Budget

zazu13

I have not balanced my check book in probably 10 years. We use our rewards credit card every month for everything then *usually* pay it off in full. Now that we are living on one income, this isn't such a great system. I want to start doing better with budgeting and getting a handle on our finanaces. What methods do you find that works for you? I am pretty good at spending conservatively, couponing, not impulse buying, etc, but I really have no budget for anything per se and no method for tracking the money that comes in and goes out.

Any suggestions for a method that works well for you? Any iPhone apps? Software? Advice?

smushi

DH bought the Dave Ramsey book.  We're going to start implementing it in January.  He's pretty excited about - it's the first book he's read in 3 years that didn't have anything to do with home improvement.

Rrrrrachel

I've used mint in the past but it doesn't work well if you use a cc and pay it off because it will count that as double spending.

hlm184

First, sit down and go through your accounts and statements and find out how much you spend on everything each month.  Then compare that to your income each month.  It will become clear quickly where you can or need to trim down.

penguinjenny

I have no idea what we did but we use Mint, pay off our Credit cards each month and it doesn't show twice.

Sometimes mint doesn't add in everything so you need to pay attention to it - we've never been able to get our rental income to show up even though it's deposited directly into our checking account but direct deposit from work shows up *shrug*

If you're looking for a pretty accurate, not accountant/IRS accurate, mint is free and it gets the job done.

nicole mackenzie

I use an excel spread sheet and keep track of everything. I set goals based on previous spending and how much money I really have.

Edit: I update it at least monthly and as often as weekly.

Which reminds me I need to do it!

allyandmike24

We use the Dave Ramsey zero-based budget system and cash envelopes. Seriously, it's changed the way we handle our finances. Having a finite amount of money each month makes me a much more thoughtful shopper. We do use a airline mile credit card for gas, groceries and online purchases, but we pay it off each month in full. 

Talltrees82

nicole mackenzie said:

I use an excel spread sheet and keep track of everything. I set goals based on previous spending and how much money I really have.

I do this too! I'm paid once monthly which sucks, but all my bills are set up to be paid the week after I get my paycheque. I have a spreadsheet with columns for each expense and when I spend, I type in how much I spent and it automatically calculates what I have left for that category. I like how I can look ahead to the next month and adjust my budget where needed. I just need to get better at updating my expenditures regularly!

zoopsiedaisy

dani+california said:

Excel spreadsheet. Nothing makes you more accountable than seeing every. single. expense. down in writing.

Establish a REASONABLE savings/debt repayment plan. Don't go making grand claims that you're going to slap a thousand a month on whatever debt you have, because the second you fall short, you'll feel like whatever you're doing isn't working and you won't continue.

Find other ways to make purchases. Used clothing. Used baby items. Rent a movie vs. going out to see one. (General example as I doubt many of us are getting out much these days.) Sell things you don't use. Ask friends to borrow things you only need once or twice. It all adds up!

H and I have been living debt-free since we started living together. He's a cheap-ass to start so that helps, haha. I love finding deals on things, and we put away a lot of money into our savings so it's really rewarding watching it grow! I don't use credit cards for purchases (I have one for emergencies) so I find that's the easiest way to save-you see in real time what you're spending when it's with debit or cash.

Stick with whatever plan you have-identify your weakest moments/spending habits and find a way to cut that spending or stop it altogether.

Lastly, I find a lot of people with debt and spending problems are living beyond their means. You should only be spending up to 30% of your income on housing, for example. For many, it's way more. Sometimes it's easier to save and repay debt with one less car or a smaller house-don't know what your situation is but just throwing it out there! (Like if you were in $100,000 debt that would be a consideration, not like 10Gs or something, KWIM?)

Good luck!

Dani...have you ever considered blogging? I would totally read it! From decorating to managing money to being a wife and mom. Donut!!

Edit....I'm leaving donut but it should be "do it!" My phone autocorrects that to donut.

lcr23

Mint is a really good place to start to at least see where you are spending your money then start budgeting based on that. We've used a cash envelope system similar to the Dave Ramsey method and it's quite the adjustment. I just started his baby steps plan for financials and have made major changes in our finances. Now if I can only get DH to stop going to Taco Bell

spano41

I Love mint. We can track all of our different credit cards, multiple checking accounts, investment accounts, loans all in one place. Never had trouble with things not showing up or counting twice. You do have to sometimes adjust the categories though. For example, we have a bowling alley called "the garage" which mint will categorize as auto. It does remember things though so if you go in and change it you won't have to do it again. I like that you can track spending over time, see net income, and set up goals too which can help you save.

zazu13

Keep the suggestions coming!  I did use mint for a while, but then I got annoyed because I had to update my passwords (I have several accounts) and eventually all my info was out of date. I've also read Dave Ramsey. My dad paid DH and I $50 each to read it when we were younger. Hehe. He's great with money and didn't want us to make big mistakes. Luckily we are not in too much debt except mortgage and vehicles, but I do love his snowball method for getting out of debt. We'd actually like to build a forever home so that is why I am motivated to figure out our finances.

 Does anyone have an awesome spreadsheet they would share? (I can use Excel, but If yours has awesome formulas and such, maybe that would help me.) I know it shouldn't be so hard, but just the thought of balancing my accounts makes me want to throw my hands in the air and go to kohls.com and buy something.

snowbound

We track all of our spending on a whiteboard. Real fancy. We tried to do the excel spreadsheet but we rarely log on the computer so it was lacking. We are forced to see the white board everyday and we have to walk past it when we get home, making it easy to update. That's for all of our fluctuating bills like baby stuff, grocery, and gas.

We set up an additional account without a debit card/checks for bills that don't fluctuate in amount (car payment, rent, savings etc). We deposit X amount to cover those bills and then use auto pay. So it's like we never see that money.

We have been in the red each month according to our white board but we only use 50% of our income (the rest is divvied up into various savings accounts). So... We aren't really in the red because we can adjust bills, savings, and accounts where and when we need to.

eta: We don't use CCs either. We each have one but it is only used for emergencies.

speechie517

@zazu13 I use this one: Budget template

@zoopsiedaisy. I was thinking that Dani would be an awesome blogger too. Dani...DO IT!

kmos816

We also use a spreadsheet. I used to use the credit card approach before DH and i combined finances; which I liked- but I also used a spreadsheet to track where the money was going and set a limit on how much to spend each month.

Depending on where you bank they might already have some software set up on the website to help you budget.

If you are looking for a spreadsheet template i know Google docs has some; I'd share ours but I honestly don't know how DH set up the formulas and it's probably more complex than it needs to be (he's an accountant).

If you are trying to build up savings I highly recommend setting up a portion of your Dhs paycheck to go automatically into a savings account that is not easily accessible; out of sight out of mind. We tried to save where we do our banking but that didn't work so now we use an Internet bank. I actually forget how much we have in there sometimes! Start small and gradully increase the amount you are saving- that way you won't notice it.

Good luck! I know it can be stressful- I hate talking about our budget with DH!

eireyes

We use Mint (I do, I'm working on getting DH to get on board) and we also have a separate account like @snowbound for our mortgage and savings. X amount of dollars go into that account automatically per paycheck to cover the mortgage/savings, and it auto-pays, so we never really see that money. We also use that account to hold our renter's deposit for our rental property. We don't look at it, so we aren't tempted to spend it.

boxerbabylove

I use mint for my finances. my husband has his own system. We never combined out finances when we got married and I have to say its made for a bit of a strange financial relationship but it works for us. It worked really well before the baby but I think we're going to make the transition to a joint checking account soon so that paying bills is a bit easier.

I manage all the money for the household. I tally the bills and tell my husband how much he needs to give me each month for his half. I then use that to pay off our utilities and such. we pay our credit cards independently and have our own saving accounts.

I know a bulk of the day to day care of the baby items such as clothing, toys, and all the breastfeeding supplies comes out of my savings, and since I take the baby to most her doctors appointments I pay the medical bills and copays too. to offset that the medical insurance costs come out of his paycheck and he pays for home repair stuff such as a new ladder or fertilizer.

I know people give me strange looks when I tell them how we handle our finances but its worked out pretty well for us so far...I know that it may not be the best way to go if both people aren't bringing in equal pay that will cover their half of the expenses.

Mustardseed2007

Before we bought our house and had DS we went through Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University. I budgeted relentlessly and tracked every penny and paid off 90K in debt - mostly student loans, but also a car loan, and a little credit card debt. Then we saved for a 30% down payment on a house. Some where half way through having DS and also through some major raises we have stopped budgeting so relentlessly but in January we're going to get back to it - at the same time we set up DD's 529.

hordol

@Mustardseed2007‌ that's awesome! If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take to get that 90K paid off?

zazu13

@playingonadream‌ my parents have had separate checking accounts their whole marriage. Both work full time and each pays for a portion of the household. It works for them. They have been happily married nearly 40 years.

Mustardseed2007

1.5 years-basically we lived on my DH's income and put mine on the debt!

cnbean

I also vote for Dave Ramsey. We went through his program not quite 2 years ago and we are on track to pay off all debt (except our house) in the next 7 months or so. It would have been sooner if we hadn't had another baby... Neither of us had ever done a budget before and his budgets are easy to put together and follow. 

ksulli

I know people say no credit cards if you're trying to be careful, but with the amount I'm at target, the 5% for using the red card adds up. You just have to stick to the list, because well, it's target. And then you must pay it off every month.

Dixon813

ksulli said:

I know people say no credit cards if you're trying to be careful, but with the amount I'm at target, the 5% for using the red card adds up. You just have to stick to the list, because well, it's target. And then you must pay it off every month.

Target has a debit red card that also saves you 5% and is just like using your regular debit/bank card!

ksulli

^^^well there you go! I'm sticking with the card because DH & I are good about the list & paying it off, but that's brilliant that they offer it.

LolaX2

DH takes care of most of our finances as I am terrible at it haha! We use a credit card that does the 2-5% cash back incentive for all grocery/household/gas expenses and pay it off each month. We normally do don't purchase anything that we don't have the cash for. 

We do have a mortgage that should be paid off in about 12 years if not sooner and 2 car payments, one has 2 years left and the other has 3 years but we have super low interest rates on both. Normally we have no other dept but our furnace just completely died and had to be replaced (we live in NY so we need it). We were not planning to replace that for at least another year or 2 so that took a hit on us a bit, but we were able to get it financed with no interest for 18 months so we should have that paid off by then and it will not "cost" us any extra in interest. 

zazu13

speechie517 said:

@zazu13 I use this one: Budget template

@zoopsiedaisy. I was thinking that Dani would be an awesome blogger too. Dani...DO IT!

Thanks I downloaded the template and put in amounts. Yikes. I spent $1000 last month on grocery (which does include diapers and formula for twins). Do you use a separate spreadsheet to track individual purchases? This is where it overwhelms me. I suggested the envelope cash method to DH and he basically said no. Looks like I'm on my own for getting our finances in order.

I do love the Target red card. Probably too much, though! I have it tied to my checking account, but I hate the delay it takes to actually get out of my account.

I opened up Mint and it had been two years since I logged in. Oops. The good news is that Mint thinks I owe on student loans, but we paid those off!