Question about budgeting

How many of you set budgets and stick to them? The only time we really did any serious budgeting was when we first bought our house, and now that we've been there for almost 4 years now - we don't really budget anything anymore. We both know how much we make, we know our monthly expenses and how much we can spend on bills, etc. and still have money left in the bank.... I hear all this talk from family and friends about how they budget everything, and I guess I just feel a little irresponsible that we don't have an actual budget anymore. Just wondering if I was the only one. I'm always afraid that I should be doing something more with our finances, even though we are doing fine the way it is now... I don't know, does anyone else feel this way?

Re: Question about budgeting

Dh and I must budget just because we are in the process of trying to buy a house. So when there is a purpose I think budgeting is a must! I try to stick to it as much as I can but we always end up drifting away from it. I'm better at handeling money than DH. He is a BIG spender.

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we're on a strick budget - we've only lived together 4 months tough so it may change ... but we know how much each is allowed to take out safely each week and I know all our bills by heart and such. And I grocery shop very carefullly.

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I guess we are okay then. Craig and I have been living together for the past 6 years now, so we're pretty set in our spending ways for the most part. Every once in a while we'll splurge on something (just last weekend he bought Xbox and two new games) but other than that we are very moderate with our spending. I just get annoyed sometimes bc my sister and even some of my friends all have monthly budgets and they kind of look down their noses at the fact that we are homeowners and do not have one. Well, we've been okay so far, so "if it ain't broke"... Thanks for the feedback ladies!

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as long as you are happy with your situation - spending & saving wise then it's really none of anyone's business DH & I just started living together and learning to keep house as a couple and this is working for us ... in a year, 5 years, 10 years we may not need to look at a "formal" budget every week.

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9 years married, whats a budget?

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DH set a budget for us and he's very on top of it. I however, never knew what the word meant! I'm having a really hard time!

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we are on a budget...sometimes we stick to it a few times we don't.
If we are under budget one month we usually feel rich and spend all the extra money on frivlous crap.

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we usually stick to a budget when it comes to food shopping and utilities.

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We don't really set budgets, but we do try and cut spending. We are horrible about spending money -- but at least we don't dip into savings...

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Bri and I have. We've been pretty good sticking to it.

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We don't have much of a budget either. We know how much we need to pay the bills and still save some money. So far it's working for us.

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We have a budget, and we stick to it. $ is distributed for bills and wedding, and there is a little leeway for emergencies and things like birthday gifts, graduation gifts, mothers day, etc. We each get a set amoutn each week to be spent- usually on food and a little fun money. So we aren't SUPER strict- that is really hard to stick to for a longer period of time and leads to binging.

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Message edited 1/30/2009 9:37:06 AM.

Re: Question about budgeting

we budget because we feel that a family life is more important. I was so depressed working full time and trying to run our house, that we found my working PT was easier on me and we are making it work. It's also easier because the cost of living is less down here and DH makes just about what he was making in NY, so we're ok. But we don't splurge on extravagent things.....a meal at Applebee's is a night out for us!

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We are better now that we are organizing to get our house, but in the first year it was a constant tug-of-war. The frivilous spending was out of control. Now we just chart & pplan every thing months ahead of time, and save a little each week for "suprise" costs that come up.

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We dont actually have a budget, but we probably should. We just try and limit our spending and save money whenever we can.

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argh. we're still just trying to recover from purchasing the condo and paying for the wedding.

DH doesn't know, but I set up some money to go into savings. The primary purpose was to pay for his surprise party, but if my MIL helps out, I'll have some left over. I think I'll use the "surplus" to redo our bathroom.