please ignore

[Nik's Mom]

We have a joint checking and savings account. DH and I have a rule that we can't spend more than $100 without consulting the other spouse first. This way, spending doesn't get out of hand. Of course, this doesn't count things like bills or groceries. It's only spending we might do if we were shopping for clothes, etc. A joint account works for us. We're very open with each other about spending. But then again, we are not big spenders. We have a modest home, even thoug we could afford more. We had only one car for many years, and only a couple years ago did we buy a second car. Really, our only luxury is our Disney World vacation every 2-3 years.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I handle all of our finances because DH is military, I pretty much have to and it works well for us anyway, he doesn't want to. We have one joint checking account that DH's pay is direct deposited into. I pay all of our bills from there (some auto. debited). I transfer $25 per month (what we can afford right now) into one ING to help our emergency fund grow. We also have a second ING account to save for other things. We're starting Dave Ramsey's system right now so this month we are tracking our expenses by writing down EVERYTHING we spend $ on, then starting Aug. 1st everything that I don't pay with our bank's billpay system will go to the envelope system. I think this will work well, DH will have his own money to spend and won't have to check with me when he wants something to make sure we have the money.

I still haven't figured out how our gift buying will work with this since we don't need to buy every month. I think I will just contribute to the gift envelope every pay period and then the money will be there when we need it.

 

[disneymom3]

Just thought I would let all you budget helpers know some of the changes we are making around here. first off, I am getting our papers and finances organized via the file system that I am thinking was on David Bach's site. Tuesday will find me at the library checking out some of these books that have been mentioned.

We are also cancelling one cell phone adn getting DH a pay as you go type phone for emergencies only. I have to have mine as I use it for work (I'm a Realtor and am not having people call my home number.) We are also reducing our tithing at church. While that may sound a little odd, here is the deal: Last year we committed to giving a certain amount each week while DH was still working a job that did NOT make our monthly commitments. As I said I sell real estate but it is not consistent as I work PT and homeschool the kids. Anyway, he got a new job in March and we decided to up our tithing each week. We never officially changed our committed amount and here is the thing: we have no savings. So, we have come to the conclusion that while tithing 10% will be our ultimate goal, we don't think that God wants us to be giving away money (though we are still giving) while not having any safety net to rely on.

I have also had a serious talk with DH about the little expenditures going on a LOT since he got this new job. He just uses the debit card for the odd cup of coffee, snack or whatever at work. All those little charges drive me nuts and they add up really quickly. He also likes these frozen pizzas that he buys at the store but then he inevitably finds this that and the other that he needs to get too, which has increased my Walmart budget by about $50 the last year per month. So, new deal is that he leaves all grocery and Walmart shopping to me and gets a monthly budget for all of his little expenditures. I also have a monthly budget which covers me and the kids. For me it will be things like fast food for lunch when I don't want to cook or pizza when I haven't planned dinner.

All of these changes will allow us to start putting a designated amount into our ING savings accts each month.

We are also buying Quicken off of ebay--an older version--as I have Microsoft money and I hate it and long ago we used Quicken adn it was fine.

So, thanks for all the info! I look forward to continuing to improve our $$ situation.

 

[Leader of the Club]

We are also buying Quicken off of ebay--an older version--as I have Microsoft money and I hate it and long ago we used Quicken adn it was fine.

So, thanks for all the info! I look forward to continuing to improve our $$ situation.

Okay, on a much lighter note...

When I first read that i that it said that you were buying Chicken on eBay. I wish you could have seen the look on my face for that one!

 

[EthansMom]

We are also cancelling one cell phone adn getting DH a pay as you go type phone for emergencies only.

DH and I have prepaid phones for emergencies and the occasional quick phone call (not for chatting). Our prepaids cost us $20 each every three months min. The lowest cost traditional cell phone would have cost $30 each per month.

I have also had a serious talk with DH about the little expenditures going on a LOT since he got this new job. He just uses the debit card for the odd cup of coffee, snack or whatever at work. All those little charges drive me nuts and they add up really quickly. He also likes these frozen pizzas that he buys at the store but then he inevitably finds this that and the other that he needs to get too, which has increased my Walmart budget by about $50 the last year per month. So, new deal is that he leaves all grocery and Walmart shopping to me and gets a monthly budget for all of his little expenditures. I also have a monthly budget which covers me and the kids. For me it will be things like fast food for lunch when I don't want to cook or pizza when I haven't planned dinner.

DH and I each get $20 per week cash at the beginning of the week for coffee, fast food, etc.

I also don't let my DH go grocery shopping any more than necessary because he doesn't stick to the list. Once he went to frozen foods to pick up a container of ice cream and came back with 2 containers of ice cream and a bag of chips -- ended up costing three times more than if I'd gotten the ice cream myself.

 

[etwinchester]

I use quicken daily and really know the ins and outs but apparently this is somethign I've missed. Which version of quicken do you have and where would I find this?

Thanks!

I just purchased Premier 2005 but I had an older version years ago and know that it was on there.

It's called "Emergency Records Organizer" and it should be listed under the Property & Debt tab. If not, got to the help index and type it in there. Also, there is a Home Inventory one that you can list the valuables in your home. Great incase of a theft. Make sure to have all your records on hand with policy #'s, contact information, etc... It is time consuming to set it all up, but once it's done you only have to make changes only if something changes with your policy (face amount, canceled, etc). When your done entering your records, you can click on the "reports" tab in the records organizer and click on survivor report.

I also customized my toolbar to add the Emergency Records Button. You should be able to go under edit, customize toolbar, then click in the little box "show all toolbar choices". You can find the emergency records and home inventory and add them to your toolbar for easier access.

Hope all this helps. Let me know how you make out and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask...

 

[MELSMICE]

DH didn't even know about the "budget" thread & this morning he said he wanted to go over everything together & talk about our retirement accounts.

We're doing pretty good with retirement but decided we definitely need to save more on a weekly/monthly basis if we want to really, really enjoy our retirement, not just live comfortably.

I have learned these things throughout the years

--there is ALWAYS something to save for

--a bill never really goes away, the money just gets puts somewhere else (ie. mortage will be paid in 3 years, but then DD's start college )

--when you think you are ahead of the game in your finances, something else comes up

--the more money you earn, the more money you spend

 

[disneysteve]

--the more money you earn, the more money you spend

This is the hardest one for most people to manage (and I'm certainly not innocent of this either). If you are doing fine, paying all the bills, investing for the future, etc. and you get a raise at work, you can either increase the amount going to savings or you can spend more or some combination of the two. All too often, folks just increase spending to match income. It takes some thought and discipline, but you should put most or all of an income increase into additional savings.

Here's our example. We recently became a 2-income household for the first time in 10 years. We've been doing just fine on my income all this time, saving and investing aggressively for the future - emergency fund, college fund, retirement, etc. We in no way really needed additional income. So from her first paycheck, I started investing 50% of her take-home pay. We used the other 50% for some little splurges - dinners out, weekend get-away, etc. Nothing extravagant but stuff we might not have done otherwise. She also needed to do some clothes shopping for work outfits. Now that she's been working for 6 months, the novelty of the extra money has pretty much worn off so I increased the savings to 60% of her take-home pay and may increase it even farther in a couple of months. She also got a raise as of July 1. So while we did increase spending some, we also boosted savings a lot. She didn't want to be working and see no immediate benefit but we also didn't want to blow it all on stuff.

 

[cruisnfamily]

I just purchased Premier 2005 but I had an older version years ago and know that it was on there.

It's called "Emergency Records Organizer" and it should be listed under the Property & Debt tab. If not, got to the help index and type it in there. Also, there is a Home Inventory one that you can list the valuables in your home. Great incase of a theft. Make sure to have all your records on hand with policy #'s, contact information, etc... It is time consuming to set it all up, but once it's done you only have to make changes only if something changes with your policy (face amount, canceled, etc). When your done entering your records, you can click on the "reports" tab in the records organizer and click on survivor report.

I also customized my toolbar to add the Emergency Records Button. You should be able to go under edit, customize toolbar, then click in the little box "show all toolbar choices". You can find the emergency records and home inventory and add them to your toolbar for easier access.

Hope all this helps. Let me know how you make out and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask...

I have the home inventory thing set up...just not this emergency records thing. Never noticed it. It sounds like a great idea as DH would be clueless if something happened to me. Thanks for the info. I also like the idea of adding the emergency records thing to the toolbar. Thanks for helping me out. We just upgraded to the 2005 version so I'm sure it's there.

 

[etwinchester]

Your so welcome. The records organizer is a great asset. My DD is only 5 and if anything happen to us, the family would know how to obtain all of our policy money for her. You don't have to enter everything in one day if you don't have time. When you add a record, there is a save button on the bottom to click on. You can go back in anytime to make changes or add more policies. Just make sure to print out an updated report with the new information when your ready. I printed out our report to keep in our safe deposit box.

I also listed an asset record with just things in the note section. Here I entered things that I belong to on the internet such as mypoints, paypal, upromise, etc... Anything that would give them additional money or places to cancel my memberships.

You never know what will happen in the future and I want to make sure my family gets all my funds that are out there.

 

[Nicolepa]

One other thing. I may get flamed for this, but I can't believe the number of people on here who have seperate accounts for "free" money and "his going out" money. WTH!??!!My DH wouldn't want or expect money set aside so he could "go out with the boys" and neither would I! We are a family, we do things together. There is the occasional seperate "outing" but not a weekly or even monthly thing.Cripes, stop doing that and stay home with your family.

We have always had an allowance. He is the spender and I am a saver. Without an allowance (going into seperate accounts) he would go buy whatever he wanted and I'd feel like I couldn't spend any money (at the time I was doing the bills). It caused a lot of resentment. After we started the allowance system the resentment stopped. He can buy his video games and I can buy my quilting supplies, or a new non bugeted item for the kids. No more arguing over who spent more. In the end we spend a lot less on "me" items.

Personally to imply that we aren't acting like a family because we have our own spending money is crazy. We don't go out seperately, heck we don't even have a babysitter so we rarely go out at all!

We live on one income, have no sizable debt, pay our cc off every month. If we didn't have an allowance, I guarentee we'd spend a lot more.

 

[Nicolepa]

luvthatdisney

You guys sound a lot like us!

My DH also likes to spend money on his "toy", but we always agree on how much and when. We also talk, a lot. By the sounds of a lot of folks on here, they lead very busy lives and have trouble communicating. Whether it's a time thing or relationship style I don't know. Neither of us would ever spend any real amount of money without checking with the other one. His side job is sporadic, not a source of income you count on, just something he can tap into if he wants some "toy" money. All our WDW trips were paid for in cash up front and spending $$$ was cash also.No cc. I believe he has also written two checks in our 18 years of marriage. It is a joint account, he just hates doing anything with money which is why I do it.It works for us.

Well, for us, it's not a time or a communication thing. He get's grumpy if his purchases are questioned or he feels the need to ask permission, and I get grumpy if I feel he's spending a lot more than me. His purchases are rarely expensive, but a video game here and a hard drive there would add up to several hundred dollars a month. Now we each have our own account we don't question purchases made from that account. If dh wants more money he will sell on ebay and put it in his account. Everybody's happy. No more fighting

 

[therriau4]

I'm just curious, and wondering how your system works (its interesting!): you say that that with separate allowances, you can buy quilting supplies, or a new non budgeted item for the kids. Does your husband also spend $ out of his allowance on non budgeted items for the kids, or are you the only one?

My dh and I each take an allowance every week, but its just enough to cover gas and once a week lunch out with our friends. Kids spending, and hobby spending just comes out of the main till (if the $ is available). I wonder if I could make your system work fairly for us (I suspect I'd be the only one to spend non-budgeted money on the kids, no offense to my dh).
Thanks, and no disrespect intended.

 

[Nicolepa]

Also, what types of bills do you have set up for automatic payments? Do you find they work for you?

EVERYTHING! Dh called each recurring bill and asked if they had auto withdrawal. The only thing we don't have on auto pay is our American Express bill & preschool.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

One other thing. I may get flamed for this, but I can't believe the number of people on here who have seperate accounts for "free" money and "his going out" money. WTH!??!!My DH wouldn't want or expect money set aside so he could "go out with the boys" and neither would I! We are a family, we do things together. There is the occasional seperate "outing" but not a weekly or even monthly thing.Cripes, stop doing that and stay home with your family.
.

IMO, adults need adult time and a chance to pursue their own interests. What in the world would we talk about if we spent every waking moment together or just discussing the kids? For example, I get bored watching baseball, however DH loves it so I encourage him to take his friends to a game. In the same token, my friends and I might go see a movie he isn't interested in seeing.

We actually haven't done this in a long time and most of our time spent is family time, but I would not want to tell DH that all of his time should just be spent with me! That's unreasonable, just like it would be unreasonable for him to expect that with me so if that's what we're doing, we should budget for it. Sometimes it's just one of us doing something alone that we need, I was thrilled to spend an hour at the library without herding 5 kids a couple days ago and I was a much happier wife and mommy for it (I enjoy reading). I think it's just a matter of what's important for your family and budgeting for your family's needs.

 

[Nicolepa]

I'm just curious, and wondering how your system works (its interesting!): you say that that with separate allowances, you can buy quilting supplies, or a new non budgeted item for the kids. Does your husband also spend $ out of his allowance on non budgeted items for the kids, or are you the only one?

My dh and I each take an allowance every week, but its just enough to cover gas and once a week lunch out with our friends. Kids spending, and hobby spending just comes out of the main till (if the $ is available). I wonder if I could make your system work fairly for us (I suspect I'd be the only one to spend non-budgeted money on the kids, no offense to my dh).
Thanks, and no disrespect intended.

Well I will admit I spend more of my money on the kids than he does, but yes he will use his money to get them things, or even take us all out to dinner. Remember I am the saver in the family, so I usually have more money saved than he does to buy extras. The whole point is that it's my choice to spend it on whatever I want. He can't tell me better things I could have bought, and vice versa. For us Gas and lunch come out of the main budget. We know we fill our cars up about every 2 weeks, and lunch at work is x amount per day. He doesn't by little snacks here and there so it's not a problem for us.

 

[pat fan]

Personally to imply that we aren't acting like a family because we have our own spending money is crazy. We don't go out seperately, heck we don't even have a babysitter so we rarely go out at all!

Oh OUCH! I din't mean to imply you weren't a family! The checkbook thing I was referring to was really that there were checkbooks for all different types of bills and the "seperate" money part referred to his having his check,her having her check and never the twain shall meet. Guess I wasn't very clear. DH does do stuff with his friends and I do things with mine, I just don't understand having a budget for it. Maybe I'm not understanding what others are saying. He gets an "allowance" (I hate that word) and if we wants to spend it on something silly, I don't care but it's supposed to be for coffe & gas for the week. If either of us wants something else, it comes out of my "allowance". Mine is bigger because I have the kids all the time (he works nights).I spend on me,the kids,the dog and DH.If all of us are together and we get ice cream, I pay. If he's alone, he pays. The part I thought was crazy was for someone to "deserve" money to eat out/go out or whatever every week! I still say that's crazy, especialy if you are hurting financialy.

 

[dvcgirl]

We have joint accounts. Joint checking. We have six months salary in a money market fund and then another six months in a series of staggered CDs so that they mature at different times. I also have a separate business checking account for my small business. Any bill that we can pay on-line, we do, for convenience sake. We use Microsoft Money for both personal and business use.

As for additional savings, we fund our IRAs in the beginning of the year (this is a great way to start saving!!) and then we have a diversified portfolio that we contribute to each month. We have a financial planner who manages those accounts for us and is paid on a percentage basis. We do our own personal and business accounting/taxes.

My husband also maxes out his 401K each year with his employer. As a sole proprietor of my business, we are also allowed to place the first $14,000 in profits tax free into a special 401K for small business owners with no employees . In addition we place the 25% of profits above that up to the $42,000 mark. So...the first 25K profit can be invested...tax free. This is a *huge* perk if anyone out there is thinking of starting their own business. The tax advantages are huge, and the write-offs are wonderful as well.

This is what works best for us...YMMV.

 

[crisi]

When we had allowances and seperate accounts, gas was a joint expense - after all, couldn't help driving to work. Allowances were really "fun money." We could afford it. And it kept me from resenting when he spent all OUR fun money on comic books and shoes (I'm married to a man with a shoe fetish!) and I didn't have any left to buy books.

Of course, when money is so tight there is no fun money, there really isn't any reason for allowances. And when money is fairly plentiful and there is a level of understanding on "reasonable expenses" there isn't a lot of reason for allowances either. At this point my husband is fortunate that he can buy new shoes on occation and I'll just roll my eyes - but it won't mean not being able to pay bills.

 

[Kramer]

Just wanted to be clear that while "snowballing" has a psychological advantage, it actually has a financial disadvantage.

Steve, just a minor point of disagreement (you are the personal finance guru of the DIS ) I think you are right in a "perfect" world, but in the real world I don't think its a disadvantage.

The goal is to pay off the debt as quickly as possible, thereby saving the most amount of money in finance charges. If someone needs the psychological motivation of snowballing to get their debts payed down then that is a financial advantage. Because the alternative, in reality, is that they might not be motivated enough otherwise to get the debts paid off. So in the long run, snowballing saves them a lot of money on the debt they might not otherwise pay off.