[andi*pandi]

Railheads recent post in the gas thread made me wonder how everyone does their budgets. We don't really. We pay big bills monthly, try to discuss major purchases beforehand, shop for cheap prices, use coupons, but in the end, we buy what we want. Usually on credit (so we don't have to worry about bouncing checks, plus we can accrue points/payback) and then pay the credit each month, usually in full.

In past, I've taken the monthly takehome, subtracted recurring bills that have a set cost (mortgage, car payment, car insurance, etc), subtracted estimates of bills that have some wavering (phone bill, electric, gas for car) and whatever's left is savings, paying of credit, or fun money.

Any other magic tips?

[turtle777]

As long as your money is enouhg to pay all bills at current spendings level, and you save as much as you want, I guess you have no problems. Budgets make sense if you want to change spending behaviors and monitor and controll it.

-t

[xi_hyperon]

I've learned that without a budget for planning and tracking purposes, a lot of money "disappears".

I keep track of everything I spend money on; both fixed and variable costs, and factor in for unplanned expenses, such as car/house repairs, medical costs, etc. Doing this not only helps us know where our money is going, but helps us to think twice about whether we really need to buy something or not, when the opportunity presents itself (in other words, it keeps my tendency towards impulse buying in check ).

If I hadn't budgeted like this, I would probably never have saved enough money to buy the house that we now live in!

[von Wrangell]

I've been wondering about the same. I've tried making a budget but never really got going.

Any tips you guys could offer?

[Randman]

It drives the missus (who's in the financial world) daft but I've been a firm believer in the zero sum rule. Spend everything you have as quickly as possible.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Randman

I've been a firm believer in the zero sum rule. Spend everything you have as quickly as possible.

You mean the zero sum in pocket, high balance on credit card rule ?

-t

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

Railheads recent post in the gas thread made me wonder how everyone does their budgets. We don't really. We pay big bills monthly, try to discuss major purchases beforehand, shop for cheap prices, use coupons, but in the end, we buy what we want. Usually on credit (so we don't have to worry about bouncing checks, plus we can accrue points/payback) and then pay the credit each month, usually in full.

In past, I've taken the monthly takehome, subtracted recurring bills that have a set cost (mortgage, car payment, car insurance, etc), subtracted estimates of bills that have some wavering (phone bill, electric, gas for car) and whatever's left is savings, paying of credit, or fun money.

Any other magic tips?

That's exactly what I do.

Although one of the items in my "recurring" category is a fixed amount for my graduate school tuition. Basically, I set aside over the course of a semester enough money to pay the next semester's tuition.

Were it not for this set-aside in my "recurring" budget I would have been able to pay off all my debts by now. As it stands now, I'll be debt free by the end of 2006 and through with graduate school by the end of 2007.

If I keep to my monthly plan for setting aside my tuition allotment for one year after I have finished graduate school, I will have enough money saved up to buy a new car outright (Toyota Prius hybrid).

Budgeting, and being debt free, is THE way to go.

edited to add: I am aware of "good" debt like a home mortage or low-interest car loan but I am a firm believer in living a debt-free life.

[dreilly1]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

Railheads recent post in the gas thread made me wonder how everyone does their budgets. We don't really. We pay big bills monthly, try to discuss major purchases beforehand, shop for cheap prices, use coupons, but in the end, we buy what we want. Usually on credit (so we don't have to worry about bouncing checks, plus we can accrue points/payback) and then pay the credit each month, usually in full.

In past, I've taken the monthly takehome, subtracted recurring bills that have a set cost (mortgage, car payment, car insurance, etc), subtracted estimates of bills that have some wavering (phone bill, electric, gas for car) and whatever's left is savings, paying of credit, or fun money.

Any other magic tips?

That's kind of our approach as well. It's been tough lately since after our daughter was born my wife left her software development job to be a stay-at-home mom. It's quite a shift getting used to one income after having two for so long. The bar for "big purchases that require discussion" is much lower for us than it was two years ago.

It also helps that we don't have any major consumer debt, only the house and the car. (The car was bought to get more reliable transportation for my wife and the baby, my 2000 Jetta is paid off and I hope to drive it at least until the other car is paid for, probably longer.) Now we're not really saving much of anything right now outside my 401(k) and the baby's education account, but we're not in deficit-spending mode, either. It helps that when we bought our car and house, we planned as if we were going to run on one income, and didn't buy more than we could afford on one income. The way I figure it, it's always bad to not be saving, but given our current situation over the past year, getting the house ready for the new baby and then getting used to that big change in lifestyle, I'll cut us some slack for a year or two.
We also have a real morgtage for a house we could afford and could live in for 30 years, not an interest-only or variable-rate mortgate for a more expensive house that would have payments balloon in five years...

Even though we don't have a firm budget, I do keep track of all our finances and flag the months where we spend more than we take in. So we kind of do after-the-fact budgeting.

[ShotgunEd]

im terrible at budgeting. I have £12K student debt as well as ~£750 in overdraft. I'm always able to pay credit card bills in full at the end of the month and my rent check isn't really a worry at this point but as for saving, it just doesn't happen. I'm a firm believer in the old 'if i want it, and can afford it right now, then i buy it' school of thinking.

[Warung]

Don't_go_into_debt!

[Unless your life depends on it, you think it's a really good investment or it'll get ya laid ]

[RAILhead]

I'll start off by saying this: if you want live like poor people, do what poor people do. If you want to live like wealthy people, do what the wealthy do. Point? One of the many common denominators linking those with a sustained net worth of 5 million dollars or more is that they live on a budget -- and not because they have to, but because they [i]choose to[/] (and budgeting was one of the methods they used to amass their wealth). Check out the book The Millionaire next Door for more insightful information.

Having said that, a budget is simple and easy way to give all your money a name and tell it where to go -- rather than it telling you. I spend five minutes, tops, at the beginning of each pay period (I gat paid every two weeks) naming all my money.

Here are a couple of screen shots of our budget next month (column 1 is the first check of the month, column 2 is the second):





I know how much all my bills *should* be, so I round up a bit (unless they are, in fact, set amounts) and adjust as needed when the "official" bill arrives. I also know how much I need to set aside for groceries each pay period, lunch, dinner, entertainment, taxes each year, how much we need to set back for 10 months to pay for Christmas gifts, how much to set back for yard work, cat food, etc. So, when we get paid, I "move" all the allocated money to the place it needs to go: to-be-paid bill money goes to my "Bills" account and waits to be used for a bill payment. Money that can sit in savings for several months gets routed to my local bank savings account.

Looking at my screen shots, you can see that I plan to have about $466.46 yanked out of my first check for set bills, and $504.82 the second check that month. I'll also plan on moving $690.50 and $790.50 into savings for taxes, Christmas, etc.

Screen shot 2 shows the budget for what's left over, and as you can see, I'm left with $1992.73 and $2062.01 for groceries, clothing, doctor appointments, lunch, and stuff that has no "set in stone" value. As I spend in one of those categories, I put the amount into the form and I get to see what's left. So, if my wife goes crazy shopping and spends all of her $300 clothing budget the day I get paid, she's up a creek until the next payday. Or, if she wants to spend over $300, we decide where her extra money will come from -- so if she wants to spend $350, we may drop our Dining allotment to $50, and so on.

Only on the rarest occasions do we ever actually spend all of the money, so what's left over goes to savings or to a "sinking fund" for vacation or some other purchase we plan to make. We also use my wife's check for all of our savings into Roth IRAs and other investments, and once we've maxed those, we put the remainder into our general Emergency Fund.

The beauty of a budget is that it gives you control over where your money goes and when it goes there. YOU know when to expect a bill to be due. YOU know what to do NOW to plan for THEN. With a budget, money loses all its "power" over you because YOU become the boss.

As an aside, you'll notice that you DON'T see a line item for a credit card, car note, or any revolving debt. We choose to live debt free and save for all of our major purchases (we're currently saving for a Jaguar for my wife, which we'll buy with cash in 5 years). Point being, ALL of our money is ours and we'll never *have* to pay anyone back anything because there's no one to pay.

Sorry this was so long, but budgeting and personal finance are my favorite topics --right up there with teh women.

Maury

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by ShotgunEd

im terrible at budgeting. I have £12K student debt as well as ~£750 in overdraft. I'm always able to pay credit card bills in full at the end of the month and my rent check isn't really a worry at this point but as for saving, it just doesn't happen. I'm a firm believer in the old 'if i want it, and can afford it right now, then i buy it' school of thinking.

You're your own worst enemy. The first step to solving your problem is to stop borrowing money. Cut up the cards, close the accounts, and live on what you earn or you will end up in a hole that's too deep to dig yourself out of.

From your own post, apparently your "school of thinking" isn't getting you very far ahead -- so I'd try something else! If you want any 1-on-1 help with setting up a budget, PM me and I'll help you out.

Maury

[von Wrangell]

Thanks a lot Railhead. Good tips there.


Now I just have to figure out how much I spend on everything to try to do something similar to you.......

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by von Wrangell

Thanks a lot Railhead. Good tips there.


Now I just have to figure out how much I spend on everything to try to do something similar to you.......

It's horrifically simple to do, vW, and I'd be more than happy to help if you need any assistance.

Maury

[von Wrangell]

Thanks, I'll contact you if I get stuck somewhere along the way.

Thanks again.

[Osirisis]

Personally I use a spreadsheet for my budgeting. Have a page with 4 columns. First being date, second revolving total, cost, description. With the use of this and variables with set values I am able to project out as far as I am willing to manually enter items under the cost column. I then make a simple chart from the data so I can visually see what is going on with my income. The advantage to this setup is you can see at a glance what an unexpected cost or planned expense will do to your long term financial situation at a glance. Of course this isn't the sort of thing for everyone as it requires manual setup beforehand

[d.fine]

I got it all in my head. I know where it has gone to, where it is going, and where it has to go. I run a tight ship, but don't put it on paper. I never spend money I don't have, I never borrow money, period. If I don't have it I don't have it. It pays all the bills and has some leftovers for spoils (like a G5 )

[SVass]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

I'll start off by saying this: if you want live like poor people, do what poor people do. If you want to live like wealthy people, do what the wealthy do. Point? One of the many common denominators linking those with a sustained net worth of 5 million dollars or more is that they live on a budget -- and not because they have to, but because they [i]choose to[/] (and budgeting was one of the methods they used to amass their wealth). Check out the book The Millionaire next Door for more insightful information. Maury

Let me half agree with the above. Wealthy people don't have an annual "earned" income! They have sufficient accounts to live off the interest.

Poor people spend 110% of their money and wealthy people to be spend 90%. To live well in the future, save at least 10% of your income and invest it CONSERVATIVELY in something like an S&P 500 fund in a Roth IRA for twenty five years. A budget can be used keep your spending under 90% of your income. [In some countries and times, conservative investing may mean buying gold and burying it.] After that period, being wealthy will become a choice that can be traded against early retirement and fancy living. sam

[nonhuman]

I don't budget.



But I should.




I'll probably start on that sometime soon.

[dreilly1]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Sorry this was so long, but budgeting and personal finance are my favorite topics --right up there with teh women.

Maury

And this is part of the reason why your method is so successful for you: you enjoyed putting it together, and watching it work. We had a formal budget put together a few years back, but I found that the drudgery of maintaining it, and also of shuffling money between "categories" (just to justify spending my own money when I know I have money available) was more trouble than its worth.

Although I don't have a formal budget set up, I do some "naming" of money as it comes in. I know what all my recurring expenses are, "roughly" what they amount to, and how much money is left over after they are taken care of. I also keep track of our spending in Quicken, and generate a series of reports every month to let me know if I overspent. It's like reactive budgeting. Your method is better, but more boring.

Also, since I get paid every two weeks, I effectively get an "extra" paycheck every six months or so. Usually, we end up saving those extra paychecks, but as I've already said, this year all that money is "named"...

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by SVass

Let me half agree with the above. Wealthy people don't have an annual "earned" income! They have sufficient accounts to live off the interest.

But that has no bearing on whether or not they budget their money, because they do. It doesn't matter if I make $20k a year or $200k if I manage it like crap.

Poor people spend 110% of their money and wealthy people to be spend 90%. To live well in the future, save at least 10% of your income and invest it CONSERVATIVELY in something like an S&P 500 fund in a Roth IRA for twenty five years. A budget can be used keep your spending under 90% of your income. [In some countries and times, conservative investing may mean buying gold and burying it.] After that period, being wealthy will become a choice that can be traded against early retirement and fancy living. sam

Actually, a person should save at least 15% of their pre-tax income for retirement, not 10%. And yes, that 5% makes a huge difference. This 15% would best be invested in stages like so (until you have begun accumulating wealth):

1) First, invest up to the match in your company's 401k. No match? Skip to step 2.
2) Invest fully into a Roth IRA.
3) Go back to your 401k and make up the difference so that you've accounted for at least 15%.

So, let's say 15% of my income is around $15,678. I can invest up to $8000 for my wife and me (combined) each year into a Roth IRA, so that leaves me with $7678 to go into my 401k. I head to my Accounting Department and tell them to adjust my 401k so that I'm putting $7678 into my 401k each year.

This is safe and simple way to do. Of course, if your employer doesn't provide a 401k, start with the Roth and go for an index fund. The key is to keep it simple for the initial few years or so, and once you begin to *accumulate* money, you can become more diverse. It's also important to remember that retirement money will grow for 20, 30, or more years -- so you HAVE to stay with it for the long haul.

Maury

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by dreilly1

And this is part of the reason why your method is so successful for you: you enjoyed putting it together, and watching it work. We had a formal budget put together a few years back, but I found that the drudgery of maintaining it, and also of shuffling money between "categories" (just to justify spending my own money when I know I have money available) was more trouble than its worth.

Although I don't have a formal budget set up, I do some "naming" of money as it comes in. I know what all my recurring expenses are, "roughly" what they amount to, and how much money is left over after they are taken care of. I also keep track of our spending in Quicken, and generate a series of reports every month to let me know if I overspent. It's like reactive budgeting. Your method is better, but more boring.

Also, since I get paid every two weeks, I effectively get an "extra" paycheck every six months or so. Usually, we end up saving those extra paychecks, but as I've already said, this year all that money is "named"...

I understand what you're saying, but you missed something from my original post: I don't spend any more that FIVE MINUTES before each check setting things up. Yes, getting the budget in and of itself established took a few months as we tracked our spending to establish the basic numbers -- but once that was done, there aren't any major changes unless we purposefully modify something. Point being, your budget may not have worked because you may not have had it set up as "perfectly" as it needed to be for you.

I've helped scores of people create custom budgets, and only 5 people have ever quit using one I helped the with.

And yes, I *do* like watching it because now that I'm in full control of my money -- and since I have been for so long -- I can literally visualize where it's taking us: great retirement, great funding for our future children and family, and great things in life now.

But of course, to each his/her own!

Maury

[Spliff]

Hey Maury,

Can you recommend a good book or two on budgeting?

P.S. I hope Uno is doing well.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

I don't budget.

But I should.


I'll probably start on that sometime soon.

It is never too soon to start a budget. I am 34 and wish I had done this while still in my mid-20's. I would be much better off financially than I am now just from the savings I would have been able to accumulate. So, listen to Maury's advice, get out some pen and paper and start writing stuff down. Even if you only do this once, you can keep a mental chart in your head of general percentages (xx percet for fixed costs, xx percent for variable costs, xx percent for unexpected costs, etc.)

One thing that I would add that Maury didn't mention directly is to budget into your fixed costs a certain amount of money every week/month for play. I allocate myself a certain amount of money for throwaway stuff like new CDs/DVDs, happy hour with some friends, eating out for lunch once a week, whatever. I found that "giving" myself some spending money--and being disciplined enough to not spend more than that on frivolities--made me less likely to dip into what I allocate for my fixed and variable costs. I do this on a bi-weekly basis becuase that is how I get paid. Frequently I will have money left over from a previous paycheck's play money. That extra money goes into savings and I then withdraw my regular amount of funds for play during that two week period. So, not only do I get to have guilt-free play money but I get to feel good about making an extra contribution to my savings account--on top of the regular amount I deposit. That way when it comes time for a big splurge item (like a new Mac) I don't feel guilty at all about buying it.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy

It is never too soon to start a budget. I am 34 and wish I had done this while still in my mid-20's. I would be much better off financially than I am now just from the savings I would have been able to accumulate. So, listen to Maury's advice, get out some pen and paper and start writing stuff down. Even if you only do this once, you can keep a mental chart in your head of general percentages (xx percet for fixed costs, xx percent for variable costs, xx percent for unexpected costs, etc.)

I'm 22, so I figure starting to budget now should be a good thing. That and the fact that since I've started working my account balances have consistently gotten smaller...

Anyway, I've decided to make budgeting fun by writing my own software to do it (enjoyable) as opposed to use an Excel spreadsheet or something (boring). We'll see how long this lasts...

[Superchicken]

Ok... now I want a spread sheet app in iWork!

Seriously though... I'm gona actually have to start budgeting soon. My family has a super bad history. My mom's currently dragging dad into debt hardcore, and my sister has over 40 000 dollars of debt after going to law school. Eventually she'll get out of the hole but... I'm going into pastoral stuff I can't afford to have debt. So I'm going to do my best to live a debt free life.

[kikkoman]

I have two checking accounts and one savings account. I have my paycheck direct deposited into my savings account each monthly pay period. One checking is used for fixed monthly expenses like the mortgage, car payment and student loans. The other checking account is for things like groceries, gas and othe non regular expenses. At each pay period I transfer just enough to each checking account to last the whole month, the rest stays in my savings account. If I have some money left in the checking accounts at the end of the month I just transfer less from the savings account next pay period. This really works well for me because I don't keep track of every little thing I buy but I know I there is a limit to how much I spend out of the checking accounts so I'm really conservative about spending that money.

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by Spliff

Hey Maury,

Can you recommend a good book or two on budgeting?

P.S. I hope Uno is doing well.

You will be hard-pressed to find a better, basic, and insanely simple budgeting and finance book that Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover .

Mind you, he's a Christian so some of his non-financial comments reference God -- but it is in no way a "preachy" book or anything of that nature. It only goes so far as he mentions that IF you are a Christian, it's important to tithe and be a good steward -- that's it.

He outlines 7 "Baby Steps" to financial independence, and they truly work:

1) Save $1000 for an Emergency Fund.
2) Pay off all debt except the mortgage.
3) Save 3-6 Months expenses.
4) Invest 15% of income into ROTH IRAs and 401k.
5) Start funding your kids' college fund, and at the same time...
6) Pay off house.
7) Build wealth.

Within each step, he goes into great detail on accomplishing the tasks, and he provides loads of real-world examples, instructions, and a lot of financial worksheets to help plan.

If you read this book and put it into practice, it really can change your life -- as cliché as that phase is. Also, he makes sure to attribute the people behind the principals he talks about when a principal isn't his own.

Thanks for the kind word re: Uno. He's doing great right now, and his pain medicine hasn't made him puke yet.

Maury

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

I'm 22, so I figure starting to budget now should be a good thing. That and the fact that since I've started working my account balances have consistently gotten smaller...

Anyway, I've decided to make budgeting fun by writing my own software to do it (enjoyable) as opposed to use an Excel spreadsheet or something (boring). We'll see how long this lasts...

Maybe this will help light a fire for you:

If you get your finances in order to where you can invest $100, until you're 50, in an investment that returned a mere 9% (the average is between 11% and 12%), you would have roughly made $1,508,303.75 in 28 years. All on your own. Doing nothing but saving. That's it.

Not bad, eh?

When we were in debt, we were sending out roughly $2300 a month in car payments and credit card bills. You can image how much MORE one's money can do for you if it's not being taken-up by debt: that amount is worth about $3,469,098.62 at 9% in 28 years.

Maury

[FulcrumPilot]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Sorry this was so long, but budgeting and personal finance are my favorite topics --right up there with teh women.

Maury

ow much do you spend on women every month?

[RAILhead]

Another important thing to do is create an "emergency fund." A lot of people use their plastic for emergencies and then struggle to pay it off. But if you've saved up money for nothing BUT emergencies -- hoping and praying you won't need it -- if you ever do, it's there.

When we moved and the tax office screwed-up our bill and we suddenly had to pay it all at once or get nailed with major finance chargers, we were able to dip into our emergency fund and pay in full without it having any impact on our normal spending, etc.

So, rather than pay off interest, etc., we simply took a few pay periods to replenish what we had to use.

Maury

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by FulcrumPilot

ow much do you spend on women every month?

That's the $300 clothing budget line item: as long as I keep her happy, she keeps me happy.

Maury

[BRussell]

You're a good man Railhead.

I don't budget, but I decide how much I want to save, and then I have that amount taken out automatically. Retirement is already done automatically, but I have the nice folks at Vanguard take a chunk out of my checking account each month and stick it into a short-term fund.

I guess it's a "starve the beast" theory.

[Scotttheking]

I have no money, thus I don't need a budget

I just found an envelope full of cash, and another full of coins.

I have $325 per month for food, clothes (not that I buy any), entertainment, etc. And my cell phone bill. I have a $785 credit card bill due in about 2 weeks. Yet, it will somehow magically get paid, just like it always does. Rent is $675/month, but that is separate from the $325 (obviously). That'll get paid too.

Edit: Waiting for me in my mailbox when I get home tomorrow (I've been visiting family for the last month) should be a shiny new credit card. 5% cash back on purchases at the supermarket. Seeing how that's where I spend a lot of my money usually, that'll be a nice boost. Better than the current card's points, which don't get too many great things.

[FulcrumPilot]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

That's the $300 clothing budget line item: as long as I keep her happy, she keeps me happy.

Maury

Oh ok. I thought you were talking about many.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Maybe this will help light a fire for you:

If you get your finances in order to where you can invest $100, until you're 50, in an investment that returned a mere 9% (the average is between 11% and 12%), you would have roughly made $1,508,303.75 in 28 years. All on your own. Doing nothing but saving. That's it.

Not bad, eh?

When we were in debt, we were sending out roughly $2300 a month in car payments and credit card bills. You can image how much MORE one's money can do for you if it's not being taken-up by debt: that amount is worth about $3,469,098.62 at 9% in 28 years.

Maury

I'm not so bad off really. I have zero debt, and I already 'budget' to the extent that I don't let myself spend money I don't have. I've also already got money going in my 401k from work as well as a Roth IRA, and a few other investments that will be maturing in the next 5-10 years. So I'm pretty well set for the future.

My problem is the present. I keep very little track of how much money I spend and what I spend it on. Mostly I just check my account balance and when I see it's getting low I cut back a bit. But without any real accounting going on it's hard to get myself to a point where I can always be sure to have some money saved away. I always find myself with a little less than I think I should have, and there are always those unforeseeable expenses that you can't really plan on (like Alamo having a significantly higher under-25 fee than National for car rentals, the bastards).

Mostly I just want to put a little more thought into my finances so that instead of finding out at the end of the month that I've been spending too much and having to cut back I find out that I've spent less than I could have and can afford to save or spend a little more.

[RAILhead]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

I'm not so bad off really. I have zero debt, and I already 'budget' to the extent that I don't let myself spend money I don't have. I've also already got money going in my 401k from work as well as a Roth IRA, and a few other investments that will be maturing in the next 5-10 years. So I'm pretty well set for the future.

My problem is the present. I keep very little track of how much money I spend and what I spend it on. Mostly I just check my account balance and when I see it's getting low I cut back a bit. But without any real accounting going on it's hard to get myself to a point where I can always be sure to have some money saved away. I always find myself with a little less than I think I should have, and there are always those unforeseeable expenses that you can't really plan on (like Alamo having a significantly higher under-25 fee than National for car rentals, the bastards).

Mostly I just want to put a little more thought into my finances so that instead of finding out at the end of the month that I've been spending too much and having to cut back I find out that I've spent less than I could have and can afford to save or spend a little more.

Bingo -- that's the perfect reason.

Maury

[zerostar]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

1) Save $1000 for an Emergency Fund.
2) Pay off all debt except the mortgage.
3) Save 3-6 Months expenses.
4) Invest 15% of income into ROTH IRAs and 401k.
5) Start funding your kids' college fund, and at the same time...
6) Pay off house.
7) Build wealth.

These are all great steps, the key is to start TODAY, if you say ok when I am making XXX I can afford to save $50/week. You know what save $5 a week now and increase that when you can and you will VERY soon see the $1000 fund built up. After that your savings will grow and grow.

The hardest thing is knowing you have an extra $5K or so in an account and you wind up blowing it on a new computer or something you didn't NEED (that is the hardest for me anyway)

Personally, I have just started saving and have a nice 3-month cushion should anything happen, along with my 401k and separate mutual funds things are coming along quite nicely. The only reason I JUST started (a few years ago) was because I would up with over $300K in school bills and family loans that I religiously paid back over those 3 years when I started work. It is very nice to be debt free right now :-)

[Hugi]

Hey, I'm really getting the hang of this budget-thing.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Hugi

Hey, I'm really getting the hang of this budget-thing.

-t

[Superchicken]

Anyone know a good spread sheet program to tide me over till "Numbers" comes out with next year's iWork? I'm gona have to start budgeting 520 bucks a month for rent/utilities soon... wonder how much food is gona cost? haha oh well... I'm looking forward to living on my own... even if I do just scrape by.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Superchicken

Anyone know a good spread sheet program to tide me over till "Numbers" comes out with next year's iWork? I'm gona have to start budgeting 520 bucks a month for rent/utilities soon... wonder how much food is gona cost? haha oh well... I'm looking forward to living on my own... even if I do just scrape by.

[dreilly1]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

I understand what you're saying, but you missed something from my original post: I don't spend any more that FIVE MINUTES before each check setting things up. Yes, getting the budget in and of itself established took a few months as we tracked our spending to establish the basic numbers -- but once that was done, there aren't any major changes unless we purposefully modify something. Point being, your budget may not have worked because you may not have had it set up as "perfectly" as it needed to be for you.

I've helped scores of people create custom budgets, and only 5 people have ever quit using one I helped the with.

And yes, I *do* like watching it because now that I'm in full control of my money -- and since I have been for so long -- I can literally visualize where it's taking us: great retirement, great funding for our future children and family, and great things in life now.

But of course, to each his/her own!

Maury

Fair enough. I've tracked all our expenses religiously for a number of years now, and have loads of historical data to go on, but I find that the actual things that I spend money on are less important than the bottom line at the end of the month. I guess that I do actually budget the big things: the mortgage, property taxes, car payment, insurance payments, utilities, groceries. I just have a larger "catch-all" category than most, I guess.

With reference to Nonhuman's post, I do my big-thing budgeting on pencil and paper. Especially things like property taxes and insurance, which you don't pay every month but need to be there in full when it's due...

[TailsToo]

Quicken has helped me a lot over the years...

[SVass]

When I was young and had just started my first job, I was given a bit of advice. Have six months salary/expenses in cash (now called an emergency fund) and own less property than will fit in your car! You will feel independent and willing to quit; so, you will get promotions. Invest conservatively and don't go into debt. Retire when you have enough to live comfortably. Observe the greedy ones who cheat, lie, and argue trying to catch up. Wealth is a state of mind. sam

[alligator]

I use Quicken, but I can't seem to make it's budget feature work for me. It estimates my expenses, and then something stupid comes up like a wedding gift, a birthday, etc. and it blows my whole budget. I do exactly as the first poster here - and I want to change. If nothing else, it will curb my gadget habit and my wife's rampant spending.

[RAILhead]

Yeah, I never have liked Quicken's budget "feature." I use Excel simply because I can totally tweak it and I have a buttload of formulas I use for all kinds of calculations (retirement, investment, etc).

Some free speadsheet apps (I've never tried any of them):

NeoOffice

ThinkFree Office

[Spliff]

Originally Posted by RAILhead

Yeah, I never have liked Quicken's budget "feature." I use Excel simply because I can totally tweak it and I have a buttload of formulas I use for all kinds of calculations (retirement, investment, etc).

Any chance you could post a link to a template of your budget? I'm hopeless with Excel's formulas.

[Spliff]

Originally Posted by zerostar

The only reason I JUST started (a few years ago) was because I would up with over $300K in school bills and family loans that I religiously paid back over those 3 years when I started work.

You paid off $300K in three years? Holy crap!!!



What kind of drugs were you selling? Or was it a prostitution racket?

[davesimondotcom]

First off, great topic andi. Second, thank you to Maury for all of the info I've been able to gleen from reading the thread.

I desperately need to start budgeting better (I do it, but not well.) I think I get bogged down in minutia - is the gas expense $29.35 or $29.99? LOL

Here are the challenges in budgeting for our "family" (me and my wife

• I've recently become self-employed and do not have steady income. It comes in at uneven intervals (when clients pay) - which is both a challenge and a reason to budget
• My wife has health issues that cause her prescription bills to be $500/month or more. Not a big deal, considering we meet the deductible in February every year! But still, the reimbursment checks from the insurance come irregularly.
• My wife also has two home-based businesses. She sells Body Shop at Home and also sells handmade jewelry. The Body Shop money is in a seperate account. The jewelry is "fun money."

I'm getting my business going well enough now that I'll actually be making more than I was at my last job soon, but I also need to take a large sum out for taxes in April!

Maury - any help you could give would be greatly appreciated. My email is pretty easy to guess (dave at my username.) PMs work too.