Chicago526
<font color=red>Any dream will do...<br><font colo
- Joined
- May 6, 2003
- Messages
- 11,024
I always forget about the extra weeks in the month.
for the tips.
I like the idea of increasing the grocery budget around the holidays. Our Thanksgiving dinner cost an additional $300 on top of the normal weekly amount. I wondered where that $$$ went.
That's what I love about Quicken, I was able to run a report and see our spending patterns. I knew that week to week I was spending our budgeted amount for groceries, and couldn't figure out why some months were higher than others. Bingo, I looked at it and found that I had an extra shopping trip in months with five Saturdays!
I also saw other patterns, like that our entertainment expenses went up in the summer, due to going out to the movies for the summer block busters (normally we wait for it on dvd and put it in our netflix queue) and a few summer trips to the zoo or downtown, and then fall again in the fall/winter/spring as the weather changed and we stayed in more. So I'll build that into our budgets for the summer months when the time comes.
I found that if I took the whole years expenses in any given catagory and divided by twelve, that in the months that I was under the average, that money would "leak away" someplace. Even if I saved it, something would come up and I'd take it from savings anyway. If I budget month by month, I don't have that problem. In months with higher utility bills or other "one time" expenses, I just have less to put towards the CC debt, that's all. And of course we have a savings cushion, so if we have a really bad month, we can cover the shortage. But because I make the budget at the beginning of the month, I can tell it's going to be tight and try and cut back where I can, before the money is spent. Or just be able to transfer money from savings in plenty of time if needed.
and I haven't even started writing anything down yet!!
I do have Quicken, but no idea as to how to use it. I found some budget sheets online I may try to use. Does anyone budget month by month? I have some stuff that isn't due every month, so I don't want to include that every month. 
I have since curtailed my pizza habit, but I still need to get some stuff under control.
so the best way for me to eliminate, honestly, is I stay out of the stores. Instead of browsing
the stores today for after Christmas sales on stuff I know I don't need, I stayed home and got a lot accomplished (washed all the floors, did some laundry, some much needed organizing and finished my Aladdins Magic Carpets scrapbook page from our Sept trip.) 
Don't beat yourself up. If you are just starting out with this, what will likely happen at first is that you will become very aware of all the spending you are doing. Then, you may try to go "cold turkey" and not buy anything. Then you will feel deprived and go on a shopping spree.....(I'm using the general "you" here)
That is so smart! I need to get more specific.
I have been so aware my purchases and having to write it all down that I brought lunch to work 2 out of the 4 days last week. One day everyone ordered out and I declined. 
That is very motivating! We need a new car but I do not want another loan so we are putting away what we can in hopes of taking advantage of the car deals out there this summer. 
It took one of our friends telling him how lucky he is that his wife is focusing on saving and not spending for him to realize the value and purpose of my exercise. 
cars in July of this year. There's no way we will have enough to pay cash for even one car so we will need to do the car loan thing. 
We are talking about getting one that is used from a car rental place because they usually take pretty good care of the cars and usually the mileage is not too bad. My parents always buy their cars from rental car places because the rental car places buy new cars every year and sell off the year-old ones. 
