Implementing family budget - tips?

jc2406 · August 2013

Hi, does anyone have any tips on implementing a family budget? DH and I created a budget, but we are stuck on how to move forward. Do you use cash only envelopes, etc? What seems to work for you? Thanks!

jlaOK · August 2013

We use cash and envelopes (follow Dave Ramsey's plan). We had a budget for years but didn't start following it, and therefore never met our financial goals, until we started using cash.

A huge part of making it successful is also realizing that we have to tell ourselves no. It sounds silly in nature but when we wanted to eat out or wanted something for ourselves being able to say no was key.

MNgirl326 · August 2013

cash envelopes. It works if you keep it up.

TheBorg7of9 · August 2013

I use a program called You Need a Budget. You can try it free for 30 days, update your account from multiple phone or computer and they have training videos. Loving it so far.

caitie2002 · August 2013

Mint.com It's great because we both have the app on our phones so we can both see where we are for the month.

TheBorg7of9 · August 2013

FYI, I have also tried Mint and I think YNAB is much easier to use. But if you google YNAB vs. Mint, you can see all the differences yourself.

Bella427 · August 2013

We use Mint. I also have been reading the Dave Bach books, the latest being The Automatic Millionaire. He talks a lot about how, if you pay yourself first automatically, i.e. retirement, savings account, college, etc. first and only leave the money it's okay to spend in your checking account, you don't really have to have a budget; you'll just run out money if you're spending too much.

DiveFrog · August 2013

Bella427 said:

We use Mint. I also have been reading the Dave Bach books, the latest being The Automatic Millionaire. He talks a lot about how, if you pay yourself first automatically, i.e. retirement, savings account, college, etc. first and only leave the money it's okay to spend in your checking account, you don't really have to have a budget; you'll just run out money if you're spending too much.

This is how we do it. We sat down and determined our Net Income, Fixed Expenses, Amount we want to save, retirement etc. Our Savings amount, 401K, HSA and most bills get paid automatically, then we have an account for a set amount of money to pay a few bills I can't auto pay, a debit account that a certain amount of money goes into for gas for our vehicles and then the rest goes into a "spending account with debit card".....this is for everything else. When we are out of money we are out. At first it used to get very tight right before the next paycheck came in, and still does after we make adjustments about 2x/year, but after about 2 months we get accustomed to the amount we have to spend and adjust our habits accordingly.

Mustardseed2007 · August 2013

We have a checking account/debit card for the bills and necessities and another checking account/debit card for the discretionary money. We created a basic excel sheet that outlines how much we each bring in, how much we pay out, and what goes to savings, then whatever is left over gets transferred to the discretionary account and that's what we have for the month. It is really helping us keep our random spending in check. Now we can't hide our Starbucks and Target sprees in amidst the bills and not keep track of what we're actually putting out.
We also re-evaluate our spreadsheet quarterly to see if any expenses have changed and make adjustments. It's not a fancy system by any means, but it works for us!

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This is what we do, except that we take out the discretionary money and put that into our separate accounts, and everything left over goes into savings. And we TRY to look at it monthly together. That hasn't happened lately.

We have followed Dave Ramsey too, and the best tip he had was that the one of you that is the biggest nerd needs to keep the spreadsheet, and the other one simply reviews it. However, the other one has to make one change in it, to show they are paying attention. Especially in the beginning this really helped us a LOT, b/c it kept me from going too nuts, and it kept DH from just saying "whatever you say honey" but then doing whatever he wanted.

SaraTF · August 2013

We use the You Need a Budget program. It's similar to the envelope system, but you don't use cash. I prefer to use our credit card for everything and pay it off every month. I update our info regularly, so I know how much money we have left for different things.

christinak22 · August 2013

LibraryChica said:

Random tip: meal planning, only grocery shopping once a week helps us keep our grocery expenditures reasonable. We throw away less food too.

This has REALLY saved us money. And shopping at discount grocery stores like Aldi and Food 4 Less.

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