The story of the emergence of financial accounting in my life

In my last article I was asked to share my story in the account. Without delay, I will tell you how financial accounting came into my life.

About myself

I was born in a simple Soviet family: my mother is a physical education teacher, my father is a military civil engineer. He graduated from the Pedagogical University, worked as a programmer. How I lived people in those days I will not explain, I will say one thing - it is difficult. I don’t know how my parents postponed and planned, but I heard the magic word “stash” in our family more than once.
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Long way to account

The first time I had the idea to keep a record about 10 years ago. I made a big deal for 5 salaries. I immediately made a magic stash and began to live on with the thought that this money I have is waiting for a better day. The stash was not in the bank, but simply in the table, because then I had no experience with plastic cards. Sometimes, getting shallowly into the money I put away, I made myself a notch about the new volume of the nest egg. But after a couple of months, I realized that I did not take into account more than half of the notches and the amount there was two times less than it should have been according to my calculations. But thoughts about accounting there remained thoughts.

I moved to Moscow. He rented an apartment at the same metro station, where work is. A month later, they threw up the idea of ​​an additional income project. The task was to collect about 500 tons of rubles. I considered the main expenses and decided that in a year I would collect it. But it happened during the first two months two important events happened at once, putting an end to this plan. First, my real expenses were higher and did not allow me to accumulate this amount. That is, I represented only about only ⅔ of my expenses. Secondly, I got a girlfriend. These two events made me think hard about accounting. So the second time I came to the idea of ​​accounting. But only to the thought, since I did not begin to keep records even after a year.

For the third time, I myself deliberately came to the conclusion that accounting is vital. I got married, I earn well enough, there is no balance, since expenses are equal to income. Yes, we live well, but for large purchases there are no opportunities. And after the holiday, the eternal question arises: “Where is the money Zine?” Yes, my wife's name is Zina.

The first steps

I decided to keep track of expenses. The goal was one - to understand where the money goes. There was no higher goal. It was a difficult task to convince of the need for accounting for my wife. This process did not take place in one iteration, but in the end she agreed with me that it was necessary to understand where the money was going, since at the moment we could only calculate half of our expenses. At this time, I could not think of anything better than how to manage expenses in evernote, since the main requirement was this shared resource for the two of us. From the point of view of data entry, it was adishche. Data entry was to say the least not at all convenient. Calculate the result for the month was generally hard. We were throwing several times, but after a couple of weeks we started keeping records again. So we suffered for half a year, but the most important thing is that we have developed the habit of bringing in our expenses.

Formation of accounting

Having made the decision that it is impossible to continue to live like this, half a year has passed, and we have no clear picture, no statistics, but it is not clear what kind of data. I decided to correct the situation and find a new way to keep records. The main requirement for shared data storage has not gone anywhere. Since we accustomed to make expenses right away, we needed an application on the android, since my wife and I had a phone on it. Another requirement was to manage the list of items of expenditure. And since in the free version only a couple of applications are suitable for our requirements, our choice fell on “Family budget”. At that time, it seemed to me perfect. Here you will need synchronization, the ability to maintain categories and subcategories of expenses, and templates of operations, and even a report, all that was needed after the last horror. Expenditure categories were found on the Internet.



By removing from this list too much, as we thought at that time, our list turned into the following.



Yes, we got rid of many categories, because at that time we did not start any construction, there was no money for traveling, it seemed to us that the other categories were simply meaningless. Most importantly, I think we did the right thing, it got rid of the category “I don't remember.” This article of expenditure is relaxing and allows you to write down everything that you just missed earlier. To form a financial accounting discipline, you must immediately abandon the mechanisms allowing yourself to relax.

I started setting up the application, introduced expenses, set up synchronization between my phone and my wife, set up the currency. And here the first problem was waiting for me, I set up the currency, everything is in rubles, but dollars are set by default. I reconfigured everything, forwarded, overloaded, again dollars. After the third attempt, I decided that dollars are rubles and began to calmly keep records.

In the process of using the initial idea to customize the reading of SMS for automatic generation of records, I decided to refuse. Firstly, because it needs to be configured, but I did not find an easy and convenient way to do this in the application. And secondly, because it is impossible to automatically determine the type of consumption by SMS. For those who say that it is possible - determine to which category of consumption you will take SMS from the hypermarket, if you have both products, alcohol, and life, and possibly clothes, etc. in the check. Immediately came the idea that for one SMS you can make a sign of expenses by category, but no application, including the one I use, has this functionality from the word at all.

Dual costs

In the process of keeping records, ambiguous situations appeared. Let's look at them in more detail. We have a friend Nikita, to whom we gladly go to the country. Bath, barbecues, alcohol, beshbarmak, etc. All this costs, which on the one hand can be attributed to the profile of products, alcohol, household goods, the same gasoline on the car, and on the other hand it is entertainment, recreation. Entering the flow into two categories at once is nonsense, since this mechanism, if it divides the amount in half, does not reflect reality, and if it writes it down into both categories, it simply doubles the amount. As a result, for ourselves we decided to write everything down according to the articles, as it should be, that is, food, alcohol, gasoline, etc. And ideally, I decided for myself that a tag system is needed, when you can mark the expense, build a report, and find out how much money was spent on a trip to the cottage to our friend Nikita.

By the way, travel expenses can be added to this problem, but we decided for ourselves that all expenses during a journey, regardless of destination, are products, a service, we fall into one category - travel.

After a couple of months, we already had some statistics. But winter was approaching and it was understood that our statistics are incomplete - there are few expenses in an important category - gifts. And we decided to wait until the end of winter with the collection of statistics.

Statistics

The winter passed and collecting data for the first analysis, we found out that the main expenditures are 50%. Expenses in small records gain another 50%. We thought that somewhere a mistake, that part of the money is lost and something else, but the fact that small categories are recruited by 50% was a shock for us. And then it became clear that the initial habit of recording all expenses helped us a lot. Consumption, even at 10 rubles, we make and this allows us to see the whole picture.

In the spring we bought a dog and again we added an item of expenses. Again, we need to collect statistics to understand how our expenses have changed. To buy a dog, we were a bit shaken up in our expenses and I got the idea to keep a record of income. Initially, the idea was to choose the perfect moment, for example from the beginning of the year. But this is all deception - there is no perfect moment. Therefore, you just need to take and start doing.

Planning

By the end of the year, it was understood that I had on hand our full annual statistics. And you can try to predict the cost of next year. Resolved - done. He took annual expenses, added 10% and took it as a plan for the year. No breakdown by month, just a total. In the application, I did not find this functionality in the free version, so I had to duplicate the account and start the file in Google disk, with total monthly indicators.

I adjusted the plan for the year approximately every month, because there appeared unaccounted moments, new projects. But this did not upset me, since I had already seen the next step - planning major purchases. That's what I did. I learned about what my darling wanted, added what I wanted, counted and was upset. For a part of the costs it was not possible to fulfill them, it was necessary to decide what we would do and what would not. Taking the data started a difficult conversation with his wife. They argued, even quarreled a little, but found a way out. If there is a goal, then for this purpose you can save.

Experiment

To ensure purchases, it was decided to cut the budget by 30% for two months. We stopped buying excess food, began to look more at the products, read the composition, compare analogues and somewhere later switched to a cheaper brand. As a result, we met the new budget. But I will say at once, if it were not for the purpose for which we were making these savings, then nothing would have happened. That is, if you need to save some money, then immediately set a goal - why. Saving for the sake of saving is not a goal, it does not work. And if it works, then you have the wrong budget.

findings

First, we came to the conclusion that clothes should be bought expensive, because on the horizon in a couple of years, it is cheaper, that is, it is more economical. Same with shoes. I have a problem with her at all - with height 185 cm, weight 114 kg and size 48 I have shoes for one season only. In order to save, they decided to switch to an expensive brand. I will say in advance - the idea with expensive clothes and shoes fully justified itself, and allowed saving up to 20-40 thousand per person per year.
Secondly, as I wrote above, we decided to conduct an experiment in order to optimize costs. And according to the results, they made a decision that we will sometimes arrange such experiments, as they allow shaking up expenses.
Third, make all budget decisions together, since you are a family and live on these incomes and expenses together.
Fourth, subcategories are required to account for expenses. Take for example the same costs for a car: maintenance, taxes, fines, tire, OSAGO, gasoline, etc. Having collected all this in one article - you see one amount and you do not understand anything. Looking at her becomes scary. And having broken everything into subcategories, you understand why the consumption varies from month to month. It is also easier to plan for subcategories. If you have everything without force majeure, then twice a year tire fitting, once OSAGO, one or two THAT.
Fifthly, it is necessary to plan for a year, but with monthly details. The reason for this step is well understood from the previous paragraph.
Sixth, lay down additional expenses over and above the plan in order to be more prepared for unplanned situations. And if everything goes according to plan, then you can send the released money to a deposit, or distribute it during the adjustment to other articles.
Seventh, it is sometimes morally difficult because everything is distributed among you and cannot be spent on something else. In this case, take and spend money on anything. Have fun, get distracted. But of course then write down these costs. Yes, they will be unscheduled, but very necessary. And the money for this expense, we laid in the previous paragraph.

What else happened in our life

My wife and I returned to the category of training. We looked at how much we drank, we ate and became ashamed. We are both educators and have stopped studying. Now we have a budget and the category of education is already larger than entertainment and is close in scale to a cafe.
We began to consider debts. Yes, we treat those people who sometimes lend. And thanks to accounting, I can understand, can I lend, may I lose this money.
We keep a shopping list for every trip to the store and a list of large purchases.

I perfectly understand that it is necessary to live without reducing expenses, but increasing income. But if an increase requires investment, then the best way to find this investment is to look into your budget and he will give you the answers.

Now my wife and I are setting goals for the year ahead. So far there are few of them, and they are not ambitious, but we are only at the beginning of the road and I know that we will succeed.

Yes, I am again in search of an application that will satisfy my needs. And now I am ready to pay money for it. But alas, I am still searching.