Basic Home Budgeting

[Beckybee]

Does anyone else struggle keeping to a budget? I used work out my expenses for the year then divide them by 12 to see what I needed to set aside each month. This isn't a bad method, it's just not ideal. All this showed me is that I should have been able to pay all of my expenses. It was hard to stick to because I couldn't see ahead to really understand the consequences of not sticking to the budget were and ended up living pay-to-pay again with my budget a mere memory.
If you really want to get your finances under control but hate mucking around with budgeting styles and different software, I can provide a budget forecast for your home budget ranging from 1 month to 1 year.
You will know how much and when to pay your bills and expenses, and never struggle to pay them. Ask me how!

[melcar.group]

Do you have a website Beckybee?

[jIM_Ohio]

Beckybee- the key is to either find some self discipline, or other technique to make sure the money which is needed is there.

For us, we use multiple bank accounts and only hook the debit card up to one of them. Mortgage and IRAs and cars paid from one account. Groceries, gas, utilities, spending money and similar variable expenses all get paid from another. There is a third savings account which a portion of the paycheck is also direct deposited into.

For us:
5% goes into savings (5% of gross to savings). This covers the vacations and other short term goals we have.

20% goes to 401ks (payroll) and IRAs (automatic debit on 26th of the month).

We contribute just enough to one account to pay off mortgage, cars and IRAs. Account might have $10 in it each month once everything is paid.

The other account has rolling expenses- it balances. Sometimes it is tight, if it is "over" we take it out of savings.

Because we save 25%, I see little need to track every expense.

[whitestripe]

i am unsure if you are asking us how we budget and inviting discussion, or if you are just promoting your services???

[thekid]

Originally Posted by Beckybee

Ask me how!

How?

[Beckybee]

Originally Posted by whitestripe

i am unsure if you are asking us how we budget and inviting discussion, or if you are just promoting your services???

I would like to know how other people budget. I will offer my services to anyone that would like to kick-start a budget, but I love the thought of budgeting in general so I am interested to see what techniques other people use, how detailed they go into tracking expenses etc.

[Beckybee]

Originally Posted by melcar.group

Do you have a website Beckybee?

Unfortunately I don't. I have only just started out doing budgets for other people. It's a hobby (sounds nerdy I know) but it would be great if I could make it a home business. I had a few requests from my work so I thought I would put my feelers out and see if other people would be interested in my services.

[whitestripe]

Originally Posted by Beckybee

I would like to know how other people budget. I will offer my services to anyone that would like to kick-start a budget, but I love the thought of budgeting in general so I am interested to see what techniques other people use, how detailed they go into tracking expenses etc.

i see. it is a little nerdy, but i am the same i like to do others budgets too, but then i get annoyed when they dont follow them... so i dont do them often lol!

well - i track all of my expenses down to the cent. i organise my bills by adding up the yearly cost and then dividing by 52, then saving this amount per week. i have a 'budget' but i do not have a need to stick to it, because i am not a spendy person by nature. i do love to shop - but i don't go crazy, so i have never really felt the need to completely cut off spending. i know when i need to slow down on something, but i have never been in debt except for a car loan and mortgage.

[thekid]

Old pen and paper for me.

I print out a spreadsheet each month that has all my budget categories and amounts budgeted for each category. Longer term expenses are amortized over 12 months. I've been doing it for a few years, so it's pretty dead on.

I have about 65% on my takehome that I use for my budget (which includes categories like "next car savings" and "home repair savings"). The other 35% is "out of budget savings".

To make tracking easier, I use a reward credit card for most of my purchases (even small items). I of course pay it off at month's end, but this makes it easy to keep track of spending and writing it down.

That's about it. Pretty simple really and it works well for me.

[blankcheck]

Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio

Because we save 25%, I see little need to track every expense.

I follow a similar startegy. Set aside savings first in each category (EF/short term, IRA, etc) then use the rest to pay for things as we see fit. I don't spend much on entertainment, so it's rare if we're over for the month.

We don't have the accounts arranged by expense category, however. It's more of a "his-hers-ours" deal, with the "ours" account for most things, and our separate personal accounts as we wish.