Who uses a budget???

ladybugg82

DH and I are really trying to get our expenses in order and work on putting together a budget. Do any of you ladies use a budget, if so would you mind sharing what you do.

AshNicole331

I would love to hear responses on this. DH and I are both horrible at setting a budget. Seriously horrible.

ash.flea

I use mint.com to track all of our spending & our budget.  It is so much easier than doing it by hand.  It's owned by Quicken, but it is free.  I like having everything in one place (checking accounts, savings accounts, investments, retirement accounts, credit cards, loans, etc).

trevess

DH does all of this but it is fairly easy.  We start with our take-home pay...then subtract monthly bills (mortgage, home, auto, etc).  We allot X amount into savings each month, and what is left is what we are allowed to spend.  Basically this come out to about $70 a week for each of us...we put a lot into savings.  (This includes gas, grocheries, EVERYTHING).  We take this out in cash and that is all we spend, period.  Credit cards are for online purchases or special things, and we pay them off each month. 

That's about it!

niuchick21

ash.flea:

I use mint.com to track all of our spending & our budget.  It is so much easier than doing it by hand.  It's owned by Quicken, but it is free.  I like having everything in one place (checking accounts, savings accounts, investments, retirement accounts, credit cards, loans, etc).

Ditto this.  I also have a Mint app on my phone.

Buttercup29

I downloaded a free spreadsheet and input everything in it. We are trying to have monthly meetings and also see if we can live off one paycheck (might be tough) and to bank the other until the baby comes. Here's to crossing fingers that works out. GL!

spiritenergy

We use excel.  I take our take home pay and subtract out fixed expenses like rent, phone, and internet.  For variable expenses like electric, water, and gas I budget the maximum possible amount each month and anything left over goes into savings (so in Spring, Fall, and Summer we save more than Winter.)  I have line items for other items such as farmers market money, grocery money, food buying co op money, medical expenses, car maintinance, and miscellaneous expenses (like clothes.)  The rest goes into savings.  If something is not used up one month, then that money goes into savings as well.  Our food budget is higher in Summer because I buy things at peak season and preserve them for Spring.  For my grocery strategy, see my blog post on saving money on groceries while eating healthy, local, and organic.  I was able to get a case of organic cerial for less than $3 a box today through my food buying co op.  Plus it was tax free.

MrsBlayne

We are just starting out on budgeting, but I basically started out in the areas where we have the most trouble. We take out cash for the monthly grocery budget and we each get a weekly cash allowance. The allowance is for lunches, clothes, entertainment, and incidentals. We are allowed a certain amount per week for eating out together which approximately works out to one casual dining sit down meal and one fast food meal per week. Probably we should really eat out less than that but we are easing into it