How do you budget/track spending??

[whoopsiedoodle]

I'm curious what everyone does to budget and track their spending. I affectionately call my DH my "budget nazi" as he doesn't carry debt (other than homes, cars, school). At the end of the month the credit card is paid in full and all bills are paid in full. In order to curb my spending habit we agreed on a cash only budget for me. I LOVE IT!!! We have been doing it for awhile now and I have actually saved way more money then I have ever been able to in my life. I just can't bring myself to break a $50 for a Starbucks! So what do you guys do that works or doesn't!?

 

[disneychrista]

I affectionately call my DH my "budget nazi" as he doesn't carry debt (other than homes, cars, school). At the end of the month the credit card is paid in full and all bills are paid in full.

And that's a bad thing?

So what do you guys do that works or doesn't!?

I don't buy things I can't pay for. Plain & simple. I don't have a budget per se. But I have a spreadsheet where I keep all my bills & income, it is basically my checking account register. I use it to plot out any extra income/expenses so I can see where I stand.

I do use my Disney visa to pay for everything, so you could say I am paying for last months grocerys, gas, etc. this month But if I had to go cash, I have the money to cover that month's expenses in addition to the credit card bill.

 

[ginerjenny]

I use a budget called ynab i love it! i've got to the point where i live on last months income.

 

[chris31997]

We use cash. Sit down monthly and spend every dollar on paper and that is how it goes. I keep track of it all. Of the savings accounts, I have a spread sheet that I show hubby once in awhile. He is the soender while I am the saver.

 

[tzolkin]

In the past, I just kept track of everything on paper or made my own spreadsheets on the computer, but DH really didn't have any clue exactly how much money we had or how it had been spent. Fortunately, neither of us are spenders so that worked out okay enough.

For a while now we have been using mint.com . I really like it because you can set up budgets for any categories you want (groceries, restaurants, utilities, clothing, etc) and you can also set up goals (paying off mortgage, car loan, CC or saving up for a vacation). It's also just really nice because you have everything in one place so you can see all of your accounts (and debts) at a glance.


Personally, I could never do cash. I have some anxiety issues and whenever I have any money on me I'm always convinced I'm going to drop/lose it. I also like to earn rewards using my CCs and for me it's easier to keep track of exactly how I'm spending my money.

 

[ekatiel]

We have a budget spreadsheet in Excel that our premarital counselor gave us before we got married . It has a column for each month's expected budget, and then one for the actual amount spent. We've pretty consistently set the "expected budget", amd tried not to go over, but recently, I'm trying to keep track of every penny we spend in the other column. I'm back to being a full-time SAHM right now, so we need to know where every penny is going! It's worked pretty well. --Katie

 

[Disney Addicted]

I custom-created an Excel spreadsheet that works for us. Tabs for each month, Christmas, birthdays, mortgage, credit cards, savings, car loan, vacation.

Monthly sheet has a list of each expense on the left. Mortgage payment, property tax, car ins, home ins, electricity, gas, water, Internet, cable, phone, food, gas, pet expense - anything we need to pay each month. Beside that I list other necessary or unexpected items (bday, swimming lessons, etc.). Beside that I list our savings (rrsps, resp, etc.) and current debt total.

Underneath come the bi-weekly paycheques and a list of which expenses get paid out of which paycheque. Including paying down visa, money in savings and our vacation. What's left is for everything else that comes along. Ie, finding out my swimsuit quit and needing a new one, new running shoes for my son, etc. money leftover stays in the account for the next unexpected item.

Everything starts off black and gets changed to blue as that item was paid or saved. Everything we purchase gets detailed/listed under that paycheque so we see where, when and how much gets spent.

This sounds complicated, but surprisingly not. I love seeing a month at a glance, watching the visa go down (almost gone), and our savings & vacation fund go up every week or two.

 

[Andrea464]

We use cash for most items we would buy in town- supplies, food, gas. Bills get paid online and we set aside money each paycheck for bills. We save for the bills we know are coming (daycare expenses, Girl Scout expenses, car taxes, etc).
We did a program through our church called I Was Broke, Now I'm Not by Joe Siegl. He's great and gets really excited about being free from debt. One of his biggest mentors is Dave Ramsey so a lot of the ideas are based off of him.

On his website he has "spectaculars", which help you track savings for events/things, or track your payoff of items. We're using our Disney World one!

 

[Nomad70]

I custom-created an Excel spreadsheet that works for us. Tabs for each month, Christmas, birthdays, mortgage, credit cards, savings, car loan, vacation.

Monthly sheet has a list of each expense on the left. Mortgage payment, property tax, car ins, home ins, electricity, gas, water, Internet, cable, phone, food, gas, pet expense - anything we need to pay each month. Beside that I list other necessary or unexpected items (bday, swimming lessons, etc.). Beside that I list our savings (rrsps, resp, etc.) and current debt total.

Underneath come the bi-weekly paycheques and a list of which expenses get paid out of which paycheque. Including paying down visa, money in savings and our vacation. What's left is for everything else that comes along. Ie, finding out my swimsuit quit and needing a new one, new running shoes for my son, etc. money leftover stays in the account for the next unexpected item.

Everything starts off black and gets changed to blue as that item was paid or saved. Everything we purchase gets detailed/listed under that paycheque so we see where, when and how much gets spent.

This sounds complicated, but surprisingly not. I love seeing a month at a glance, watching the visa go down (almost gone), and our savings & vacation fund go up every week or two.

This is exactly what we have. We stopped using credit so we use cash for everything. Luckily dh is the one that keeps it updated so I only need to look at it in the am and know what our balances are.

 

[MomToOne]

Like others, I have a spreadsheet where I track all spending and saving for the year. I have a column for each month of the year, and rows for the different budget categories. Fixed expenses (mortgage, car payment, etc.) are identified, as well as variable (groceries, gas). I budget amounts for the variable expenses - since I've been doing this for years, I know what I need each month in each category within a few bucks. I also allow $60/week for what I call "miscellaneous" expenses, which includes all my Target runs, any fast food trips and entertainment. (I probably spend 90% of my energy tracking and managing that small miscellaneous category ) Every purchase I make is entered in the spreadsheet, whether it be by check, cash or credit card. (I use my credit cards extensively, but pay them off each month. Since I account for the CC purchases the same as cash, I don't find I spend any more on CCs than I would in cash.) Numbers at the end of the month have to balance out to $0 - hopefully by moving any extra to the savings category, or, on those more challenging months, by pulling money out of savings to cover the shortfall. I tend to be very driven by the Savings row, and what that total for the year is looking like. I love finding ways to save money in other categories, or finding extra income, so I can up that number!

The one thing I've learned over the years is that you have to find the method that work for you! What works for one person might very well not work for you. So play around with different things until you find a method that seems to make sense for you and keeps you under control. Then once you find a basic method, continue to refine things. After years of doing my budget, I still tweak my budget categories every so often!

 

[whoopsiedoodle]

And that's a bad thing?



I don't buy things I can't pay for. Plain & simple. I don't have a budget per se. But I have a spreadsheet where I keep all my bills & income, it is basically my checking account register. I use it to plot out any extra income/expenses so I can see where I stand.

I do use my Disney visa to pay for everything, so you could say I am paying for last months grocerys, gas, etc. this month But if I had to go cash, I have the money to cover that month's expenses in addition to the credit card bill.

NO it's not a bad thing! That's why I said I "affectionately" call him that. If it weren't for his budgets we wouldn't own 3 homes (2 rental properties) and I wouldn't have paid off over $20,000 in school debt in less than 8 years. We don't make awesome money but we are tight with it!

I have tried a spread sheet in the past but I'm awful about updating it! DH on the other hand is awesome at it! We have an Excel file that has all the houses with lines for rent, payments, etc and the estimate for payoff. Plus all the household expenses and savings accounts. It's so fun to see that I can save money because I really was (ok still am a little) really really bad at it! This year I actually saved enough money on my own to pay for a 5 day trip to Vegas with my best friend for her 30th birthday!

 

[teller80]

For those of you have set up excel sheets, could you share the design with me? Not your numbers of course, but would it be possible to send me a template design? I am just lost on this. Thank you!

 

[laliwalden]

I also use youneedabudget.com It has changed out spending so much! I highly recommend it!

 

[Disney Addicted]

Twice I tried replying back with my iPad but it keeps closing the webpage. Grrr... now I'm on the desktop. Ah well, at least I can type a whole lot faster!

This is exactly what we have. We stopped using credit so we use cash for everything. Luckily dh is the one that keeps it updated so I only need to look at it in the am and know what our balances are.

I made things a bit more complicated for myself. Two months ago I received an AMEX card. I could not resist the 1,150 bonus air miles, which have yet to credit to my account. So now, I have come to the realization that I have to sit down with my receipts EACH NIGHT and pay back AMEX for my daily spending. Otherwise I'm going to build up a balance real quick and I do NOT want to do that! I just want the air miles.

For those of you have set up excel sheets, could you share the design with me? Not your numbers of course, but would it be possible to send me a template design? I am just lost on this. Thank you!

Sure, I don't mind. I'll send you a template with fake $ amounts in it so you can see how the month looks filled in. Then you can revise it to suit your own needs. It's a lot easier to SEE someone's budget sheet than to READ how it looks.

 

[Melissakay1q]

We each get $100 weekly for spending. We have an account just for groceries that has $100 drafted into it each week.

 

[PolyAddict]

Twice I tried replying back with my iPad but it keeps closing the webpage. Grrr... now I'm on the desktop. Ah well, at least I can type a whole lot faster!



I made things a bit more complicated for myself. Two months ago I received an AMEX card. I could not resist the 1,150 bonus air miles, which have yet to credit to my account. So now, I have come to the realization that I have to sit down with my receipts EACH NIGHT and pay back AMEX for my daily spending. Otherwise I'm going to build up a balance real quick and I do NOT want to do that! I just want the air miles.



Sure, I don't mind. I'll send you a template with fake $ amounts in it so you can see how the month looks filled in. Then you can revise it to suit your own needs. It's a lot easier to SEE someone's budget sheet than to READ how it looks.

I would love to see the spreadsheet too, if you don't mind...i have one but could use some more ideas.

 

[miniaudrey]

I'd love to see the spreadsheet. I plan to check out youneedabudget.com too. I think I need to track my spending better to find out where the leaks are!

 

[mom23boys]

I custom-created an Excel spreadsheet that works for us. Tabs for each month, Christmas, birthdays, mortgage, credit cards, savings, car loan, vacation.

Monthly sheet has a list of each expense on the left. Mortgage payment, property tax, car ins, home ins, electricity, gas, water, Internet, cable, phone, food, gas, pet expense - anything we need to pay each month. Beside that I list other necessary or unexpected items (bday, swimming lessons, etc.). Beside that I list our savings (rrsps, resp, etc.) and current debt total.

Underneath come the bi-weekly paycheques and a list of which expenses get paid out of which paycheque. Including paying down visa, money in savings and our vacation. What's left is for everything else that comes along. Ie, finding out my swimsuit quit and needing a new one, new running shoes for my son, etc. money leftover stays in the account for the next unexpected item.

Everything starts off black and gets changed to blue as that item was paid or saved. Everything we purchase gets detailed/listed under that paycheque so we see where, when and how much gets spent.

This sounds complicated, but surprisingly not. I love seeing a month at a glance, watching the visa go down (almost gone), and our savings & vacation fund go up every week or two.

I would also love to see an excel spreadsheet for budgeting if you don't mind.

 

[Disney Addicted]

I don't mind. I'll get the template ready at some point today, take a screenshot and upload it. Or those who want the actual Excel file, send me your e-mail address.

 

[bettymae1121]

I use a combo of Quicken and Excel. Quicken tracks/downloads all of our CC purchases, checking/savings accounts, auto loan/mortgage and 401k. Our actualy monthly buget is kept in Excel (I don't like Quickens budget feature). I plan out what we should be spending and then track what we are actually spending. As long as the out-go is equal to or less than our income (and income is what is left after we direct deposit $X into savings), I consider us on budget, even if we went over budget for eating out but were under budget for groceries (for example).

Also, I don't have a monthly budget, I have a budget for each and every month, as no two months are exactly the same. Some months I have a yearly bill, other months I need to buy gifts for birthdays. But 99% of the time those occasional expenses are in the exact same month (AAA dues are due in March, for example. Or we have 2 birthdays plus Mother's Day in May). So in March I have a line item for $129 for AAA dues, and in May I'll budget $100 for gifts. We have enough wiggle room in our budget each month that I can usually cash flow those occasional expenses, so I don't have to put asside $20 a month (or whatever) for a bill that only gets paid once a year. I'm never able to make that work anyway, the money that is "set asside" always seems to get eaten up by something else. So rather than fight it, I just budget what we need for each and every month rather than save $5 here and $20 there each month. Less to keep track of, really.