My new budgeting system

[kaleida]

On this new system I find myself subconsciously hoarding my fun money, holding onto it and only spending small amounts of it on things that give me a lot of joy. It's very interesting. It's almost like I'm subconsciously building a little mini-emergency account for fun, not intentionally...it's just happening.

If a friend wanted to go on a hang-gliding trip with me I would consider that to be a fun emergency! I want to have some fun money sitting around for stuff like that

It's very different from last year when I was spending first and saving the leftovers - last year I didn't feel any motivation to wait on my fun spending - I had budgeted a fixed amount for fun and I felt entitled to use it as soon as it became available.

Puzzled at all of you who like to feel the pain of your bills - why not just make your bills small enough that they're no longer painful? Why suffer?

[breathemusic]

I'm not a fan of autopaying anything that has the possibility of varying too greatly like a credit card. I have 2 checking accounts (plus an online savings account) and I have an allotment direct deposited into one checking account where all of my static monthly bills are autopayed from, so this is my student loans, rent, phone bill, a monthly charity donation, etc. But the rest or my paycheck is direct deposited into my main checking which is where I pay for utilities, credit cards and anything flexible. I use a spreadsheet to estimate and track my budget and I have "planned" savings deposits scheduled every month that I just adjust higher or lower if my variable expenses are different than I plan for. It also helps me see if I'm over-spending compared to what I want to because I see that if I have to lower my savings contribution in my spreadsheet and raise my credit card payment to pay off the card, then I'm overindulging in something most likely!

[kaleida]

II have "planned" savings deposits scheduled every month that I just adjust higher or lower if my variable expenses are different than I plan for.

That's actually the thing that I liked least about my old budgeting system with a fixed amount of fun money every month... the amount I saved would be reduced if I spent more on necessities. In the new system my fun money is reduced if I spend more on necessities but the savings amount stays the same.

[fsumom]

It sounds great but then you get to Regulation D that limits transfers from your savings to 6 a month.

[reedda]

I really like this idea, with a few changes....

I wouldn't auto-pay credit card balances or any other variable expenses (phone, electricity, etc.), just because I'm worried about billing errors.

But I like the idea of paying all the bills on a credit card, then paying off the credit card via a savings account, then transferring some amount to checking for other spending.

I also like the idea of using a different credit card for gas and groceries, this would make it much easier for me to "see" how much I really spend on these items.

Thanks!

[kaleida]

It sounds great but then you get to Regulation D that limits transfers from your savings to 6 a month.

I have 5 withdrawals per month so I'm still within this limit. I think a checking account would work too if someone wants to try it with more bills paid out of the main account. Luckily almost all of my bills can be paid with a credit card so I only need 5 transactions: pay my 2 credit cards, pay rent, 1 transfer to my emergency fund, 1 transfer to checking.