My family's budget (Financial literacy) social studies project (5th grade)

Today we will look in detail at what family income and expenses are. We already know that a family budget is a financial plan for a certain period of time (most often for a month or a year). It is a list of items of family income and expenses.

The family budget is compiled for:

• control over the financial situation of the family
• achieving financial goals (apartment, car, vacation, education, etc.)
• financial protection of the family (creating cash savings in the form of a reserve fund, investments and pension savings).

A family budget is needed, first of all, in order to understand WHERE YOUR MONEY COMES FROM AND WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES. Only by understanding the movement of money in the family can you control it and begin to manage it.

The main task when drawing up a budget is to correctly distribute future income to the necessary expense items, so that in the end expenses do not exceed income (so that the budget is balanced) and we have enough money to live. To do this, it is necessary to correctly determine the main items of income and expenses in the family.

Family budget income.

Income is money or material assets received from a business, individual, or activity.

It’s more or less clear with them. There are not many sources of income in the family. First of all, you need to determine WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM, i.e. how much, where and when you get. I will give a list of possible sources of income, and you will need to select from it those items that are suitable specifically for your family, write them down and calculate all the income planned for the month for all family members. Then you need to add up all these incomes and you will determine the total family income for the next month.

Family cash may include cash receipts in the form of:

• 1. Wages for hired work (at the main job, part-time or at your own enterprise)
• 2. Income from self-employment
• 3. Business income
• 4. Dividends on shares
• 5. Interest on bank deposits
• 6. Income from rental real estate (apartments, cottages, garages)
• 7. Income from the sale of real estate
• 8. Income from the sale of products from household plots
• 9. Income from the sale of personal belongings.
• 10. Scholarships
• 11. Pensions
• 12. Child benefits
• 13. Alimony
• 14. Help from family and friends
• !5. Gifts
• 16. Prizes, winnings
• 17. Tax refund
• 18. Grantov
• 19. Inheritance

So you have calculated the expected total family income for the month.

In order to draw up a family budget, it is necessary to distribute this money among future expenses. This is already much more complicated. You need to create a classification of expenses that would cover all family expenses as much as possible.

Family budget expenses

Expense is the cost, expense, consumption of something for a specific purpose.

Now you need to determine WHERE THE MONEY GOES, i.e. on what, how much and when you spend. To do this, you need to make a list of all expected expenses.

In general, all expenses can be classified according to several criteria.

By importance

• Expenses may be necessary or mandatory
• This is what we vitally NEED. They provide us with what we need in the first place. These are expenses for food, for housing (rent, utilities), for transport, for necessary clothing and footwear, necessary goods for the home and for health, for payment of debts (on loans, bills and insurance) and, of course, for savings in the reserve fund families (minimum 10% of income). Those. These are vital expenses that provide a minimum subsistence level for the family. It is recommended that these expenses account for no more than 50-60% of the total budget.
• Expenses may be desirable . This is what we WANT, but not vital. These are expenses for satisfying our desires and receiving pleasures. This may include: entertainment, the Internet, expensive cosmetics and perfumes, spending on hobbies, fitness, beauty salons, books, trips, etc. things that you can do without in a difficult financial situation, but with sufficient funding they are already “necessary.”
• Expenses can be “status” - expenses on goods that correspond to a high position in society and income (expensive - clothes, phones, cars, travel, etc.)
• Expenses may be unnecessary - these are expenses for goods that we could easily do without, i.e. expenses on things that are completely unnecessary for us, and sometimes even very harmful to us, see here.

When drawing up a budget, the first thing you need to do is start allocating money for necessary expenses. And plan the remaining money for the second and third group of expenses. It is precisely through these two groups that expenses can be optimized (either reducing or completely eliminating some expense items, or using them more rationally through savings). But you need to urgently get rid of unnecessary expenses; these are the main enemies of the family budget. Read how to reduce family expenses here

It is important to decide what is a necessary expense for you and what is just a pleasure that you can give up for a while or forever. If you constantly follow all your desires and pleasures, you will never be able to break out of the circle of financial problems! Because your desires will grow along with your income, no matter how large they are.

And to understand what you really need, you need to make a list of needs that you are willing to spend your money on. Then you need to select the vital tasks, and prioritize the rest from most important to least important. Perhaps the least important expenses will be completely unnecessary for you.

By frequency

• Recurring Expenses: Expenses that recur regularly. They can be monthly and repeat from month to month (groceries, utilities, transportation, phone, etc.) or annual (taxes, insurance, tuition, vacation).
• Variable expenses: expenses that are not constant, are made either out of necessity or planned (clothing, shoes, cosmetics, repairs, household appliances, and others).
• Seasonal expenses: preparations for the winter, seasonal clothing, expenses for preparing for school, etc.
• Unforeseen expenses: expenses that arise unexpectedly and unplanned.

When planning a budget for the year, it is better to start with the rarest expenses, that is, first of all, you need to determine the amount of annual and seasonal expenses and gradually set aside money for these expense items throughout the year.

Project “Family Budget Saving”

Costs associated with accumulation.

The intended purpose of cash savings can be different:

• Creating an insurance reserve “just in case”
• Accumulation of funds for the purchase of durable items (cars, apartments, etc.)
• Long-term savings life insurance
• Creating a cash fund for investing in various financial assets:

• acquisition of shares;
• purchase of bonds;
• purchasing shares of investment funds;
• placement of funds on deposits in banks;
• other.

• Investment of funds in precious metals (hoarding), real estate, foreign currency and other assets.

An approximate cost structure is clearly shown in Appendix 1.

Family budget.

The family budget is the proportionate amounts of family income and expenses.

A family budget can be positive (when income exceeds expenses), negative (when expenses exceed income) and balanced (when expenses and income are equal).

In order to determine what your budget is, you need to have a clear idea of ​​your income and expenses. To do this, it is best to create a table (preferably using a computer), for example, a document in Microsoft Office Excel. It must indicate how much, when and where you receive money, how much and what you spend it on over a certain period of time (it is best to consider a month or a year).

See Appendix 2 for an example table.

After compiling a table, you will be able to not only determine the type of family budget you have, but also see what you spend money on and where you could save. This will help you reduce expenses and thus “transform” your family budget from negative to balanced, from balanced to positive.

Saving money.

After compiling the table (Appendix 2), you will realize that you can give up some expenses, and you will not suffer from it. This way, you will most likely move your budget from negative to balanced, but this does not always happen because:

1. Not everyone can spare and not everyone has expenses that can simply be waived;
2. Perhaps the expenses that you can refuse are very small and will not cover the difference between what you spend and what you earn.

How to transfer your budget to another level? The answer is to save. I will try to tell you how to do this most painlessly.

Saving on food.

Food Expense - The amount you spend on food for your family over a given period of time. In the average Russian family, the share of food expenses is about 30% of the total family budget. In other words, one third, and, of course, this expense item is the most important in the family budget, because it is very difficult to reduce it - you want to eat all the time and nothing can be done about it. In addition, constant increases in food prices are hitting the family budget hard.

Therefore, a reasonable question arises: how to reduce family budget expenses on food, since the constant rise in prices is eating up the family budget?

There are several options to solve this problem:

1. Reducing costs for meat products. You need to buy meat from acquaintances, friends, and friends of acquaintances in whole carcasses. This is beneficial because: firstly, you get fresh, tasty, healthy meat; secondly, a whole carcass is much cheaper than buying by the kilogram.
2. Create your own subsidiary farm. You can plant whatever you want, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, etc., both at home and in the country. You can also pickle these foods for longer storage.
3. You can divide the month into four parts of 8+8+8+4 to 7 days (depending on the month) and also divide the money for food per month equally between all parts. Therefore, it turns out that the last part, with fewer days, will cost the same amount of money as the remaining parts. This can be used to treat your family a little with something delicious at home or to go to a cafe. Thus, you have a period of time of eight days and you should roughly estimate what you will cook on these days. You can create something like a menu for the week and buy only the products necessary to prepare these dishes.
4. Regardless of whether you divide the month into 4 parts or not, when you go shopping, you should always know exactly what you need to buy. You can make a shopping list and strictly follow it so that you are not tempted to buy anything else.

Saving on clothes.

In the family budget of any family, among the obligatory expenses there is a category of Clothing. Whatever one may say, you have to periodically update your wardrobe, and for many this process has become an integral part of life. I mean shopping.

There are several things you can do to save money on this type of product:

1. Buy clothes on sales. If you like an item, it makes sense to wait until the sales and buy it at half price.
2. Limit your purchases. Ask yourself, do you really need this purchase and will you wear it?
3. Don't buy things just because they are fashionable this season. It is better to limit yourself to something more classic and universal.
4. Use accessories. This is one of the easiest and relatively cheap ways to change your appearance.
5. Buy universal items (that are combined with each other and thereby harmoniously complement your wardrobe). Classic colors such as white, grey, dark grey, dark blue will suit most clothes. However, if you already have enough clothes in basic colors, you should pay attention to brighter things.
6. Use the services of a tailor. If your clothes are out of order, don't get rid of them, rather take them to a tailor. This service is many times cheaper than buying new clothes.
7. Don't forget to take care of your clothes. This will significantly extend its lifespan, meaning you can avoid spending a certain amount of money on replacement clothing for longer.
8. Don't throw away your clothes. Often, “outdated” trends return to us.
9. When going to the store, take with you a limited amount of cash that you are currently willing to spend on clothes. The opportunity to withdraw an extra couple of thousand from a credit card always tempts you to buy something beyond the norm, so it’s still better to leave the card at home.
10. The most common and economical choice of true fashionistas is making their own clothes.

Savings on communications.

Communication expenses in the budget of some families can amount to up to 10%, but, in any case, they are an important component of the household finances of any family.

For calls using landlines.

If your family makes a large number of calls to landlines, then you will need a landline phone. But don’t forget to take into account the subscription fee for a landline phone. If you do not make many calls to landline numbers, then a landline phone may not be profitable. There are also several options for payment tariffs for landline phones.

For cell phone calls.

There are many cellular operators and each of them has a huge number of tariffs. You just need to choose the tariff that suits you. Also, if your city has wireless Internet (3G or WIMAX), then you can use your cellular or special modem to connect to the Internet. And don't use a landline. Get connection + internet.

For the Internet.

In our time, there are, accordingly, many options for accessing the network, but still we live in different places, some in a big city, some in a small village, and we have different opportunities for connecting to the global web. The first is a landline telephone, then: mobile Internet, direct Internet connection, satellite Internet, etc.

Saving on transport.

The cost of travel on public transport is something that no resident can do without. Often these costs are very high. How to save money?

1. Optimize your route. In order to choose the easiest and most inexpensive way to get to your destination, you need to have a good knowledge of the city's public transport system. Study the routes of trolleybuses and buses that run near your home and place of work so that you always know the easiest way to get to this or that point in the city. This will help you save not only money, but also time.
2. Use monthly passes. If you go to work every day using the same type of transport, you should think about purchasing a permanent travel ticket. In big cities you can almost always get passes for the metro, tram and trolleybus. In regional centers with a poorly developed urban transport system, the same service can be provided by owners of private buses and minibuses.
3. Leave home on time. Tram and trolleybus routes are often duplicated by more comfortable and faster, but at the same time more expensive commercial buses and minibuses. If you are late for work, you will, of course, jump on the minibus without any second thoughts. However, if this happens almost every day, constant lateness can take a significant toll on your wallet.

If you have a car, you can save money on gasoline like this:

1. Don't forget to service your car regularly. A serviceable but unadjusted car consumes 10% more gasoline.
2. Try not to carry excess cargo in your car. Every fifty kilograms of cargo leads to excessive fuel consumption by approximately 2%.
3. If your air conditioning is turned on, you should know that you have already spent an extra 10% of fuel.
4. Try to avoid driving during rush hours. Constantly switching pedals is typical for driving in a traffic jam, which you cannot avoid if you are driving during rush hour and this, in turn, wastes extra gasoline.
5. Increased speed is a sure indicator of overspending. Don't drive. At 110 km/h it (this consumption) is 25 percent more than at 90 km/h.
6. If you stop for more than a minute, turn off the engine. There is no need for him to work idle.

Travel expenses rarely exceed 10% of the family budget, so savings on transport are unlikely to be significant. Of course, it’s not worth going too far, walking five stops in the rain with heavy bags just to save on a trolleybus. But still, a reasonable approach to this issue will help you save a lot of time, and the saved money can be spent on some pleasant or tasty little things.

Savings on utilities.

Utility costs will never leave us, since every day we use water, electricity, and heat. How to save money?

1. Do not leave plugs in sockets unnecessarily. Any device that is in “standby” mode (even a mobile phone charger) consumes a lot of electricity to heat up. By unplugging them from the outlet, you can not only reduce its consumption, but also increase fire safety.

A constantly running computer or laptop consumes from 70 to 100 kW/hour per month. By setting it to switch to saving mode with a minimum time interval, you can save up to 40% of electricity.

2. When purchasing electrical appliances, pay attention to the energy efficiency class, which is usually indicated on the labels. The most profitable class is A++, A+, A, then in descending order - B, C, D, E, F, G. Class A equipment will be more expensive, but given the rise in electricity prices, the difference will pay off.

3. It is necessary to remove scale from the electric kettle in a timely manner. It has low thermal conductivity, so water boils longer, consuming excess energy. Well, you don’t need to pour more water than you need for tea drinking.

4. Excessive loading of laundry in a washing machine (as well as underloading) leads to excessive consumption of electricity by 10-15%, and an incorrectly selected washing program - even by 25%. Therefore, it is best to follow the manufacturer's instructions.

5. For a refrigerator, the main condition is a cool location, away from the stove or radiator. Near heat sources, electricity consumption doubles. As with a thick layer of ice in the freezer.

6. Replacing old light bulbs with energy-saving ones (at least in those places where the light is constantly on) will help halve the energy consumption for lighting the house.

The most successful lighting is combined, when in addition to the general chandelier there are sconces, lamps that are turned on so that, for example, you can read a book on the sofa. In this way, you can save up to 200 kW/hour per year in just one room.

When leaving, turn off the lights! This will reduce wasted energy by 10%. By the way, to improve natural lighting, you need to remember: light walls reflect up to 80% of the light, and dark walls only 15%.

7. Saving water also starts with proper accounting. By installing cold and hot water consumption meters in your apartment, you can reduce your payment to several thousand rubles per year.

A dripping faucet, a leaking cistern - even seemingly insignificant leaks can amount to 250 liters per day. Replacing a worn-out gasket or an outdated part costs a penny, but the water savings are impressive.

Use plumbing fixtures that help save water. The use of single-lever faucets in the kitchen and bathroom (they measure water flow more accurately and help quickly select the optimal temperature) saves up to 15% of water. For the same purpose, two-button flush tanks are installed.

8. It is not at all necessary to wash plates under running water. In Europe, it is common to clear plates of leftover food and collect them in the sink. Then plug the drain, fill the sink with water, add detergent and wash the dishes. Then rinse it in a separate container with clean water. Water savings – 3-5 times.

9. There is a trick - fill a two-liter plastic bottle with water and place it in the toilet tank. This will save 20 liters of clean water.

10. According to experts, heat losses in houses can exceed the standard by 4 times. Approximately 40% of the heat escapes through flimsy windows. Installing double-glazed windows will raise the temperature by 2-5 degrees. If you glaze a balcony or loggia, you will get an additional thermal buffer.

Many people believe that old cast iron radiators heat rooms better. In fact, heat transfer from aluminum is 40-50% higher. If you install a heat-reflecting screen (at least made of aluminum foil) behind the radiator, the room will become another 1 degree warmer.

Practical work.

Having emphasized the tips for saving the family budget, we decided to test some of them in practice and find out how well the people around me know how to save money. For this purpose, testing was carried out (results in Appendix 3), and in the practical part, for the purity of the experiment, I chose the winter months.

To begin with, I compiled a table of my family's income and expenses. Thus, I learned that my family’s budget is positive. But surely costs can be reduced further.

At the beginning of December, I took readings from the electricity and hot and cold water meters.

The meter readings were as follows:

Electricity – 16228

Hot water – 218

Cold water – 364

The first month I did not apply the saving tips and at the end of the month I took meter readings again.

The meter readings were as follows:

Electricity – 16583 (355 kW of electricity consumed)

Hot water – 227 (used 9 cubic meters of water)

Cold water – 376 (used 12 cubic meters of water)

In January, I began to apply the tips for saving the family budget outlined in the second section. In particular:

1. Before going grocery shopping, make a list of future purchases
2. Do not leave plugs in sockets unnecessarily
3. Remove scale from your electric kettle in a timely manner
4. Load the washing machine following the instructions and select the correct washing mode
5. Replacing old light bulbs with energy-saving ones
6. When leaving the room, turn off all electrical appliances

At the end of the second month, my meter readings were as follows:

Electricity – 16804 (221 kW of electricity consumed)

Hot water – 235 (used 8 cubic meters of water)

Cold water – 386 (used 10 cubic meters of water)

This time I made a list of expenses and their amount. My family’s income has not changed, but expenses for food and utilities have decreased by approximately 3,835 rubles.

I decided to extend my experiment for another month and did the same steps as in January. At the end of February my meter readings were as follows:

Electricity – 17006 (202 kW of electricity consumed)

Hot water – 242 (used 7 cubic meters of water)

Cold water – 394 (used 8 cubic meters of water)

This time the amount of expenses was reduced by 2186 rubles.

After conducting this experiment, I was convinced that the tips given in the second section really work, and I decided to add a few new tips that I emphasized during the experiment.

1. When taking a shower, you can use simple rules: stand in the shower for 20-30 seconds, turn off the water, lather yourself, then turn on the water and rinse off the soap.
2. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Moreover, doctors recommend brushing your teeth not with running water, but with filtered or boiled water poured into a glass.
3. Do not defrost food using tap water or in the microwave. It's better to take them out of the freezer first.

Well, if you want to do it faster, then just fill the pan with water and place the frozen product in it.

1. When I was on vacation at sea in the summer, the hotel bathroom had taps that responded to the raising of hands. This faucet can also reduce the amount of water consumed because you will not have to constantly turn the water on and off, as this will be done automatically.
2. Avoid making large purchases at regular department stores. In most cases it is much cheaper to order them online.

The next year, I decided to continue the experiment and took advantage of such new tips for saving the family budget as:

1. Systematically ensure that the bottoms of the pans fit tightly to the burners of the electric stoves.
2. Please note that the diameters of the bottoms of the pans must be either equal to the diameters of the burners of the electric stoves on which they are placed, or larger.
3. Train yourself to regularly, about once a month, wipe the dust from the lamps, which will ensure both cleanliness and improved lighting in the house.
4. Arrange food in the refrigerator without cluttering to ensure adequate air circulation in the compartment.
5. As well as the tips given earlier in this chapter.

At the beginning of October, I took readings from the electricity and hot and cold water meters.

The meter readings were as follows:

Electricity – 18540

Hot water – 265

Cold water – 438

The following month the meter readings were as follows:

Electricity – 18750 (210 kW of electricity was consumed)

Hot water – 271 (used 6 cubic meters of water)

Cold water – 445 (used 7 cubic meters of water)

I again made a list of expenses and their amount. My family’s income has not changed, but expenses for food and utilities have decreased by approximately 4,185 rubles.

After continuing with this experiment, I became convinced that the additional tips outlined in this section actually worked, and decided to add a few new tips that I emphasized during the experiment.

1. When using an electric iron, try not to twist the electrical cord and regularly check its integrity.
2. Iron items that need to be ironed at low temperatures first, then increase the heat of the iron as needed.
3. Remember, a vacuum cleaner works economically and reliably only with clean filters, so every time after cleaning the premises, not only empty the dust container, but also thoroughly clean it with a brush.
4. Do not rinse laundry under running water. For these purposes, it is better to use a filled bathtub or basin.
5. Instead of scraping off burnt-on food debris under running water, it is better to immediately fill the pots or pans with water. Less effort - and less water.
6. Wash dark and colored items in cold water. This way you will waste less water and energy, and your clothes will not fade.
7. Do not pour into the sink the water that remains in the pan from washing vegetables and fruits. It is perfect for watering indoor plants.

Conclusion

Economists were able to calculate that if each member of a family of three people thoughtlessly spends 10 rubles every day, a fairly large amount will be spent in a year, which would be enough not only to buy an expensive men's or women's suit, but also household appliances, and even to purchase some kind of tourist voucher. Thus, the famous saying “A penny saves a ruble” is once again confirmed. However, this does not mean that you should become a stingy person, saving on every little thing. You just need to learn to deny yourself temptations and control your spending. After all, if family money is managed by a person who has no sense of proportion, this can turn into a real tragedy for all family members. Ill-conceived economic transactions undertaken by such a person often provoke the emergence of material and moral crises in the family. While working on the project, we came to the conclusion that:

1. In order to use their income effectively, a family must budget wisely, make careful purchases, and save to achieve their goals.
2. Only a reasonable approach to the formation of needs will allow you to refuse to buy one or another thing that is not so necessary at the moment. Reasonable formation of needs presupposes having a clear idea of ​​why this or that thing is needed.
3. When forming needs, it is necessary to proceed from family income and compare the budget expenditure item with the income item.
4. If all family members apply ways to save the family budget, then expenses can be reduced by several thousand rubles over the course of a year.

Summing up the results of all the work, we can draw the following conclusions:

1. We learned about the origin of the family budget, its types, methods of formation and ways to save it by studying the relevant literature.
2. Having conducted our own experiment in the field of saving the family budget, we practically proved the usefulness of certain methods of saving, and also identified several additional methods.
3. After conducting a survey among teenagers, we found out that about half of the teenagers do not know basic ways to save the family budget, thus proving the usefulness of our project for them to study.
4. Based on the results of surveys and our own experiment, a booklet and presentation were compiled.
5. We used our Excel skills to draw up charts based on the results of the survey and our own experiment.

We believe that the work we have done has achieved our goals and objectives.

Bibliography.

1. Lyubimov L.L. Fundamentals of economic knowledge. – M.: “Vita-Press”, 2004.
2. Lipsitsa I.V.Economy: history and modern organization of economic activity. – M: “Vita-Press”, 2004.
3. Savitskaya E.V. Economics lessons at school. – M.: “Vita-Press”, 2006;
4. Simonenko V.D., Shelepin O.I. Family economics. – M.: “Vita-Press”, 2000;

Internet resources

1. https://rasxodam.net/
2. https://www.gazu.ru/
3. https://www.about-how.ru/
4. https://www.family-budget.su/ru/
5. https://ru.wikipedia.org/
6. https://ru.wiktionary.org/
7. https://slovari.yandex.ru/
8. https://dic.academic.ru/

Annex 1.

Approximate cost structure in percentage for each expense item.

Appendix 2.

Table of accounting of income and expenses of the family budget.

If income exceeds expenses, then the budget is positive.

If income equals expenses, then the budget is balanced.

If expenses exceed income, then the budget is negative.

Appendix 3.

We conducted a test among first-year students, with the help of which we can draw conclusions about whether teenagers know about ways to save the family budget.

Test.

Questions:

1. How many times more economical is an energy-saving lamp than a regular lamp?

1. 5 times;
2. 2 times;
3. 50% more economical.

1. An economical way to use an electric stove is:

1. Turn on the stove to maximum and cook like this;
2. Turn the stove on to maximum and then to minimum until it just boils;
3. Turn the stove on low and leave it like that for the entire time.

1. Scale in the kettle increases energy consumption:

1. By 20%;
2. On 10 %;
3. 2 times.

1. The optimal way to boil water in a kettle is:

1. Pour only what is needed at the moment.
2. Pour full, even if you only need one mug;
3. Pour half, even if you only need one mug;

1. Does it make sense to install an energy-saving lamp in the bathroom?

1. No difference.
2. Yes, it is more economical than usual;
3. No, turning it on and off too frequently will greatly reduce its service life;

1. The optimal place for a refrigerator in the kitchen:

1. Away from sources of heat and sunlight;
2. Closer to warmth and sunlight;
3. Anywhere, as long as there is something to put in it.

1. What is the most economical way to heat food?

1. On an electric stove;
2. Microwave;
3. Under running hot water.

1. How much does the vacuum cleaner's power consumption increase when the garbage bag is 2/3 full?

1. By 20%;
2. By 5%;
3. By 40%.

1. Lime in the kettle:

1. Strongly affects energy consumption when using it;
2. Does not affect the energy consumption when using it;
3. Has a positive impact on his work.

1. The most energy-intensive household appliance?

1. TV;
2. Computer;
3. Electric stove.

Answers: a,b,a,a,c,a,b,c,a,c