and refocus on achieving your goals.
Illness, divorce or job loss can lead to a serious financial crisis. Emergencies happen at the most inopportune times. This is why everyone needs an emergency fund. The structure of the family budget necessarily includes the column “ saving“- a financial cushion that will help you stay afloat for three to six months.

How to properly distribute the family budget

A few rules of thumb for family budget planning that we will present here can serve as a rough guide for making decisions. Everyone's situation is different and constantly changing, but the basic principles are a good starting point.

Rule 50/20/30

Elizabeth and Amelia Warren, authors of the book " All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan" (in translation " Your Whole Wealth: The Ultimate Money Plan for Life") describe a simple but effective way to create a budget.

Instead of breaking down a family's expenses into 20 different categories, they recommend dividing the budget structure into three main components:

50% of income should cover basic expenses, such as paying housing, taxes and buying groceries;
30% – optional expenses: entertainment, going to a cafe, cinema, etc.;
20% goes to pay off loans and debts, and is also set aside as a reserve.

80/20 rule

Step 2: determine the income and expenses of the family budget

It's time to look at the structure of the family budget. Start by making a list of all sources of income: wages, alimony, pensions, part-time jobs and other options for bringing money into the family.

Expenses include everything you spend money on.

Divide your expenses into fixed and variable payments. Fill in the fields for variable and fixed expenses in the table for maintaining a family budget, based on your own experience. Detailed instructions for working with the excel file are in the next chapter.

When distributing the budget, it is necessary to take into account the size of the family, living conditions and the desires of all members of the “unit of society”. A short list of categories is already included in the example table. Consider the categories of expenses that will be needed to further detail the structure.

Income structure

As a rule, the income column includes:

salary of the head of the family (indicated “husband”);
salary of the general adviser (“wife”);
interest on deposits;
pension;
social benefits;
part-time jobs (private lessons, for example).

Expense column

Expenses are divided into constant, that is, unchangeable: fixed tax payments; home, car and health insurance; constant amounts for Internet and TV. This also includes those 10–20% that need to be set aside for unforeseen cases and “rainy days.”

Variable expenses column:

products;
medical service;
spending on a car;
cloth;
payment for gas, electricity, water;
personal expenses of spouses (entered and planned separately);
seasonal spending on gifts;
contributions to school and kindergarten;
entertainment;
expenses for children.

Depending on your desire, you can supplement, specify the list or shorten it by enlarging and combining expense items.

Step 3: Track your spending throughout the month

It is unlikely that you will be able to draw up a family budget table right away; you need to find out where the money goes and in what proportions. This will take one to two months. In a ready-made excel spreadsheet that you can download for free, start adding expenses, gradually adjusting the categories " for yourself».

Below you will find detailed explanations for this document, since this Excel includes several interrelated tables.

The purpose of this step is to get a clear picture of your financial situation, clearly see the cost structure and, at the next stage, adjust the budget.

Step 4: Separate Needs from Wants

When people start recording their spending, they discover that a lot of money " flies away"for completely unnecessary things. Impulse, unplanned expenses seriously hit your pocket if your income level is not so high that a couple or two thousand go unnoticed.

Refuse to purchase until you are sure that the item is absolutely necessary for you. Wait a few weeks. If it turns out that you really cannot live without the desired item, then it is indeed a necessary expenditure.

A little advice: Put your credit and debit cards aside. Use cash to learn how to save. It is psychologically easier to part with virtual amounts than to count out pieces of paper.

How to properly plan a family budget in a table

Now you know what is really happening with your money.

Look at the categories of expenses you want to cut and make your own plan using a free excel spreadsheet.

Many people don't like the word " budget”, because they believe that these are restrictions, deprivations and lack of entertainment. Relax, a personalized spending plan will allow you to live within your means, avoid stress and sleep better rather than worrying about how to get out of debt.

“An annual income of £20 and an annual expenditure of £19.06 leads to happiness. An income of 20 pounds and an expense of 20.6 leads to suffering,” Charles Dickens’ brilliant note reveals the basic law of planning.

Enter your prepared family budget into the table

You have set goals, determined income and expenses, decided how much you will save monthly for emergencies andlearned the difference between needs and wants. Take another look at the budget sheet in the spreadsheet and fill in the blank columns.

A budget is not a static figure fixed once and for all. If necessary, you can always adjust it. For example, you planned to spend 15 thousand monthly on groceries, but after a couple of months you noticed that you only spend 14 thousand. Make additions to the table - redirect the saved amount to the “savings” column.

How to plan a budget with irregular income

Not everyone has a permanent job with regular paychecks. This doesn't mean you can't create a budget; but this means you have to plan in more detail.

One strategy is to calculate the average income over the past few years and focus on this figure.
Second way- determine a stable salary from your own income - what you will live on, and save the excess into an insurance account. In lean months, the account balance will decrease by exactly the missing amount. But your “salary” will remain the same.
Third planning option– maintain two budget tables in parallel: for “ good" And " bad» months. It's a little more complicated, but nothing is impossible. The danger that awaits you along this path: people spend and take out loans, waiting for income from the best months. If the “black streak” drags on a little, the credit funnel will eat up both current and future income.

Below you will find solutions on how to distribute the family budget according to the table.

After we have decided on the main goals, let's try to distribute the family budget for the month, indicate current income and expenses in the table, in order to manage funds wisely, to be able to save for main goals, without missing out on current and everyday needs.

Open the second sheet " Budget"and fill in the fields of monthly income, annual income, and the program will calculate the results itself, example:

In columns " variable expenses" And " fixed costs» Enter estimated numbers. Add new items where " other", in place of unnecessary names, enter your own:

Now go to the tab of the month from which you decided to start saving and planning family expenses. On the left you will find columns in which you need to record the date of purchase, select a category from the drop-down list and make a note.

Additional notes are very convenient to refresh your memory if necessary and clarify exactly what the money was spent on.

Simply delete the data entered in the table as an example and enter your own:

To account for expenses and income by month, we suggest looking at the table on the third sheet in our Excel " This year", this table is filled in automatically based on your expenses and income, sums up and gives an idea of your progress:

And on the right there will be a separate table that will automatically summarize all expenses for the year:

Nothing complicated. Even if you have never tried to master working with Excel tables, selecting the desired cell and entering the numbers is all that is required.

Poll: How old are you?

Many companies use Microsoft Excel to track expenses for a department or the entire company. Currently, Excel can be used on all PCs running the Windows operating system. For this reason, you can keep track of your own expenses if this program is installed on your home PC. There are a large number of expense tracking templates from Microsoft and other sites, and recent versions of Excel include a built-in template as a preset. You can also create your own dynamic table in Excel to track expenses. In both cases, follow the instructions below.

Steps

Working with an Excel template

Select a preset template. The latest versions of the program include a template for keeping track of personal expenses, as well as templates for keeping track of business expenses. You can access these templates and track your expenses using them.

In Excel 2003, choose New from the File menu. In the On My Computer taskbar, select New Workbook to see the templates in a new dialog box.
In Excel 2007, from the File menu, select New. The New Book dialog box will then appear. Select "Installed Templates" from the "Templates" menu in the left menu. Select “Personal monthly budget” from “Installed templates” in the central menu and click “Create”.
In Excel 2010, from the File menu, select New. Select Sample Templates at the top of the Available Templates panel, then select Personal Monthly Budget from all the sample templates and click Create.

Select a template online. If the preset templates are not suitable for keeping track of your expenses, you can choose a template online. You can download it from any website or by connecting via Excel to Microsoft Office Online.
- For Excel 2003, you can select a suitable template from the Microsoft Office online library at https://templates.office.com/ru-ru. (You can also find templates designed for later versions of Excel there.)
- In Excel 2007, select the Budgets tab under the Internet section of the New Workbook dialog box. To connect to the online template library for Office, you must have the Internet turned on.
- In Excel 2010, select Budgets from the Office.com section in the Available Templates pane. To connect, you must have the Internet turned on.
Enter the required information in the appropriate fields. The information depends on the specific dynamic table template you used.

You can use the suggested name for the dynamic table or change the name. It will be enough to indicate your name and the current year in the file name.

Creating your own dynamic expense table

Open Excel.

Enter column headings. Suggested names and order: Date, Expense Category, Note, Expense, Income, and Balance. Fill cells A2 to G2 with these headings. You may need to make the columns wider to accommodate the title or value.

Once you have your dynamic table and column headers ready, you can use the Freeze Pane feature to permanently display the headers while you scroll down the values. The Freeze Pane feature is found on the View menu in Excel 2003 and earlier versions and on the View menu, Window tab in Excel 2007 and 2010.

Enter information about the first type of expense in the third row cell.

Enter the balance formula in cell G3. Since this is the first time you are entering a balance, it will be defined as the difference between expenses and income. How you write this depends on whether you want to display expenses or available funds.
- If you want the spreadsheet to show expenses first, the balance sheet formula should be =E3-F3, where E3 shows expenses and F3 shows income. With this setting, the formula will show expenses as a positive number, making the amount of expenses easier to understand.
- If you want the table to primarily display the funds available to you, the balance formula should be =F3-E3. With this setup, the table will display a positive balance if your income is higher than your expenses, and a negative balance if the opposite situation occurs.
Enter information about the second type of expense in the fourth row cell.

Enter the balance formula in cell G4. The second and subsequent values will continue to show a balance, so you need to add the difference between expenses and income to the balance value of the previous entry.
- If you're looking at expenses first, the balance sheet formula would be =G3+(E4-F4), where G3 is the cell that shows the previous balance, E4 shows expenses, and F4 shows income.
- If you are maintaining a spreadsheet to display cash, the balance formula will be =G3+(F4-E4).
- Brackets around cells showing the difference between expenses and income are optional. They are used only to make the formula clearer.
- If you want the balance to remain blank until an entry is entered, you can use an IF value in the formula so that if a date has not been entered, the cell will not display a value. The formula for such an entry will be =IF(A4="","",G3+(E4-F4)), if the table is needed to maintain expenses, and =IF(A4="","", G3+(F4-E4) ), if the table is needed to display cash (you don't have to use brackets around the cell that show expenses and income, but you need to use outer brackets).
Copy the formula balance to other cells in column G (balance column). Right-click in cell G3, select Copy. Then select the cells below in the column. Right-click the selected cells and select Paste to insert the formula into the selected cells (in Excel 2010, select Paste or Paste Formula from the menu). The formula will automatically update the cells to show the expenses, income, and date (if used) from the current series and the balance from the series above the current series.
Save the dynamic table. Give it a meaningful name, for example, “Expense Accounting.xls” or “Personal Budget.xls.” As with the name of the templates, you can include your name and year in the file name (note, quotes are only used to show an example, you should not use them in the name. The file extension also does not need to be specified, Excel will do this itself) .
- Excel 2003 and older versions save dynamic tables in the older ".xls" format, while Excel 2007 and 2010 save tables in the newer XML-based ".xlsx" format, but you can read and save dynamic tables and in the old ".xls" as well. If you have multiple PCs and want to store the spreadsheet on each of them, use the older format if any of your PCs have Excel 2003 or older, or the new format if all computers have at least Excel 2007 installed.

It is common to find families wondering where their money is being spent. After transferring wages, they can spend more than half of their income in a week, and then borrow money from friends or, even worse, take out countless bank loans. In addition, lack of money often becomes the cause of domestic quarrels and divorces in families. So what is it, what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing it?

Be sure to read my review on the topic and how I came to this only at 37 years old, exactly 1.5 years ago.

Family budget – balance of family income and expenses for a specified period of time.

Advantages of maintaining a family budget:

General picture of family income for the period - main and additional earnings. This is the basis from which you should build on your capabilities for planned costs.

Full control of family expenses. To avoid disputes, the spending picture will always show who spent the money on what. In the future, the dynamics of costs for each item will allow them to be adjusted depending on preferences and informed choice.

Accumulation of funds and minimization of debts.

major purchases and travel. The dynamics of the main cost items allows you to plan major events in a certain period using previously accumulated funds.

Discipline. increases discipline in the life of every person.

Disadvantages of maintaining a family budget:

Full transparency of the income and expenses of all family members, which not everyone may like.
The ability to get hung up on the idea of saving, go beyond boundaries and infringe on yourself and other family members in any needs.

Principles of maintaining a family budget:

Income and expenses must be divided into items. Their number can be any at the discretion and convenience of everyone. For example, at first, expense items may be more detailed: food, household goods, rent payments, telephone payments, other payments for children's sections and school lunches, etc. Later, it would be better to combine some of the expenses. For example, all mandatory monthly payments are included in one article.

For the first two months, it’s enough to simply record your income and expenses by item. In the future, the budget must be planned for the future, at least for one period in advance.

It is more convenient to record expenses every day, reconcile cash balances (cash, bank cards, accounts, electronic money, etc.).

If distributed correctly, the family's expenditure budget should not exceed the income budget. In this way, a reserve portion will be formed, which can be accumulated or spent on necessary needs. It is recommended that the monthly reserve be at least 10% of income.

It is advisable to divide the reserve part into at least two components - the acquisition of useful purchases and an emergency reserve. The latter is necessary as a “spare cushion” in the event of a sudden loss of permanent income (dismissal, layoff), a deep financial crisis, or unforeseen circumstances.

Methods of maintaining a family budget:

“the old fashioned way” - a thick notebook with manual notes and calculations on a calculator: a time-consuming and inconvenient option in terms of analysis and dynamics;

maintaining a detailed, convenient table in Microsoft Office Excel on any computer, using an individual approach;

services for budgeting (online websites and mobile applications) with the ability to choose the most convenient and appropriate one.

Duplication is possible, for example, maintaining an express budget in a mobile application to quickly record costs and a more detailed budget with analysis and dynamics in Microsoft Excel.

An example of maintaining a family budget in Excel in our family.

how to make a family budget

In addition to maintaining a table in Excel, I recommend daily accounting of expenses and income in special applications for maintaining a family budget, for example, Home Accounting, which, among other things, can be installed as an individual or family application, i.e. on 2 devices on Android, Windows or iOS.

I can recommend the free AbilityCash program, which I use myself, you can download it from this link

Home accounting allows you to quickly understand where the money is going and where there are reserves for savings.

Explore different programs and choose the one that is convenient for you. It is important that the program has the ability to divide expenses into different items, obtain spending statistics for each item, and use various data filters.

Many families do not take into account the nuances of properly managing the family budget, which is why many financial issues arise in the family.

To avoid this, it is worth learning the three most important accounting rules.

No. 1. Determine the exact total amount of income for the month. You will have to take all the income for the month and, by adding, find out the total amount.

No. 2. Calculate all monthly necessary expenses and payment of bills. In other words, find out the inevitable waste of money per month.

No. 3. Subtract the amount of unavoidable expenses from the principal amount of income. And only distribute the remaining amount to other side expenses.

So, there is a certain amount of money left. How to competently manage it further? Family is a big responsibility and everyone has their own personal needs. In order to satisfy the major needs of each family member, for example, buying seasonal outerwear or shoes, you should set aside approximately 10% of the income amount from each monthly income. When the time comes to buy one of the family members an important new thing, or an unexpected spending situation suddenly arises, the family will already be ready for it. The accumulated amount will be able to cover such expenses.

The peculiarity of accounting for your expenses is that this is a process extended over time, and the results of this process will not be noticeable immediately. But short-term expectations cause most people to give up their home accounting after just a couple of weeks. A person does not see his benefit from daily accounting of his expenses. At first, when enthusiasm is still alive, a person performs all the necessary actions, and when enthusiasm dries up, the “work” is done by inertia. It is necessary to remember that there are benefits from family accounting... you just haven’t felt it yet. If you don't give up, within a couple of months you will see tangible results that will allow you to save on expenses and make your financial goals more realistic.

Poll: Have you done home bookkeeping before?

What are the benefits of home bookkeeping?

1. By knowing your monthly expenses, you can cut down on unnecessary expenses and save a significant amount over time. This amount may be enough to buy some useful thing (phone, bicycle, suit).

Many people don’t even realize what exactly is eating up a significant portion of their budget. After a month of waiting and the first report, some people clutch their heads when they see the true picture of their expenses. For example, harmless get-togethers with friends or visiting public places can take significant amounts of money out of your wallet. Some women may become very thoughtful if they find out how much money is spent on cosmetics every month. Separately, we can note the work of the “money vacuum cleaner” - the supermarket. It encourages unnecessary purchases. We tend to believe that we spend less than we actually do. But facts (reports) will bring you back to reality and, perhaps, force you to change something for the better.

2. Having information about all your sources of income, you can increase your income significantly.

For example, you have several sources of income. Having a full report for several months, you can track the dynamics of changes in each source and find the most promising one. By abandoning “weak” sources, you will have time to develop promising ones.

How to create a home budget?

The family budget can be compared to the company budget, so expected expenses and income must be divided into separate groups. But first, you should analyze your expenses for the past month.

If you do home accounting, then you can use last month’s expense report as a basis. By analyzing the information, you can conclude that not all purchases were necessary. Often people spend significant amounts of money on entertainment and useless trinkets after their salary. This is why you should keep detailed records of all purchases. For anyone, you can make a whole list of goods that you can safely do without. It is very rare that a person can plan a family budget without analyzing past expenses.

How to spend money correctly? People have different incomes and, therefore, expenses can also differ significantly - everyone’s priorities, life circumstances and opportunities are different.

After analyzing your purchases, you need to place each one into one of four groups: essentials, necessary expenses, desired purchases and unnecessary ones. Now, to plan an emergency home budget, it is enough to exclude the last two groups from expenses - the desired and the unnecessary. If your salary allows, then you can draw up another budget, which will take into account the third group - desired purchases. It is better to exclude the fourth group of expenses (unnecessary) from the plan altogether, and instead of unnecessary expenses, it is better to start saving.

Examples of expenses from the first group (primary necessity):

Rent
Food
Medicines
Credit
Transport and/or car

Expenses in the “necessary” category:

Internet
Hygiene products
Gym

Desired:

Laptop
New shoes
New phone
Vacation package

Unnecessary:

Cafes and restaurants
Lottery
Unhealthy food
Bad habits (alcohol, cigarettes)

Food is a significant part of family expenses. Many families spend 25% to 60% of their income on groceries. That is why you need to take a closer look at this category of expenses. It is advisable to keep a detailed list of expenses, for example, take into account separately the costs of sausages, dairy and confectionery products, vegetables, canned food, etc. Over time, you will be able to determine the most expensive food category and try to save money on it.

Excel spreadsheet for home budget

Beginning home accountants can use a regular Excel spreadsheet to track expenses and income - it's easy and free. A spreadsheet processor will not give you a complete financial picture, but you will gain invaluable experience, which will then be useful for accounting for finances in programs or web services.

A simple Excel spreadsheet for home accounting can be downloaded. A complete selection of Excel tables is available at this link. The selection contains a variety of tables that will help you not only take into account current expenses and income, but also plan your family budget for several months in advance.

Let's analyze the simplest table home-buh.xls. There is only one sheet “July” so far. You can add new sheets by month: “August”, “September”, etc. You can copy the contents of the “July” sheet into each new sheet (it will be a template). In our example, everything is extremely simple - there are two sections “Income” and “Expenses”. By entering data into these sections, you create the “total” field and reports. You can add new fields (categories) to the specified sections - the report and the “total” field will be automatically updated.

Housekeeper – accounting of personal finances

is a simple program with a friendly interface. Thanks to its simplicity, Economy is accessible to a wide range of users - from beginners to professionals. On the left side of the window there is a main menu: Expenses, Income, Debts... If you go to any section, you can see that the data is stored in tables. Each table can be sorted by a separate field. To do this, click on the title of the corresponding field. For example, if you want to sort expenses by amount, then click the “Amount” column, and if you need to see the chronology of expenses, then click the “Date” heading.

In addition to accounting for expense and income transactions, the program has the following functions: accounting for debts (they owe me, I owe), loans (with repayment history), a system of user accounts (with a choice of base currency), as well as a system of reference books (categories of expenses and income). The program also has a table with monthly reminders about important events (rent, loan repayment). Reports can be viewed in a separate section. Here the user will be able to select the report type, user, and time interval. The current version of the Housekeeper has 17 reports - this number is quite enough to analyze your family budget.

Conclusion. A good program with developed functionality and a clear interface. An ideal option for beginner “home accountants” - everything here is simple and clear. It runs under Windows, is small in size, and can be carried with you on a flash drive.

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Drebedengi is an online service for home accounting. The advantage of such a service is obvious - access to the system is possible from any device and from any place where there is Internet. The mobile version of the site looks good even on cheap smartphones with low screen resolution.

Particular attention is paid here to family budget planning. The system provides a special section for this, where users can plan their expenses and income. This feature will allow you to look into your financial future - you can find out how much money you will accumulate in a month or a year. It is very convenient to plan savings for future large purchases. A plan can be drawn up not only for each family member, but for everyone at once. If the system detects a deviation from the planned one, it will automatically report this and show the magnitude of the deviation.

The service allows you to combine different accounts into a single segment. This is very convenient if you are doing family accounting (each member has their own account). In this case, users will be united by a joint budget and statistics. The developers of the Drebedengi system suggest using applications for iPhone and Android devices to manage expenses offline, with further synchronization of data with the main service. Applications for Windows (including Windows Phone) have also been created.

Conclusion. The Drebedengi web service is intended for lovers of cloud technologies. The main advantage of the system is access from any device and anywhere (where there is Internet). The functionality is not bad - it is quite enough for home accounting.

Personal Finances

Personal Finances is a powerful and convenient tool for family accounting. Thanks to the clear and colorful interface, the user will quickly find a common language with this program. The main principle of the application: less actions - more results. Using the budget planning feature, you can stay within your current financial limits.

The program can run not only on a computer running Windows, but also on smartphones and tablets (Android, iOS). Any family member can keep an expense spreadsheet separately. Reports will allow you to determine who earns and spends the most. The privacy protection feature will prevent unauthorized editing and will also help hide some expenses or income from other users.

To quickly enter information, automatic substitution of words based on the first letters is provided. It is also possible to undo previous user actions, for example, undoing the deletion of a record from the database.

The main functions of the program: work with multiple users, quick accounting of personal finances, multi-currency, task scheduler, loans and debts, budget planning.

Conclusion. A good option for advanced “home accountants”. If you are not intimidated by the abundance of features and want to study your finances in great detail, then Personal Finances is the tool for you. A good interface and an abundance of reports will satisfy the needs of the most demanding users.

This is a fairly well-known program on the Runet. Let’s list the main advantages of “Home Accounting”: simplicity (no additional knowledge is required), benefit (awareness of your situation will help you achieve your financial goals), benefit (analysis of income and expenses will help you gain financial stability), security (data protection with a password and database backup).

The program is capable of keeping track of finances for the entire family. Each family member can create an account and enter income and expenses separately from the rest. Keeping track of loans and debts will help stabilize your financial situation. You can select any world currency (dollar, euro, ruble, hryvnia, etc.) as the base currency. Expenses and income can be synchronized with different devices - tablets, smartphones, PCs (there is a version for iOS and Android).

The reporting system has a finished and thoughtful appearance. You can get a report on your account status or expenses in a couple of seconds. Home accounting will give you the opportunity to analyze income and expenses, and you will also be able to draw up a correct financial plan based on the reports.

The data import and export function will significantly reduce the time required to enter data into the program. Import bank statements and data from other databases into the program. If you need to transfer data from the program to someone, then export of information is provided for these purposes.

Conclusion. Keepsoft home accounting is an affordable tool with good functionality. The presence of a mobile version makes the program multi-platform. If you are not afraid of complex interfaces, then you will certainly make friends with this program.

MoneyTracker

MoneyTracker is another popular family accounting program. It has the entire necessary set of tools for controlling personal finances - accounting for expenses/income, debts, loans, a powerful reporting system, a calendar and much more.

The program has an interesting detail - an information window. This is an area of the screen whose contents you can customize yourself. Here you can display individual blocks, for example, reminders, exchange rates, and the current state of the budget. Due to the information window, the visibility of the program increases significantly. Widget lovers will like this feature. The Calendar module can be used to schedule important events. It's easy to set up a reminder for any event here.

It should be mentioned that MoneyTracker can run on a local network. That is, there will be one database, but several users (programs). This function will be in demand in families where several computers are used at once, for example, the son has a desktop PC, the head of the family has a laptop, and the wife has a tablet. All these devices can be linked to one database, and each family member will be comfortable entering expenses and income into a single database of the MoneyTracker program.

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