How do you budget/track spending??

[DisneyEater]

I budget in excel. The spreadsheet says we spend more than we can. The wife says I don't want to hear it. I figure out how to close the gap. Repeat next month.

 

[whoopsiedoodle]

I budget in excel. The spreadsheet says we spend more than we can. The wife says I don't want to hear it. I figure out how to close the gap. Repeat next month.

This sounds eerily similar to our house the last couple of months!

 

[ZiPaD3doDAH]

I have an app on my iphone called 'AceBudget' and it helps me keep track of my budget.

even if i go over my budget one month, it will add the extra charges to the next month so i'm always careful about spending

 

[Boston Tea Party]

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.

Thanks for a light bulb moment.

 

[jessicaerv]

I came across this website a few months ago that has free spreadsheets for just about anything you can think of (budgeting, mortgage calculations, vacation planning/packing, sports team rosters, and on and on and on). I absolutely love it.

I highly recommend it.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/budgets.html

 

[h&D3]

and create a spreadsheet of any monthly costs, bills, spending money, etc. that I have coming up. I then create a set of boxes, one grouping for each pay period and the costs I need to have covered for that time. This way, each time I get paid, I know what bills have to be paid, or what else may be coming up for that pay period (mothly parking, misc stuff for the kids, etc) I then also allot a line for "extras" and another line for things like "disney vacations". I give myself a set "allowance" each pay period and I try to stick to it. If I don't use my extra, then that goes into my vacation fund. (see my example below)

Pay Date: XX/XX
Bi-Monthly Check Total = $XX
monthly Bill #1: $XX
Monthly Bill #2: $XX
Monthly Bill #3: $XX
Extra to Bank: $XX (this is sort of like the Uh-Oh fund or in case something is needed fund that we didn't predict, or it can be used on paying for vacations as well)
Extra Spending ME: $XX (this is my monthly allowance)
Vacation Fund: $XX
Misc Fund: $XX (birhtdays, school items, etc. goes here or I break those out into different line items to)

I can continue to add line items and then move the $$ around so everything is covered. Once all the Bill $$ are covered, then the rest gets put into the extra fund until I hit the total of what my paycheck is.

Once you get this set up with what you know you have to pay and when each month, then you can figure for the extra's, and anything else that might come along. This way I know what I have and what I don't have to spend every time I get paid. Then in looking forward to the following month, I also know what else may be coming up that I need to budget for in case I didn't allow enough for that.

It's sometimes harder than it seems as those "unknowns" come along that nobody plans for. But when you figure everything out per pay period, you really start to get a sense of what you can build up over time.


~D