Budgeting: do you, and how?

[devaf]

I budget and in the following ways.
Home and business budgets are separate.I will also stick to home budgeting like the posts in the thread.
My wife (also typed as intj v.recently) handles the money, but we plan together. Basic cash flow statements are the tool to budget, rest is discussion and mental memory.
On a side note, I chose always term insurance covers, low premiums, high coverage, zero returns. My wife, she looks at that like its only for tax break and investment purpose. Its a source of conflict at home, or rather, used to be.
My basic ideas
waste not, want not
maintain written accounts
avoid debt, even at cost of lower lifestyle
savings is not really useful today, unless its part and parcel of 'savings and investment'
don't be penny wise and pound foolish
you get what you pay for
keep aside a portion to give for social responsibility programme/s
when budgeting, if you have to keep buffers, you don't have enough data and a good plan

thats it i guess

 

[highlander]

Since my eight year old still refuses to manage the money in my household, I'm stuck with the task. I don't keep a solid budget, but I'm actually quite good at managing money, because to me it's all just a big math game where I try to have as high a score as possible, but the ultimate goal is just to stay in the black. I don't really stress about it at all, and in fact I don't check my bank statement daily or even weekly.

My ex-wife, on the other hand, insisted on managing the money, yet stressed over it constantly, and I know other people at a comparable level of income to mine with fewer expenses who worry about it a lot more, too.

How does money feel to you, and what do you do to manage it?

Budgeting has always been an abysmal failure for me. I don't have the discipline to do it and find it far too tedious. I do a few things though:

- Always spend less than I make
- Always take a liberal percentage and put it into savings; don't even give the money a chance to be spent
- Always pay off credit cards every month
- Take maximum advantage of 401k, profit sharing plans and the like
- I don't have a mortgage anymore but when I did, it was always 15 years
- I don't speculate on stocks (anymore) and largely use index funds
- I usually buy used cars instead of new ones
- I don't pay much attention to the stock market but calculate net worth and investments on a regular basis - perhaps every month or two
- I run scenarios on future cash flows; like say if I stopped working tomorrow, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, etc.; contingency worst case scenarios are always part of it

 

[prplchknz]

My budget pay all bills and rent first worry about everything else after

 

[Rail Tracer]

I'm actually learning to budget. I think the main focus for me is separating what I need versus what I want. Bills that I need to pay monthly goes towards a separate, but connected checking account. Money that I plan to use something that cost a bit more go into the savings of this account.

Basically, money left-over goes towards my first account that I have with a debit card. This account, I can spend on food and gas.
Bank Account 1:

* What is left over after deducting bills and future purchases
* Used for general purchases like food, gas, and other consumables
* Uses Debit Card for general purchases
* Kept connected, but separate from the second bank account

The second account will not be using a debit card, it is strictly for paying bills with a check. It is separated between the checking, that I'll be using for monthly bills, and a savings, which is used for future purchases that require more than a little bit of money. Bi-weekly, money is sent into this account that I do not touch except for bills.

Bank Account 2:
* Bi-weekly transfers from Account 1 to this Account
* No debit use for this account
* Check is used for paying bills and such
* Bills that are paid monthly goes towards Checking
* Bills or future purchases that require larger sums goes towards Savings to accumulate.

Bank Account 1 is what I want while Bank Account 2 is what I "need".

 

[Pionart]

I need to start budgeting. I spend too much money on my addictions. Tobacco, alcohol, energy drinks, take away food. And it's not like I make much money, either. So my budget, starting next year, will be: don't buy these things. Pay for: rent, travel, cheap and healthy foods, phone credit. But am I really going to be able to achieve this? \()/ Why of course I will!

 

[EJCC]

Took me so freaking long to come up with a budget system that works for me, but I finally have one.

I'm naturally thrifty in almost every way, but I also live in an expensive city with a culture of eating out and VERY high rent costs, so budgeting ended up being necessary despite that. My main irregular expenses other than impulse "investment" purchases* are related to food.

SO.

I have my regular payments that are the same monthly: rent, utilities (with some variance by season), phone, public transport, charitable giving, Netflix, Spotify, my gym, Classpass, and therapy.

Then I have a weekly food budget for both eating out and buying groceries - starting the budget week on Friday or Saturday so I can splurge a bit on social engagements before buying cheap groceries for the week and being thrifty Monday-Thursday.

And then I have the "miscellaneous" amount for everything else. That miscellaneous amount is not very high, but like I said, I'm thrifty, so I usually stay around there.

Everything else goes partly into paying down my credit card debt, partly into my 401k, and mostly into my savings account. I haven't achieved 50/20/30 but I'm around 55/15/30 ish, which isn't bad.

Some other quirks of my budget system:
- I only use cash to buy food, because it's the budget area where I'm the most prone towards overspending, and using paper money helps that spending become more tangible.
- I have a somewhat ridiculous and arbitrary system in which all coinage smaller than a quarter goes into a savings jar. Started off as a joke but I have about $10 in there now, so now I have to decide what it's going to...

I also have the Acorns app. So some small coinage amount goes in there monthly - I don't track it carefully.


*"I should have this high quality thing that will last forever! That would be a good investment!"

 

[Coriolis]

Then I have a weekly food budget for both eating out and buying groceries - starting the budget week on Friday or Saturday so I can splurge a bit on social engagements before buying cheap groceries for the week and being thrifty Monday-Thursday.

Wouldn't it be easier to start your food budget week on Sun/Mon, be as frugal as you can buying groceries, and then limit weekend splurging to what you have left?

 

[EJCC]

Wouldn't it be easier to start your food budget week on Sun/Mon, be as frugal as you can buying groceries, and then limit weekend splurging to what you have left?

Can’t speak for my future self, but currently I have too much social FOMO for that. :/ It’s easier to say no to weekday plans than weekend plans.

Also: I have a tendency to want to go to coffee shops on weekdays, and this system keeps me from doing that.

 

[Stigmata]

My budget method is just to earn more money.

 

[Coriolis]

Can’t speak for my future self, but currently I have too much social FOMO for that. :/ It’s easier to say no to weekday plans than weekend plans.

Also: I have a tendency to want to go to coffee shops on weekdays, and this system keeps me from doing that.

What is FOMO?

 

[Smilephantomhive]

What is FOMO?

Fear of missing out.

 

[Coriolis]

Fear of missing out.

That's a thing? I suppose it's all in whatever you fear missing out on.

 

[JocktheMotie]

I budgeted (sort of) while single and it was fine. It was basically, money in must be greater than money out. Anything extra I had left over after bills or specific things I'd be saving for (school) would go to investing. I was fortunate that money was not tight at all so I really just checked everything every month or two. Investments I checked every day though, was super addicted.

Now, while married, I just give all my money to my wife, who has this GIANT spreadsheet I can barely comprehend and she tells me how we're doing.

 

[JocktheMotie]

My budget method is just to earn more money.

This too. My wife and I have extremely different "first responses" to any kind of budget or cash shortfall. My first instinct if we need more money is "How do I make more money this week/month/year?" My wife's first instinct is "what can we cut or reconfigure or optimize to have more money this week/month/year?"

Sort of an interesting dynamic that combines to work well.

 

[EJCC]

What is FOMO?

Fear of missing out.

 

[Coriolis]

Fear of missing out.

Not sure how this relates to budgeting. I mean, there are things I would be afraid to miss out on, usually one-time events like the eclipse last fall, or a friend's wedding, or a performer coming to town whom I really want to see. It's not something I experience on a routine basis, though.

 

[EJCC]

Not sure how this relates to budgeting. I mean, there are things I would be afraid to miss out on, usually one-time events like the eclipse last fall, or a friend's wedding, or a performer coming to town whom I really want to see. It's not something I experience on a routine basis, though.

I’m going to assume this is an extrovert thing, haha. My social life is active and involves lunch or dinner with friends at least twice a week.

 

[Bush]

It's very, very to get obsessed over the details. I used to scan receipts and all. And then I stopped doing that because it added no value whatsoever. Lots and lots of cases are extremely simple: if rent is $750/month, then you budget $750/month for rent; if Netflix is $10/month, then you budget $10/month for Netflix.

My wife and I both pool in the same percentage of our income, set such that it covers those expenses; then we each keep the rest. If our monthly expenses are $30k and I earn $100k/month and she earns $200k/month, then we'll both put 10% of our income into that pool; I'd be giving $10k and she'd give $20k which would cover the whole amount. Same applies with, you know, realistic numbers too.

I also like to keep things as simple as possible, which means (a) simplifying straight-out and (b) automating what can't be simplified. Automatic bill pay and automatic monthly transfers, paying for most stuff with debit cards, and exporting bank records from time to time work pretty well together. I slap those exports into a spreadsheet that I've set up that calculates how much we've been spending on groceries, utilities, etc. based on where each individual purchase has been made. It's a matter of checking that once in a while. If expenses look like they're getting higher, we'll adjust what we put in accordingly and/or take a closer look at where our money's going if there have been any surprises.

Those bank records are useful as shit. Export withdrawals over the past six months, filter for all of the grocery stores, and tally all of that up, and you can get a rolling average of how much you're spending on groceries.

Basically, then, I pull retrospectives: as in, "oh shit I've been spending too much on x; better cut back."

 

[Dreamer]

I definitely budget, money AND time, both are way too valuable to just toss aside like flimsy Mardi Gras beads.

Every now and again, I’ll get on some Te overdrive “get shit done” mode and organize the Hell out of my finances and come up with this overzealous approach to managing my finances and time, scheduling things like when to go to bed and estimating how long it’ll take me to eat dinner...yes, for real. But literally, the next day rolls around, and I realize what a loon I was to think I’d ever follow such a mechanical lifestyle, and toss those plans into the metaphorical trash and move on. But, on the day to day, and what DOES work for me, is keeping just a few main numbers in mind at all times, and by following those numbers, it keeps me on track towards my financial goals and in better managing my time.

For example, I have an amount I am able to spend on anything like groceries, gas, and fun per week. I’m usually pretty conservative with spending anything on fun at the beginning of the week, and depending on how close or far I am from that determined number as I start to near closer to the end of the week, dictates how much I will spend on fun and entertainment. Also, I’ve allotted a certain amount I am not to exceed on my credit card and just watch the total due rise as the month progresses so I’m not met with any surprises come bill time. I pretty much just keep those two numbers in mind, the weekly allowance, and monthly credit card allowance, and I’m good to go with still plenty of flexibility to do my “ENFP” thang

These two numbers, I will say, comes from careful planning and prioritizing so, even if I reach the max amounts for each number, I’m still putting a certain amount away towards my savings, towards investment, towards my student loans, and towards my static bills, which never change month to month, and finally, a small amount is accounted for as “fluff” should I ever find myself incurring unexpected costs, like paying for a visit to Urgent Care for a bite from my meanie guinea pig

 

[rav3n]

At this point, I don't bother to manage it much beyond ensuring that what's spent is less than income which it always is, except for big ticket purchases. But that's taken from an emergency fund account which continues to be funded monthly so there's no shock to finances.