Managing Your Finances with a Budget
Want something from the sales? There’s no better question to illustrate just how challenging it is to be a consumer in a world of abundance. Even if you’ve navigated the supermarket with dignity and didn’t give in to all those tempting and unnecessary promotions like “buy, add, get” or “fourth package for a shekel,” the cashier doesn’t give up and keeps trying until the very last moment.
Modern life presents countless opportunities for spending and splurging, and the ruthless material competition doesn’t exactly make it easy for us to resist temptations. As a result, we consume, buy, and spend – sometimes without thinking at all about the amounts we’re spending. Add to that the credit card that blurs the feeling of actually spending money, and you have a proven recipe for an overdraft at the bank. The only way to effectively fight this: managing your family finances. Your family is a business that generates significant cash flow – and failing to manage finances is truly negligent.
- Identifying Financial Pitfalls
What causes us to lose control over our spending? Many factors. Let’s list a few:
Warning: Excessive Consumption!
Many factors encourage excessive consumption: the flourishing of numerous companies and businesses in food, clothing, and communications; the enormous selection of products available; aggressive and tempting sales campaigns efficiently deployed by commercial entities; the ease of making purchases online or by phone; and the various payment methods that blur the feeling that a transaction requiring payment is taking place.
Very Young Consumers
Children and teenagers begin becoming outstanding players in the consumer world at an early age. The age at which purchasing desires develop and household members need to make financial decisions and manage their money keeps getting lower – even if it’s about “what to do with the money I saved from babysitting” or “how much to invest in buying trading cards.”
Multiple Financing Options
If in the past the bank was the only financial address, today families must deal with additional entities like credit companies and insurance companies that tempt us with numerous options for financing our consumption. Instant loans and credit cards in everyone’s pocket enable purchases of thousands of shekels in electronic transactions lasting seconds.
Lack of Time
Our generation works many more hours than the previous generation. Sometimes it seems we don’t even have time to prepare food for ourselves, so how can we find time to organize expenses and income?
- Defusing the Mines: Budget Balance
According to Central Bureau of Statistics data (2025), the average net monthly household income stands at approximately 13,926 ILS, and the average household expenditure stands at approximately 21,649 ILS per month (including estimated expenditure on owned housing services). However, this figure doesn’t indicate that most households enjoy this salary. In fact, most wage earners earn considerably less. According to the Taub Center’s State of the Nation report, expenses exceed income in 80% of Israeli households.
In such a complex reality, each of us needs deep thinking and advance, thoughtful planning of expenses. Managing family finances, controlling the family’s financial conduct, and awareness of our expenses are cornerstones of financial independence. The ability to manage correctly or emerge from a crushing overdraft to financial freedom depends on the ability to balance our income against expenses.
- Where Do We Start?
- Reflecting Your Family’s Financial Situation through meticulous recording of all expenses and income.
Expenses: a. Check monthly payments for which you have receipts (phone bills, electricity, etc.). b. Estimate payment amounts for other expenses (food, medications, etc.) that are typically harder to track.
Income: Record all family income. Don’t forget income like social security, gifts from family members, etc. This situation provides a complete reflection of expenses alongside income. It’s important to emphasize and reflect the monthly gap between expenses and income. Start with collecting and reflecting.
- Creating Balance Between Expenses and Income Through Developing a Detailed Financial Plan. This is the second and crucial stage. After the family knows its expense and income structure according to the various items appearing in the monthly expense and income form, proceed to planning the family budget, with the family’s income as the planning basis.
When you have a family budget, you’re not only financially balanced but also give in less to promotions and temptations, managing your finances wisely and intelligently. Trust us: you’ll feel great about it.
