四口之家的預算建議: 理財方式發生了鉅變大綱

Victoria Sully, 33, is a full-time blogger who writes about money and lifestyle at . She lives in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, with her husband Ben, an IT service manager, and their two children, six-year-old Bella and three-year-old Reuben.

現年33歲的維多利亞·薩利（Victoria Sully）是網站的一名全職博主，寫一些有關金錢和生活方式的帖子。她和丈夫本（一名信息技術服務經理）住在格洛斯特郡的布羅克沃思，他們有兩個孩子--6歲的貝拉和3歲的魯本。

My approach to money has drastically changed over the past few years. I used to be a spender, but having children has made me more responsible and I'm becoming a saver. Being in my 30s has also been a wake-up call, as I realise I need to save for retirement. My New Year's resolution this year is to save for an emergency fund, and I've also recently started putting money away towards a pension. I'm starting to think about the future by budgeting and putting money aside.

過去幾年，我對金錢的態度發生了翻天覆地的變化。以前，我都是大手大腳的花錢，但生了孩子後，我變得更有責任感，開始節省開支。30多歲也是一個警鐘，因爲我意識到，我得爲退休存錢了。我在新年下定決心：存一筆應急基金，最近，我開始存養老金了。我開始考慮未來、做預算、存錢。

One way we've simplified taking care of our finances is by having a joint "master" bank account, where all our income goes into and all our bills are debited from. Previously, all the bills came out of Ben's account, and at the time I worked less or was on maternity leave, so we relied solely on Ben's income.

我們通過開辦一個聯合master賬戶簡化了財務，我們的收入都在這張卡里，賬單也從這張卡里支出。之前，所有的賬單都從本的賬戶中支出。有段時間我沒怎麼工作，且休產假那段時間，一家人都指着本的收入生活。

I had no access to his account and had to constantly ask Ben to tell me what had gone out, how much money we had left and get him to transfer me money whenever I needed it. Our finances were all over the place and Ben wasn't the best at keeping track of it all. When we got a joint account, I took over the finances by tracking our income, bill payments and budgeting for our spending.

我沒有他的賬戶密碼，不得不經常讓本告訴我支出了多少、剩餘多少，需要錢的時候，還得讓他給我轉賬。我們各處都有開支，而本卻不擅長管理賬單。當我們開辦了聯合賬戶時，我通過查看收入、賬單支出及預算管理我們的財務。

Budgeting also ensures we stick to our monthly income and save money, too. I use a spreadsheet to list our income and monthly outgoings so we can see what's left once all our direct debits have gone out. Our outgoings list will also include a payment to our savings account to ensure we save some money each month.

預算也是確保我們不做月光族並有所積蓄的一個方式。我用電子錶列出我們的收入及每月支出，以方便查看剩餘金額以及扣款情況。我們的支出清單也包括儲蓄支出，以保證每月都有存款。