General Budget Help

[marriedmarylander]

This isn't budget at Disney, but just in general. How do you guys save money?

Right now after our monthly bills, food, gas, etc, we have only $800 left per month. Our budget does not include entertainment (usually movies, bowling, nightclubs on occassion - not every weekend), random stuff we might buy (DH wants a new video game, I want new shoes), or other miscellanoeous things that might come up -birthdays, mothers day, celebrations,etc. Which is probably where a good chunk of our $800 goes.

Can anyone help out?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

NOt that we are good at saving money--we did set up an automatic mutual fund deposit of $50 per month. So money disappears and there is less to spend, but we are building up something--albeit a small something.

I always wonder about the people who can buy a round of drinks, treat someone to dinner, et cetera---how's their budget.

So a lady by a $150 quilt bag at halmark today and thought WOW. Hubby would kill me if I brought something like that home, LOL.

We figure out all our gift purchases for the year--and then average that out by month and have a line item for gifts. We pretty much have dropped off the face of the planet except for Christmas--but we do have it budgeted. That way--we can buy when we see something we "want" to get somebody--instead of the "oh darn---it's BIL b-day on Saturday, what the heck are we going to get him".

 

[TigerLilyBlossom]

This isn't budget at Disney, but just in general. How do you guys save money?

Right now after our monthly bills, food, gas, etc, we have only $800 left per month. Our budget does not include entertainment (usually movies, bowling, nightclubs on occassion - not every weekend), random stuff we might buy (DH wants a new video game, I want new shoes), or other miscellanoeous things that might come up -birthdays, mothers day, celebrations,etc. Which is probably where a good chunk of our $800 goes.

Can anyone help out?

I am not sure if this is what you're looking for or if it helps any, but to save money, we:

1.) looked over our expenses to see where we could shave some spending...we don't need the premium cable channels (no hbo, etc) and for awhile had basic (though dh was going to cry, lol) and saved about $30 a month (we now have basic plus--about 50 channels so dh is whole again )

This worked with other things too, even basic utilities...for example, the electric company has some options...a plan with lesser rates if more electricity is used at offpeak hours (great for people who work all day, not good for stay at home moms like me who cook and clean during the day and use the appliances/etc), there were unnecessary parts of the phone bill that added up too--nix caller id and have the answering machine screen calls if that's a concern (we did and saved--a little, but it adds up!).

Keep track of spending for a week/month and see where your cash is really going--you'd be surprised how much a coffee a day or other little things. A bit here and there really add up.

2.) If there are things you want to do or buy--look for the best deal. I am an avid coupon-er. If your dh loves video games, set a limit--and then only with a coupon or on sale. OR have him sort through his old ones and take them to a store that buys or trades old ones. He can get something new at a lesser price.

If you love shoes/clothes, how about limiting yourself to spending *only* what you earn from shipping your old (but still nice) things to a consignment shop and earning money for what you;re no longer using. You'll be getting new things without breaking the bank--think of it as a creative way to recycle your clothes/shoes. There are consignment shops that take only higher end, some that take a wide range. Might be worth looking into!

3.) Plan ahead for holidays/occasions by picking up things that can be used as gifts year round when you find them at terrific prices...stash them away (just don't forget about them, which can be easy to do) until you need something, and then "shop" in your own closet

Just a few things that I have personally done and have found helpful.

HTH somewhat, I am sure others have awesome ideas to share!

 

[EthansMom]

This isn't budget at Disney, but just in general. How do you guys save money?

Right now after our monthly bills, food, gas, etc, we have only $800 left per month. Our budget does not include entertainment (usually movies, bowling, nightclubs on occassion - not every weekend), random stuff we might buy (DH wants a new video game, I want new shoes), or other miscellanoeous things that might come up -birthdays, mothers day, celebrations,etc. Which is probably where a good chunk of our $800 goes.

Can anyone help out?

Partly it help that DH has a good income. But it would all get spent with little savings if we lived like the Joneses. For us, it's all about priorities.

Joneses: Drive expensive SUVs that guzzle gas like crazy. The Jonese lease because they can't afford the payments to purchase their SUVs and besides, they want a new car every couple of years.

Us: We drive our econocars forever -- get good gas mileage, low maintenance costs and since we drive each car 6-9 years, we have time to save to pay cash for the next econocar.

Joneses: They've got the big-screen t.v. and the surround sound system to watch their $60/mo. cable package.

Us: We're saving for a new t.v. while we're watching on our 9 year-old 32 inch t.v. We've got the lowest cost basic cable ($13/mo.) only to get the major channels clearly.

Jonese: They buy what they want when they want -- after all, they deserve it. Whether it's a night on the town or a vacation, they don't give much consideration to their purchases.

Us: If DH sees an expensive book he wants at the local bookstore, he writes down the name and then comes home and looks online to see if he can get it discounted or used. Instead of paying the outrageous prices to see movies at the theater, we signed up for Netflix. When we eat out for dinner, we order ice water with lemon instead of soda, don't order appetizers, and share the rare order of desert. When we get together with friends or family, we often have potluck dinners and play cards after dinner.

Joneses: They really go crazy at the holidays, buying each child several toys and purchasing nice gifts for each extended family member to let them know how much they care.

Us: We buy our kids a couple toys plus Santa brings one toy and stuffs a stocking for each kid. We stick to $20 or less per child for our nieces and nephews and give professional family photos to extended family. DH and I spend roughly $100 on each other -- usually buying small gifts like books & cds. Last year, we spent less than $1000 on Christmas including gifts, cards, shipping, food (both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at our house for extended family).

My advice, put aside some money in your budget for entertainment and gifts. Also, put aside some money for savings. And keep track of your actual spending. If you take that $800 and put $300 toward savings, $300 toward entertainment/gifts and left $200 for overages, you should be able to figure out where actually spending your money in the next couple of months.

One tip: I make each month's budget separately. Sure things like the mortgage payment are the same each month, but I put aside extra money for extra money for DH's birthday in May's budget and put aside extra money in Oct., Nov., and Dec. budgets to pay for Christmas. Basically, a budget should be an ever-changing thing. Some months, you may be able to save more and some months, you may not be able to save anything, but having a general plan to put something away sure does help you meet your goal!

 

[marriedmarylander]

What sucks around here is cable and internet. DH goes nuts if we don't have more than just basic local channels. He works at home sometimes and so do I so high speed is a must. Our bill is $107. DSL is difficult because you still need to connect to a phone line and there is none in our office (spare bedroom) and DSL is slower than cable. Just sucks. We did have an outage and I called and complained and got them to take $23 off our bill though.

 

[Nicolepa]

This isn't budget at Disney, but just in general. How do you guys save money?

Right now after our monthly bills, food, gas, etc, we have only $800 left per month. Our budget does not include entertainment (usually movies, bowling, nightclubs on occassion - not every weekend), random stuff we might buy (DH wants a new video game, I want new shoes), or other miscellanoeous things that might come up -birthdays, mothers day, celebrations,etc. Which is probably where a good chunk of our $800 goes.

Can anyone help out?

We each have an allowance. From each paycheck dh deposits an amount into personal accounts for me and for him. That gives us each a certain amount that we can spend freely. It works great because then he can buy the games, I can buy the shoes and we don't ever get into an argument about buying xyz. If we have the money in our account we can do whatever we want with it. You could also have a 3rd account that you put money into each paycheck as your family savings.

 

[marriedmarylander]

We each have an allowance. From each paycheck dh deposits an amount into personal accounts for me and for him. That gives us each a certain amount that we can spend freely. It works great because then he can buy the games, I can buy the shoes and we don't ever get into an argument about buying xyz. If we have the money in our account we can do whatever we want with it. You could also have a 3rd account that you put money into each paycheck as your family savings.

Thanks for this tip. I mentioned it to DH before and he says "allowance? we aren't children"

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

You're basically spendng money at the rate of $200 a week without really accounting for its whereabouts. Perhaps you could spend a month keeping careful track of where it's all going. Morning coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts? Pizza every Friday for the family? A Sunday matinee at the Cineplex? That pair of sandals that perfectly matches the skirt you bought on sale last month? Once you have a better idea of where the money is going, you can make a more tailored budget. I'm not saying that you should forego any of these things, just budget for them.

I think that your "misc." category is covering too broad an area. "Misc. expenses should be that pack of gum you purchase at the magazine stand or the Girl Scout cookies you purchase from your best friend's daughter. You should have a budget category for "entertainment" & "clothing" rather than including it as "misc.". Likewise with the "gifts" & "video games'. And the first rule of making a budget should be "pay yourself". In other words, you should have a routine savings plan that includes a "savings" category in your budget. Ideally, a budget shouldn't have any leftover money at the end of the month unless you've had a windfall like winning the lottery.

 

[EthansMom]

Thanks for this tip. I mentioned it to DH before and he says "allowance? we aren't children"

Yeah, my DH wasn't too fond of the idea either, but we do each have our own spending money now -- $20 cash each week for each of us that usually gets spent on coffee and fast food and then another $40 each month for each of us for individual wants like books and such. Right now, DH is saving his $40 each month and 1/2 of his overtime pay toward a new t.v. -- you know guys that darn t.v. keeps getting bigger and more expensive.

Also, that cable bill sounds outrageous. We're currently paying $44 per month for cable modem and basic basic cable (like 12 channels). Maybe you could get your DH down to a less expensive package and get an unlimited movie rental plan like Netflix or Blockbuster to make up the difference and pocket a few dollars in savings? Or, you may want to look into Dish? After all, $1284 per year for internet access and television has got to be a pretty decent percentage of your income.

You may want to call around and price out your auto and homeowners ins. to see if you can save a few bucks by changing companies. And pack lunch to take to work, if you aren't already.

Where are you in Maryland? Our first house was in Lothian, MD. We loved Maryland -- wish we'd never moved! Of course, now we're in Connecticut and talk about maybe moving further south in a few years.

I hope this helps!

 

[marriedmarylander]

Wow $44 for cable and internet? Our cable internet alone is $42.95. Then basic&preferred (more than just 5 local channels) is $49.82. That's $92.77 + taxes + cable moden ($3) is over $100 - I dont know exactly because we don't have it like this. So we combined a package and get digital cable + internet for $94.95 (includes modem) + taxes = $107. DH says he puts in for reimbursement at his job ($30) but I have yet to see the money. We live in Mont. Co where it's more expensive - I talked to some friends in howard and their cable is cheaper.

 

[swilshire]

We finally signed up for dialup internet service ($14.95 per month) when the kids convinced me that the teachers expect them to have access for homework.

We do not have any kind of cable TV. Rabbit ears give us decent reception on one channel and marginal reception on four others. I think we all watch too much TV anyway, so any time I've considered cable or satellite, I've talked myself out of it. Especially when I think about the times we're away or just too busy to turn it on at all.

I agree with the poster who says to buy gifts ahead of time. I shop the sales and even watch for new items at yard/garage sales. The Toys R Us clearance items really come in handy when those last minute birthday party invitations come in.

We avoid eating out, since even McDonalds for the six of us gets expensive. I carry leftovers to work for lunch most days. We plant a big garden and freeze/can some items (though not as much as we did twenty years ago). We also raise our own beef. My kids call me the coupon queen because I hit all five local grocery chains each week for their sale items with my stacks of coupons.

The majority of our clothing comes from yard sales and thrift stores. The rest I buy at deep discounts on clearance.

I drive ancient cars and have a great mechanic I can trust when they need attention.

All of these things feel normal and we don't feel deprived. My daughter is moving home from college this weekend and is complaining a bit about the dialup internet (since she had free DSL in the dorm), but she's not home all that much anyway.

Sheila

 

[patrenoe]

I totally agree with a previous poster who said "pay yourself first". When we were younger we saved at least half of our money. What we did was to of course budget all bills, mortgage,groceries,ect. Whatever was left over half was invested and the other half went into a savings account. I don't know about anyone else but for us it worked. It was always harder to go to the bank to withdraw money for a impulse purchase. In our neighborhood most everyone drives new cars so I feel gratefull that I didn't have that need. We were the ones who always drove their cars until we were afraid.lol. Now that we are retired we still drive our cars for at least 5 years before selling.

 

[AKbabe]

Everyone's had great ideas for you so far. Just wanted to comment on the cable:

Wow $44 for cable and internet? Our cable internet alone is $42.95. Then basic&preferred (more than just 5 local channels) is $49.82. That's $92.77 + taxes + cable moden ($3) is over $100 - I dont know exactly because we don't have it like this. So we combined a package and get digital cable + internet for $94.95 (includes modem) + taxes = $107. DH says he puts in for reimbursement at his job ($30) but I have yet to see the money. We live in Mont. Co where it's more expensive - I talked to some friends in howard and their cable is cheaper.

Well, I live in Howard Co. and have Comcast. Don't know where your friends live, but I pay $103 with taxes. And we don't even have digital. That would add about another $10, so it would be higher than yours. But I can't make any suggestions for cutting that. We don't watch much TV as I am in school part time and work full time at an elementary school; we are never home. But when we are, we like variety and it's cheaper than going out to the movies all the time (which we love to do).

 

[marriedmarylander]

Everyone's had great ideas for you so far. Just wanted to comment on the cable:




Well, I live in Howard Co. and have Comcast. Don't know where your friends live, but I pay $103 with taxes. And we don't even have digital. That would add about another $10, so it would be higher than yours. But I can't make any suggestions for cutting that. We don't watch much TV as I am in school part time and work full time at an elementary school; we are never home. But when we are, we like variety and it's cheaper than going out to the movies all the time (which we love to do).

I think I might have meant Baltimore. But who knows if they told me the exact amount or not. Most people don't like to share their bills! Mont. has a special package with the digital and internet so I feel like we lucked out even though it's more than $100!

 

[tbelfonti]

This isn't budget at Disney, but just in general. How do you guys save money?

Right now after our monthly bills, food, gas, etc, we have only $800 left per month. Our budget does not include entertainment (usually movies, bowling, nightclubs on occassion - not every weekend), random stuff we might buy (DH wants a new video game, I want new shoes), or other miscellanoeous things that might come up -birthdays, mothers day, celebrations,etc. Which is probably where a good chunk of our $800 goes.

We have a very detailed budget - set aside money monthly to cover yearly events like taxes, birthdays, christmas, etc. We are hammered with three birthdays within a month in the summer (both DDs are 10 days apart and Dnephew is 16 days after that).

We budget for entertainment - we do netflix right now since we have little ones at home.

We go so far as to budget for haircuts, pet supplies, water delivery ... you name it, we've got a spreadsheet for it.

I would recommend writing down where all the $800 is going for a month or two and see what's going on. Maybe just starting to save weekly or monthly to cover the misc. birthdays may help out? Or budget to go to the movies once a month and bowling twice, etc.

Good luck and let us know how it goes

 

[crisi]

A BIG help is getting your husband on board. I hear "he needs full cable" and "he doesn't want an allowance." Unless HE wants to get on the savings program, and make some constructive suggestions about how he is going to help, you are sunk.

To me, not having an allowance means HE can spend what I save. Or I can spend what he saves. Then we look at each other and wonder why we don't get ahead. We don't have an allowance anymore, for a few reasons, but it did work when money was a lot tighter.

If he doesn't get on board, you'll need to start saving it in small peices and hiding it. Open an ING account and put "coupon" money in there after you grocery shop.

 

[Julia M]

I have started keeping a detailed budget, as ds wants to go to Catholic high school and it's expensive! I have had to "find" an extra $600-$800 a month!

My dh pays the regular bills (mortgage, phone, cell phones, cable, tuition, etc), so his budget is pertty set in stone. My budget covers all the misc. items.....food, eating out, clothes, kids actvites, vacations, etc.

First thing I did was write down everything I spent, down to a cup of coffee, or donuts after church.

Then, I made categories for my expenses, and budgeted a specific amount. For example, I have budget $175 per month for gas/car. Some months I may not use that much, so the extra amount "rolls over" into the next month. This is how I accumulate extra money for routine maintnence, or a break down. I do the same for clothing, as well as the kids activities (that alone is $550 a month!)

Some categories are long term, planning for the future. I am putting away $100 for the orthodontist, because I'm sure youngest ds will need it! Our ortho gives a discount if you pay up front. Even if I don't accumulate the total amount, I'll have a big down payment.

Other ones I save for all year long, with one or two big payments a year. Dh and I have theatre tickets, and I attend a Celebrity forum speakers series. I also put away money for Christmas, as well as timeshare expenses and vacation.

I try and purchase one or two $20 gift cards a month to Target, Old Navy, Build a Bear, etc. Then I have birthday gifts for family and birthday parties. It's not creative, but it works. If I end up with extras, it helps in August, at school supply time, and at Xmas.

My other budget "trick" pertains to the "extras" many of us like. I love coffee from Starbucks, but it's pricey. I load $20 on a gift card.....that's how much I can spend that much. When the card is spent, it's spent. So I can splurge twice a month on a coffee and pastry, or take a friend for coffee, or have less expensive drinks more frequently. But then you know exactly how much you are "blowing" on this.

Around here, lots of restaurants give extras at Xmas time if you buy their gift cards. So, I try and use some of my Xmas money for those. Our favorite is Elephant Bar. For every $25 you spend, you get a $5 gift card free. Then I use one gift card (say $25) and we pay the rest of the meal with cash, all year long (in CA, gift cards have no expiration)

HTH

Julia