Just did my first budget: Encouragement, please!

[Where'sPiglet?]

I may not fully understand the no buy thread but if I had a certain number of days to spend $0 on, I am concerned it would just cause me to spend that money on other days.

I have had that problem in the past, binging on the days that I spent something, since it sort of felt like I had "permission" to spend money on that day since the $0 was already gone. It took me a while to find a balance.

The point of the $0 Buy thread is to be aware of your spending, especially impulse purchases. Do you really need that? Can you put it off a day or more? Can you make do with what you have?

The vast majority of the posters on the $0 Buy thread track both $0 Days AND dollar amounts, with dual goals of staying within budget AND having $0 Buy days.

 

[GoofItUp]

Hello, again. Just back with an update. It's kind of exciting right now to track my progress. The stressful part of this: it's only Aug 6th! There's so much month still to go, who know what might or might not happen?! But, for the first week of the month....

My electric company had charged me over $27 last month for late fees and such. I had lost my cc and had to cancel it. As soon as the new one came in I re-did all my auto-payments, including the electric company, but they had already tried to charge my card and had been denied. I called them and explained the situation, noting that I had never been late paying my bill before. They removed the charges! I had budgeted the amount with the fees just in case they wouldn't take them off, so that's an extra $27 in my budget!

DH had jury duty last month and was sent a check for $7.50 this week. Not much, but every little bit helps out this month.

Now, for the oh-no's: I budgeted 4 fill-ups for my car this month. I've already used 2 of them! I went to my mom and dad's for a few days which was some extra gas. But, we don't have any more out-of-town trips planned this month. So, I might still squeeze this out if I'm careful.

Another oh-no: For the last several years we've hosted a back-to-school bash for our church group. It's this Friday and I somehow managed to forget about it when I was making my budget. We've decided to do brisket sandwiches and have everyone bring chips and drinks. Hopefully this won't do us in!

I have found some things that I'll be taking to a kids consignment store this week. If they sell quickly that will give me a little more money to help us make it.

This is such a MISSION for me right now. I keep thinking of how much easier next month will be if I take care of things right now.

 

[Irin997]

Your budget will be filled with plenty of oh-no's - the trick is to squeeze money from another portion of the budget to fill your need.

As far as the No Buy / $0 buy threads, I used to be a "member" and the point of it is not to deny yourself the things you need, but to stop the impulse buying. For example, you walk into Target prepared to buy laundry detergent (let's say $15) but you walk out with $100 of stuff you don't need...DVD's, new clothes, etc. It's a different method of budgeting.

So far my budget is going pretty good. I'm quite please with myself although I'm looking forward to pay day much too soon in advance.

 

[Kimi313]

In regards to debt and CC, since you are nat carrying any CC debt, do you have a rewards card? I am thinking about adding another for Costco, since i have to pay debtcard anyways. for almost all others, I am using disney visa, with around $30 per month in rewards points. This next trip we will have around $600 disney $.

I have been setting budgets for years, wanted to stay home with DD when she was born and she just started college last year, but the one thing I started to help out on Disney Vacations was charge monthly budgeted stuff on a rewards CC and then right after I charge it I deduct it immediately from the checking account, as if it is gone, then when the bill comes in I write the check for CC and its okay cause its already gone. The one hassle is I do have a lot of receipts to go through each month to make sure everything is correct. I started with a Discover Card when the would give you 1% and then when Disney Visa came out I use them. The money adds up, we usually have 400-500 every year. Now I do not do this with DH gas bills cause he would tend to overspend on gas so he works better on a weekly gas allowance but I do groceries, vet bills, medical bills, insurance payments, netflix, newspaper, etc. Note: I have sub accounts that I put money into every month that covers things like the vet, medical, insurance, christmas, car tags, and DD clothes allowance. Yea if I pass away DH will never be able to figure out my system!