Quick Budget Question/Poll

[travelbug]

Do you create a new budget every month with that specific months expenses? or Do you use the same budget each month and tweak it for various expenses? What works for you?  

[estrellita]

I said other only because we don't really make an official budget. I am always aware of how much is in our accounts and what bills we have coming up. Our bills are pretty much the same every month, give or take a few dollars on the electric. We should probably have a more concrete budget for groceries and things like that, but I think planning our meals in advance will really help. This week we actually made a plan! Not what we will have each day exactly, but we have ingredients for meals for the week so there's no excuse really to pick up something for dinner or things like that But anyways, we usually don't have any "surprise" bills or once a year/every few months/etc kind of bills (and the ones we have aren't really that much, so we always have plenty to cover), so if we can just keep our spending on everything else down, we are fine for the month.

PS - why did PB just randomly log me out for no reason as I was typing this? That's annoying!

[katespade]

We use the same basic budget every month, and only make adjustments on months when we know we will have additional expenses.

[MrsMB]

I have a basic template I use. When debts were paid off/payments completed, I would re-allocate that money to another section and adjust the budget going forward for the next month. It doesn't change all that much between months for me....maybe 3 times a year. I've always just used an Excel spreadsheet, so any changes were easy to make. I'm doing a debt snowball plan to pay off debt hence my occasional changes.

[HoneySpider]

I use the same set of categories every month, they are pretty broad so it usually accounts for any smaller changes. If there is a big expense, I will usually add it in as another line item on that particular month.

[travelbug]

I have never had a formal budget, but as one of my goals for 2015 was to have and stick to it. I will play with it for a few months to see how I officially plan use it. As of right now I think I will re-do the budget each month but not 100%. Just tweak it here and there until we get into a good routine. I finished our budget this evening and will start it, in February. I am so excited. I think we will save a lot more money this way knowing exactly where each dollar is going! Pumped!

[bk1]

Jan 18, 2015 21:09:34 GMT -5 travelbug said:

I have never had a formal budget, but as one of my goals for 2015 was to have and stick to it. I will play with it for a few months to see how I officially plan use it. As of right now I think I will re-do the budget each month but not 100%. Just tweak it here and there until we get into a good routine. I finished our budget this evening and will start it, in February. I am so excited. I think we will save a lot more money this way knowing exactly where each dollar is going! Pumped!

This is where I am. With two houses I never tried to keep a true budget. Now I am just tracking everything in one place and hoping to form a realistic budget to curve our spending.

[Deleted]

I just try and use the same thing every month. DH is more of the budgeter.