We need a budget

little_mrs

How do you budget?  How often do you review the budget?

We both have problems with this.  DH has never had a written budget.  He can't seem to get past the idea that a budget is not some sort of prison sentence.  I've tried setting a budget in the past but haven't really been able to follow through with it for very long.

How do we get on the same page & get started.  TIA

 

ladyalmalthea

Right now I'm working on it. I have us signed on a Mint.com and I'm tracking whre our money goes. That would definitely be a good place to start, that way you already know how much you spend currently on bills,eating out, etc.

HarrietNJMommy

We don't have a set budget. We know our bills, and we save, and we don't go crazy spending.........it works for us.......

MamatoJackson

I use an Excel spreadsheet that I have formulated to auto-calculate everything for me.  I've used it for over a year now and would be lost without it.

I update it once per day, generally. 

MrsRebecca

I love budgeting.

We started by tracking every single penny we spent for 3 or 4 months.  It really helps to see where your money is going before trying to set limits. For example, if we hadn't tracked out spending we would have way under budgeted for groceries because I don't think we would have ever thought we were really spending that much!

Then, we wrote down all the categories we needed (you can be as specific as you like. I'm pretty specific) and determined our fixed bills first. Then we took the left-over amount and found a percentage we were comfortable with putting into savings, and divided the rest. I budget to $0 each month so every single dime is accounted for.

I have an excel sheet that I use (sometimes) but I really prefer using paper, LOL. Once a month DH and I sit down and discuss how last month went an any new/unexpected expenses we might need to consider for the next month.

sugarplumwife

I simply use an excel spreadsheet.  DH and I make the same amount of money every 2 weeks and for the rest of the year I have planned out what we pay out of each check then we know what we have left over.  I also use the same spreadsheet to do our checkbook.   Every payday is listed as well as what gets paid, groceries, savings and spending allowances then we know what we have left over every two weeks for extras.  It works for us because it is simple. 

I have a small basket next to the computer where the spreadsheet is kept and DH and I put every receipt in the basket.  Each and every single day I log the receipts onto the spreadsheet and "balance".

It is something DH and I both can look at to see where we are at financially until the next pay.

Fringle

Try the money matters board over on thenest.com  Those ladies are really good at budgeting and have lots of helpful advice.

EnglishMajor03

MamatoJackson:

I use an Excel spreadsheet that I have formulated to auto-calculate everything for me.  I've used it for over a year now and would be lost without it.

I update it once per day, generally. 

We do the same thing.  it's great.  I don't update once a day because we really don't spend every day, but every couple days we update it.

When we first started budgeting we put a paper on the fridge with a starting dollar amount.  Every time we spent money we wrote it on that paper.  We felt really exposed and helped us reign in some misc spending that felt more hidden just writing it in the checkbook.  That may be of benefit to you too. 

Dochas

I also use an excel spreadsheet.  We don't do well with an "allowance" system.  So I find that just putting money aside for all bills in advance and having a set amount of savings forces us into the same thing.  We get to spend what's left.  The best thing I do as far as a budget is to set aside money for irregular expenses monthly.  I opened a separate, online checking account.  For example, our RE taxes are due qtly so I divide by 3 and transfer that amount monthly.  We never get surprises that way.