We all have family expenses that we manage monthly. I was wondering what all that comprises of on a personal basis for each one and at what rate each component is increasing. And are there some components which are in fact decreasing in price rather than increase with inflation.

For example, someone's monthly expense may comprise of:

1) Elec. Bill
2) Landline bill
3) Mobile bill
4) Food and grocery items


Food prices are increasing yearly with inflation(I think). So, prices are up than what they used to be 5 years back. On the other hand, phone bills have been decreasing over the years due to cheaper tariff plans. I have no idea on the elec. bills on whether they are getting cheaper than earlier.


If it is okay, members can share their experiences here regarding family expenses management, both monthly expenses like above and annual expenses like house tax, life insurance premium, health premium.

This way, someone who wants to manage family expenses may learn a lot from experiences of each other

Ya right those expenses are important too. Thanks for sharing    . My target for this thread was more in relation to recurring expenses.

Excel sheet is good option anytime. I use Credit card for every little transaction.
Grocery, Electricity, telephone, gas, cloths, shoes, movies, planes, jewelery, municipal taxes, insurance, medical bills, Baby expenses, personal expenses, travelling, petrol etc.
Only Bhel Puri & Ice cream can not be bought on Credit cards in Pune.

Then I can export all the transactions in excel, and immediately i can come to know where i am spending unnecessarily. I pull that excel into my own accounting software for recording purpose.

Credit Card is a great tool which has actually helped me to lower my spending and increase savings. Till date (in last 6 years) I have not paid single Paisa towards Credit Card Interest. I pay all my dues in time.

Originally posted by 9StockPortfolio Credit Card is a great tool which has actually helped me to lower my spending and increase savings. Till date (in last 6 years) I have not paid single Paisa towards Credit Card Interest. I pay all my dues in time.

Credit card indeed great if used with care. I always pay on time and never paid any interest since 4 years of usage.

I got a trouble at one time where I've purchased some domain name and hosting space for my friend using my credit card on Godaddy website. Because the domain name should be in my friends name, I've used his godaddy account. To my surprise many websites including godaddy not only save records of all your credit card details but also renew various purchases automatically using that details.

So my friends purchases get renewed month by month automatically using my credit card details and I was not able to delete those details as friend changed password of his account but promised me to pay back all money. whatever, at last I surrendered (actually upgraded to new) my credit card to get rid of it.

So use your CC with care while purchasing online, better use virtual credit card which comes with much flexibility as we can create/delete these cards anytime.

~ Jagbir