ORGANIZED Budget

[brunette8706]

Hi All!

I really need to organize my budget, but I'm looking for ideas how to do it better or if I'm missing something. I guess what I'm asking is, do you put money aside, or in a 2nd checking account? I'm trying to streamline this, but not sure where to start. LOL! I know there are a lot of experts out there, would love to have some advice and suggestions if possible. As always thanks so much for your help.

I have the following expenses that I broke down this way:


Mortgage for 2 homes


Our Home Expenses (Our Primary Residence, in MD)
Electric
Water bill
Home Owners Assoc.
Cable/phone/internet

Florida Vacation Home Expenses
Electric
Water
Home Owners Assoc
Cable


MONTHLY EXPENSES
Food
Vacation Fund
Car Insurance
Cell Phones
American Express (will pay off in 2 months)
misc.

 

[DawnM]

I use YNAB for my budgeting and enter EVERY expenditure in there. You can have as many categories as you want.

http://www.youneedabudget.com/

I also have ING accounts, which I LOVE! I have several accounts/categories and have the money transferred each month automatically. Some things I have been saving for in there are things like Vacation, new computer, and the kids' savings accounts.

Dawn

 

[moongirl]

I don't think you have enough categories to see where you are spending your money. I have a monthly budget on an Excel spreadsheet with a line item for things that we spend money on each month or save for as a yearly expense. At the end of each month, I put in what we actually spent. I do this for 2 reasons: 1) I can make sure that we are actually not overspending and saving what we need to save, and 2) so in January of the following year, I can adjust the budget if necessary. I have very few things that fall into a "miscellaneous category". Miscellaneous for us includes our newspaper, gardening supplies for the summer, and small, random necessities that come up. I write those down at the bottom of my spreadsheet so I can see if I need to add an actual line item in the budget for the next year. Your first step is to write down everything you spend and on what for at least an entire month and go back and look through your credit card and bank statements and put everything you spent into categories. I just use one checking account and move money every month that needs to be saved (like the vacation, gifts, taxes categories) into a money market account where it can earn some interest until the bill comes in. Here are my categories:

mortgage
vacation
gifts: Christmas and birthday
kids' activities (baseball, scouts, chess, piano, etc.)
Cash/Miscellaneous
clothes/shoes
phone/cable/internet
gas/electric
haircuts
gasoline
household supplies (non-food items)
wage tax
property Taxes
Car insurance
life insurance
car repairs
charity
groceries
water/sewage/garbage
restaurants/entertainment
Public Transit pass
Mobile phone
401 k/savings
health/dental insurance
parking

 

[ambertides]

I use YNAB for my budgeting and enter EVERY expenditure in there. You can have as many categories as you want.

We use YNAB, too. I can't recommend it enough.

Here are our categories (for ideas):

Housing
Rent
Electricity
Phone
Cable/Internet

Transportation
Gas
Maintenance and Repairs (this includes the obvious, plus taxes, etc.)
Travel (tolls and parking, mainly)
Car Insurance
Car Payment (we don't have one, but when/if we do, it'll go here)

Food & Groceries
Groceries
Restaurants
Alcohol
Personal (shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, and so on)
Vitamins (this could go under personal for most people)
Pet (food, litter, toys, medicine...)

Household
Life Insurance
Maintenance and Repairs (this includes cleaning supplies, appliances, furniture, things like that)
Clothes - Me
Clothes - DH
Business Supplies (stamps, paper, pens...)
Tech (phones, ink, computers...)

Recreation
His (this is fun money - for anything)
Hers (same here)
Entertainment
Vacation

Savings
Emergency Fund
Christmas
Gifts
Charity

And then another section for debt payments.