Where there is a good salary, and sometimes both parents are working, then the bank manager should be consulted about a safe investment which will bring regular income, especially where a family is growing and its need of money will increase later on. Keeping money in the post office or the bank is much safer and more satisfactory than keeping it at home where thieves might steal it, or a fire might destroy it; also in a savings account it gains interest and encourages saving.
Successful Family Budgeting Depends on
1. Living within the salary.
2. Being able to think and plan ahead.
3. Taking an interest in prices from one shop to another, and shopping in the market if it is cheaper.
4. Being able to do things personally, for example sewing, carpentry, growing food, servicing the car, doing household repairs, building.
5. With limited incomes, being able to choose between the real necessities of life and the luxuries.
6. Learning to use money and leisure profitably.
7. Buying certain things wholesale, for example cleaning materials, soap, which hardens and lasts much longer, tinned goods.
8. Going to the shops only once a week. Constant running to the shop is wasteful and much more is spent when housewife sees something she desires.
9. Keeping stricts accounts of expenditure so that extras can be left out or bought from time to time.
10. Paying cash for everything–accounts tend to run away with money.
A family with a bigger income will find it much easier to plan and their will not be so much difficulty in finding enough money for pleasure and savings are both more restricted. Many families do not plan and tend to divide their money badly, spending too much on pleasure and not enough on the necessities of life.
Certain things need more emphasis at certain levels and periods of the family's growth. For example, when there are children under the age of 5 relatively more should be spent on the expensive proteins needed for their growth. Money spent at this time of their lives on good food is as important for their futures as money spent later on education.
Saving for the Family
There are two types of saving:
Expenses recurring yearly at different times:
1. To obtain some luxury over a period of time. For example a motorcycle, a car, or a sewing machine.
2. To pay pay tax, insurance, school fees.
3. To provide for an unforeseen crisis, for example sickness, death, or accident in the family
Long-term:
1. To provide for old age.
2. To provide for a growing family and dependents.
3. To provide security–psychologically this is good.
How To Save for the Family
1. By learning to do things personally.
2. By keeping healthy–sickness means no job and therefore no money.
3. By careful buying of quality rather than quantity.
4. By avoiding debts–doing without rather than borrowing.
5. By avoiding hire purchase–saving first, then buying for cash thus avoiding the high rates of interest charged.
6. Saving by budgeting sensibly for every pay packet.
7. Lastly, saving has to do with keeping money in the bank or post office and getting advice about it.
