Help with creating a budget

[Velar Fricative]

What I did was create a google spreadsheet (so I could give DH easy access) and jotted down all our expenses. I wasn't interested initially on what we *should* be spending, just wanted to get the reality on the spreadsheet and then make realistic changes after. Once I added every expense and made estimates on unfixed expenses like groceries, gas, etc., I made a mint.com account to track my spending since it shows all account balances in one area plus shows you when you're getting too close or going over to your allocated budget for certain categories. It took a few months to see how we were actually doing but then we were able to make some changes to spending categories that we could make changes to.

But here is a general list:

Housing (mortgage/rent, insurance, taxes)
Car payments
Student loan payments
Childcare
Utilities
Cable/internet
Cell phones
Gas
Groceries
Medical expenses
Clothing
Gifts
Dining out
Hair/grooming
Home improvement/decor

[pamela]

Attachment Deleted

See if that uploaded right. If not, email me at pamela.nest at gmail

[PinkSquirrel]

You can use mint.com to load everything into and tag purchases. It will give you a full picture of what is currently going on with spending.

[secretlyevil]

When we first purchased Quicken, we entered everything in for one month creating our categories. After a month, we were able to see where our money was going and develop a budget in Quicken from that.

[pescalita]

I use mint and my own google doc, but for guidelines I track against two scenarios:

1) money.msn.com/how-to-budget/a-simpler-way-to-save-the-60-percent-solution-jenkins.aspx?page=2

The second is the following, but I have no memory of where it came from. I'm sure something linked on MM circa 2007:
Housing & Debt - 30%
Insurance - 4%
Gas - 2%
Taxes - 25%
Household Expenses - 24%
Savings - 15%

[pamela]

Jun 12, 2014 12:36:42 GMT -5 pescalita said:

I use mint and my own google doc, but for guidelines I track against two scenarios:

1) money.msn.com/how-to-budget/a-simpler-way-to-save-the-60-percent-solution-jenkins.aspx?page=2

The second is the following, but I have no memory of where it came from. I'm sure something linked on MM circa 2007:
Housing & Debt - 30%
Insurance - 4%
Gas - 2%
Taxes - 25%
Household Expenses - 24%
Savings - 15%

Since I see taxes in there, I'm guessing that is a breakdown of gross income?

[illgetthere]

Ours is below. The household spend line is a sum formula of the expenses between the lines. The save category at the bottom is the difference of the Total and our income. All lines below the household spend categories are savings. I track actual spend online with the bank. They have our accounts kind of like mint and I can categorize everything.

mortgage
utilities
car ins
life ins
health ins&expenses
My vehicle
H vehicle
student loan
dad
S2 daycare
S1 care
phone
internet & netflix
household spend
individual
haircuts
clothes
gas
household (food/restaurants/misc)
kids programs
pest
lawn
House cleaning
necessary car spend
save to spend (large HH items/travel)
home maint
gifts
retirement
TOTAL
save

[Melissa W.]

Jun 12, 2014 12:24:53 GMT -5 secretlyevil said:

When we first purchased Quicken, we entered everything in for one month creating our categories. After a month, we were able to see where our money was going and develop a budget in Quicken from that.

I use this too and and it has a mobile app we can both access (using the same login) I like it better than mint.i like seeing the calendar of the month and the yearly budget. You can adjust for for the occasional things like bonuses, car taxes or registration fees etc.

[pescalita]

Jun 12, 2014 13:01:04 GMT -5 pamela said:

Jun 12, 2014 12:36:42 GMT -5 pescalita said:

I use mint and my own google doc, but for guidelines I track against two scenarios:

1) money.msn.com/how-to-budget/a-simpler-way-to-save-the-60-percent-solution-jenkins.aspx?page=2

The second is the following, but I have no memory of where it came from. I'm sure something linked on MM circa 2007:
Housing & Debt - 30%
Insurance - 4%
Gas - 2%
Taxes - 25%
Household Expenses - 24%
Savings - 15%

Since I see taxes in there, I'm guessing that is a breakdown of gross income?

Yup, both are.