S/O Budgets...

spainy17 · July 2014

For those of you that do the two week zero budget thing like Dave Ramsey, can you walk me through how you do it? How do you know how much to keep in checking? What about bills that come out automatically that vary, like elecricity/water, etc.? I am afraid to budget checking low because I am afraid something would come on out automatically and I would not have enough in there!

I kind of want to try the budget to zero thing where I put whatever I have left every two weeks in savings since I have the steady paychecks. It would force me to be stingy with our resources and bump up our savings which is good since I want to plan ahead for the future more.

I looked at the Dave Ramsey site but his is complicated. We already have about 100,000 in retirement and a 4 month emergency fund in regular savings but I would like to get more into savings so that I can move towards adding more to DD's college fund, more into retirement, etc.

I do okay with budgeting but I am not very strict about food budgets and I swear I spend 100$ every time I even enter Target so there is definitely room for imrpovement.

spainy17 · July 2014

Yeah my husband would never be able to do this since he works for himself and a lot of what he does is with cash and he is just more of a spender. I bet if I streamlined I could try it but I don't really know how it all works.

chrissynena · July 2014

We do Dave Ramsey, but we are no means an expert at it. We budget all of our money to go towards bills and spending (i.e. food, gas, lunch money) but I never feel comfortable leaving zero money in the account (in case of a mess up) so we leave about $50.

Before we found out we were having 2 babies all of our extra money went towards debt, but know it goes into a separate savings account for when I do not return to work after delivery.

I have a desk calendar that I write every bill on when it is due, and anything we have to use our debit card for (doctor usually). We only have 2 bills that come out automatically so that part is pretty easy. We go to the bank every Saturday and get out our cash for that week ($200). With that cash we get food and household stuff, lunch money for both of us for the week, and our "fun money" (which now means eating out since I don't want to cook sometimes being pregnant). We meal plan every week (well it's a bit different now because again I'm pregnant and hate cooking).

I hate it at first because I work hard for money and wanted to spend it freely, but then started freaking out with our $35k in infertility debt. My husband really had to talk me into the budget and yes ever once in a while we splurge so I don't go insane, but I can not believe how much money we saved once we got into it. I really hope to pass that on to our kids while growing up.

Edit to say I don't know if that really answers your questions or helps at all lol.

jobiann · July 2014

We only can do it because we seriously write everything down on budget. Our checking usually has a balance of about $50 or so in it at least. When it exceeds $100 I usually take the extra and deposit it. I don't recommend this method if you do not have the discipline to watch your spending on a daily basis. I honestly balance at noon every day so that way if something unexpected occurs, I can switch money over from savings to checking. Your base amount can be anything, it can be $20 or it can be $100. As long as you treat that base figure as simply a base and not spending money. It's there if you accidentally need it, but it should not be counted on.

Does that make any sense?

Automatic bills are figured in our expenses....our budget sheet looks like this:

DH's income for the 2 week period

PLUS My income for the 2 week period

MINUS all our automatic bills, bills paid online, bills hand written like daycare (if it is a varying amount like our electric bill we use last year's figures and round high, so if the month of July's bill last year was $132, we might round up to $140 or $150 to be "safe".

MINUS DH, my and J's "allowances". I say allowances, but honestly J gets what he needs, he is a baby after all. DH and I try our hardest to stick to our allowance and not go back for more money.

MINUS grocery allowance

at that point we see if there is anything expected that doesn't happen very often, like car repairs, a large donation, etc. and MINUS that.

Then what's left we decide how much to leave in the account and how much to take out and put into savings.

It's very hands on and you and your spouse need to be in daily communication of money.

It may not be the best way, but it works for us and by doing this we see our savings grow faster then any other method we have tried.

A way to simplify this method is to simply designate $100 or $200 be taken out of your income automatically every paycheck on top of all your bills/expenses. For the first few years we had so many bills there were honestly some months we couldn't do that, so we have just stuck to the same method.

The cash allowance system is also very good, then you know you exactly have $200 cash to utilize and that is all, once it's gone you are done. My H really needs this visual, he has a difficult time with debit cards and just using them. So we love the cash allowance option!

spainy17 · July 2014

I think I am going to try this. My husband and I don't share accounts so he doesn't have to be on board but I think it will use the money he gives me monthly toward our budget more efficiently. Although I am MIND BLOWN that @chrissynena can get all of her food, play money, etc with just 200 per week! I am excited to try, I want to see how much I can put away monthly almost like a challenge to myself.

chrissynena · July 2014

I forgot to add that that $200 does not include gas. We started out by taking $60 (30 each) out for gas every week, but it was a pain to go inside every time lol. So now we just know that every week we have $30 for gas, sometimes we need more if we have driven a lot but not usually.

Another thing that helps is that we are on the budget plan for our heat and electric. So we know every month it will be the same (that will especially help when it is -100 this winter).

As for baby stuff even A's diapers are included in that $200. We wait until usually the last minute to get them and luckily we can always find a good coupon. I must add that $200 a week SUCKS lol. It really took a lot for me to get used to it. We have been off our budget this month (due to vacation,which we did budget for, but my niece and nephew stayed with us for 2 weeks and they blew our food bill out of the water (they are 14 ) and it is driving me crazy. I actually just sat down with the August budget so we could back on track.

Good luck!!

ambmama · July 2014

Gah, this all hits so close to home. I just finally convinced h to get joint checking, thank God. We probably were putting out almost $500 a month in fees because we had like 9 accounts! Now everything will all come out of one.

I'm so jealous of you ladies, we have no savings. Yes - none. We do have retirement accounts but I don't really think of them as savings. I actually just did a budget today and we 'should' be able to start saving around $1000 a month if we can keep to our budget. It's my first time allocating and categorizing so I'll need to monitor for a few months to see where I'm over or under. I just got a nice raise with my new job so I don't see how we can't save - but so far we've still been behind! Ugh. I'm very close to considering going to an accountant but I really don't want to have to add that expense as well.

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