Please share your budget advice

I need to figure out how to budget asap! Please share what works for you. TIA

Re: Please share your budget advice

I use mint.com to track spending and see where the money is going and then adjust accordingly. I also have a spreadsheet where I keep track of our budget. I added up all the fixed expenses (rent, utilities, car payment, student loan payments, groceries, etc...anything that is a must) and then subtracted that from our monthly income to find out what can be spent on the misc day to day stuff. Its much easier to try and budget once you know where the money is going exactly. This allows me to cut back in some areas to make room for other things.

Re: Please share your budget advice

We have a spreadsheet just like pp. And we don't use our credit cards unless there's an emergency. The hardest thing for me was getting rid of my debit card. I used it waaaay toooo much. Using cash-and watching our monthly allowance/gas money dwindle down is a real wake up call.

Re: Please share your budget advice

Re: Please share your budget advice

for us, most important thing is to have everything together so it's easier to keep track of. (DH is closing his old bank account soon and we'll only use our joint one)

paying off debt as soon as possible while putting something away into savings each month. (hard to do, but also a necessity for us)

limited nights out. (i usually go out maybe once every two months. DH once a month or so.)

getting rid of unnecessary expenses. YOU need to decide what that is, but for me, i don't get my nails done unless there's a special occasion (getting them done for a wedding friday and then for DS birthday in september), hair cuts are also fewer in between (but my hair holds up well so it's ok)

buy only what you NEED not what you WANT. i used to see something i liked and buy it (how i ended up with 60 pairs of shoes) now i have two questions. first I ask, do I NEED IT? (do i really need another bag? no.) if the answer is no, i put it back. if the answer is yes, i ask myself is the price within my budget? (do I need to spend $50 on a pair of pants? can I find something similar cheaper? Wait for a sale? ) This has greatly helped me curb my spending (except for stuff for DS I can't resist that )

buy things that are cheaper but not lesser in quality. I go food shopping. I can get philly cream cheese for $2 or the store brand for $1.50. They taste the same , i go with store brand. It's not a lot but it really adds up. (our grocery bill went from $300 a month to about $170) if the store brand is NOT the same quality, I buy the more expensive brand. this also applies to clothes, make-up, etc, etc.

good luck! hope it helps!

Re: Please share your budget advice

Like PP said, we use a spreadsheet. All bills are put in. I get paid twice a month, he gets paid every two weeks. We figure out when all the bills are due and choose the previous check cycle for me. So if a bill is due on April 12, its paid on my March 30th income. Jim’s bills are included in my calculations and his check overflow is sent to me. He has some stuff he pays out of his own account for ease (automatic withdrawals).

I pay all bills first. Where I can, everyone is paid up by the closest increment. So if its $32, its paid with $50. Mortgage is $1133, we pay $1200. If its $98, its gets paid $125 (Cuz $2, ain’t gonna help). I try to make sure all bills are paid a minimum of $25 over their amount due.

After all bills are paid, remaining money is split up. It is sent over to savings to hold for payments due at the next cycle. So School is $900 a month. One check puts aside $450 the second check pays it off, etc. Then whatever isn’t put aside for bills is put aside for food and gas. What’s left is all we have to spend. If it’s more than $100 (HAHA! I wish) then its put into savings.

By over paying my bills I was able to get rid of them faster plus have a bit of breathing room in a pinch. I also change my tax withholding 6months out of a year to have my taxes go from the highest at 0 to the lowest (allowable by tax worksheet) so no taxes are taken out at all. It gives me an extra $200 a month for crunch times. Like when I had to pay for taxes, ironically enough. 6m in and 6m out breaks me even with Uncle Sam.

Took a consolidation loan through my FCU before I moved to Texas and got a killer rate and put all my high APR on to that loan. Cut up the credit cards and threw them away (after closing the accounts). Payment is something like $300 I pay $500 a month.

We keep three credit cards a piece. All of mine are under $3000 limits and I refuse to allow them to get any higher. It keeps things into perspective. I do charge them and leave them full until I pay them off, but I also never buy anything I couldn’t buy if I had to. I don’t buy furniture or large items. I buy second hand. My cars are both paid off. I have only 1 TV in the house and do my own dishes by hand, laundry only once a week. I shut off all the lights, turn up my AC when not home, closed off a room I don’t use and shut the vent. It’s a lot of little things…..

Re: Please share your budget advice

All this is great! Keep it coming!