Budget

What do you use or how do you keep track of your budget? I've tried everything but I never stick with anything long term. Do you use paper, pen, electronic system?? So many choices!!

We've gotten a pretty nice boost in our income lately and I want to make sure we're not letting our dollars slip by uselessly so I'm determined to budget effectively. Please throw any suggestions my way. Thank you!

Re: Budget

Us poor folks use pen and paper lol. Been working for 30 years. Don’t have much to go around though so it’s not hard to figure out what is needed to pay bills.

Budget

Excel spreadsheet

Re: Budget

Re: Budget

Do you mean just keeping track of bills vs income?

Or more of- we can only spend X this month for entertainment, X for food, X for utilities, etc

Because I don't have the patience or organizational skills for a budget like that.


But we do track our spending the old fashion way- by balancing a check book. (even though we don't really write checks and pay all bills online now my DH writes it all done in an old fashioned check book ledger every time he pays a bill)

Re: Budget

Budget

If you're trying to save more, I recommend you have money automatically moved each month or payday from your regular account to somewhere else. Maybe a mutual fund. This way, you're still living on your previous income and moving the extra money into someplace you don't touch.

Re: Budget

I've been an avid Quicken fan for years and years. Aside from using it to balance my checkbook it's a great tool for seeing where you're spending your money through various graphs and charts. You can also set up budgets and plans for yourself within the program. It's a very comprehensive tool, it's worth the investment IMO especially if you're really looking to track and plan.

We also get paid weekly (which I know is rare) but I find that it makes any kind of budgeting easier. That aside, I like to pay all of the bills and mortgage in the first half of the month to get them out of the way. If there are any debts I want to accelerate and pay off quickly, I determine how much extra I want to put towards that debt for the month, divide it by four and then make a payment every week. It's a lot easier to keep yourself on track when you make a smaller, weekly payment rather than one large lump sum payment at the end of the month. Sometimes if you wait until the end of the month you find that you blew through that money and it's no longer available to accelerate your debt payment.

I also keep one credit card exclusively for recurring bills such as cable, subscriptions, car insurance, streaming apps, etc and one credit card for every day purchases which has the benefit of earning us rewards. The recurring bills card gets paid off at the end of the month and I pay the card with the every day charges on a weekly basis. I feel that paying it weekly prevents overspending because you're consistently "checking in" and paying it back down to zero every week.

Also, anywhere that you can automate your savings is the easiest way to to accumulate money. We have the obvious auto deposits for 401K and HSA but I also have deposits set up for emergency savings, Xmas savings, kids college accts, etc. It's so much easier to save when the money comes out before you even see it or can get your hands on it.

Once you have a financial plan for yourself you'll feel so much more in control and less stressed about money. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Budget

Money comes in and then goes right back out…..

We have no formal budget whatsoever. Retirement, college savings, etc is automatically diverted to the appropriate account. All bills are on autopay, including credit cards.

Re: Budget

We don't have a formal budget but I track most things in an excel spreadsheet. I am an accountant by trade and I find the bigger programs like Quickbooks to be way more than I would ever need for my personal finances. My husband is more anal about tracking all of our investments. He uses something on Yahoo finance that aggregates everything from all of our different accounts.

If you want to start saving I would suggest opening a separate savings account and having a certain amount auto transferred on the same day that you get paid.

Budget

I use excel. Just for bills though so I remember to pay them lol. I don't keep track of every day purchases. We do everything on our debit card (except for very large purchases) so I can always look at the bank account.

Re: Budget

I use the Mint app

Budget

Thanks everyone...all good advice that I will discuss with DH :)

Re: Budget

I need to do something like this, I literally do my budget in my head. $x goes into saving or home reno, $y for bills (planned in my head), Live off $z.

I am sure I can be saving more or stop spending recklessly.

Re: Budget