It's easiest to have a budget for certain things because otherwise H can go a little crazy with spending. I am not a total stickler though (ie our food budget is $700 and if we go over we eat Ramen and only drink water), so maybe I am of no help.
Post by HoneySpider on Dec 18, 2012 10:41:53 GMT -5
We used to have a super detailed budget when we were paying off cc debt, but now we have a few big overall categories which allows us to still keep spending in check, but give a little more freedom to what we spend on.
The categories are: loans, giving, my fun, H's fun, savings, and living (which is basically everything else)
I also will take some money and earmark it for something specific I know we have coming up (bigger house repair, certain travel, etc)
Post by mrssavy42112 on Dec 18, 2012 10:43:03 GMT -5
Yes, we do have a budget in Excel. If you're doing well, then it may not be a big deal for you. But the idea of "not worry too much about spending unless it starts getting out of control" isn't good. Why not control it BEFORE it gets out of control??
we do now, before baby I didn't track our spending although I did keep the checkbook up to date.
now I enter everything into my budget spreadsheet and if I go over in a category I have to find a way to cover it. Sucks but living on one income I need to be on top of it
We have neither a budget nor real savings goals (beyond maxing out 401(k)s and IRAs, though that is done through automatic withdrawals so I wouldn't really consider them goals), though we do track how much our savings/retirement/investment accounts have on a monthly basis.
I have a budget and keep track of all our spending (a Google spreadsheet and Mint), but it's not strict. In fact, we go over on categories all the time. I just use it to try to be more mindful of our spending. We definitely spend less now than we did pre-budget. Our budget was like the wild west in those days.
Not really, I transfer the amount we agreed to save every month and there are auto transfers for our Roth IRAs. After that we just do whatever.
I can usually shoehorn any unexpected expenses into the picture for the month so we rarely have to pull from savings unless it's a project we've planned on doing so for.
I get paid twice a month, so before my paycheck arrives I look at my bills and decide whether I can kick in extra or if should just pay the minimums. Then I put something in our joint savings account (which we've both had to skip this month due to Christmas expenses ).
Whatever's left is grocery money (which is usually about the same every week unless we host a party), gas money, and spending money.
I need to do a better job because I always find myself running short at the end of the pay cycle. Hence my credit card balance ... while it's not huge, I'd much rather have it at $0.
MH manages his money much more carefully than I do, but to my knowledge he doesn't keep a spreadsheet or anything like that. Sometimes I find a small written list he's made, but it's nothing consistent and we don't do it together unless we have a really big expense coming up that we both need to contribute to.
Or do you just sort of have savings goals and if you are meeting them you just kind of buy whatever?
This is us basically (well me, DH isn't as concerned). But I do like to have a good idea of where our money is going and what our fixed expenses are compared with income. I track it in Mint.
I have a budget in a Google Spreadsheet that I update (from mint.com) with actual spending. It is very precise.
I also track everything on Quickbooks (which is the "final word" and the real data that we give to accountant).
However, all of this is more "after-the-fact" to see where our money goes and to track trends over time. We do not have a "real budget" in the sense that we stop spending when we hit the budgeted amount. We don't. We have enough irregular income and wiggle room that we can usually just spend while still hitting our goals.
I have a budget that I put in Mint, I look at it a few times per week and make sure everything is applied to the correct category. We don't follow it, I just use it as a tool to see where our money is going. It keeps me in check on some things (like a few months ago when I spent over $1000 on food for two people.) I saw the total and was all "holy shit, I should get back to planning some meals..."
We know about how much we spend on various categories, and have a spread sheet to track, but we aren't super strict about tracking to be sure we stick to those amounts.
I didn't, but we've decided we're going to live off the daycare budget starting in 2013 to get used to paying that bill in August and help build up the baby fund a bit more.
Since our savings amounts are direct deposited from our pay, our checking is what we've got.
Post by sometimesrunner on Dec 18, 2012 11:14:19 GMT -5
We don't have a budget set in stone. We charge all our expenses to our CC and we know that we need to spend no more than $X per month. I check our activity a few times per month to see where we're at. All of our retirement and general savings come automatically out of our paychecks, so after I've paid the cc for the month, I know that any extra $$ can be transfered to savings.
I make sure to pay all the bills coming due in every two week pay period on the day we get paid and then make a rough budget with what is left for food, gas and other spending for the two weeks. It's not hard and fast, we usually go over in eating out and under in groceries and gas. I'm not too worried as long as we don't overdraw the account.
Post by whitepicketfence on Dec 18, 2012 11:18:18 GMT -5
Yes. We have a detailed budget set up in Excel. Being that we're a one income family and are prioritizing debt repayment right now, every penny counts.
We have a budget and we track all of our actual expenses in a spreadsheet. Saying that, we spend way more than our budget allows so its kinda pointless.
Post by countthestars on Dec 18, 2012 11:25:45 GMT -5
Nope. We are aware of our spending but don't track it (I have mint.com and can look at any spending, I just don't fit it all neatly into specific goals)
We don't, but I want to set one up for next year. We will be buying a house soon and I'd like to get more organized with finances in general, so a budget will be part of that.
We have a loose budget in Excel and then base our non-essentials spending off of if we achieved saving goals for that month. I'm sure we "waste" money but I'm comfortable with where we're at.
Post by imojoebunny on Dec 18, 2012 11:35:35 GMT -5
We used to, until the last couple of years. Now, we just meet our savings goals, then spend what we want to. There is usually money left over. Sometimes we do big projects with it, sometimes we just save more. We are both pretty frugal in general, so that helps.
We don't have a budget set in stone. We charge all our expenses to our CC and we know that we need to spend no more than $X per month. I check our activity a few times per month to see where we're at. All of our retirement and general savings come automatically out of our paychecks, so after I've paid the cc for the month, I know that any extra $$ can be transfered to savings.
Pretty much the same for us. Everything comes in and out automatically and I just monitor it. I know our basic "out of pocket" expenses each month for groceries, eating out, etc. so I have a generally idea of what is being spent each week.