Budgeting Tips?

[auntiemaimee]

We used to live in a condo so the maintenence and cost of the house was less. Now that we are in a house and still own the condo(it's on the market), I need to get serious about a budget and spending tracking.

Do you have any tips? Favorite apps that help you keep track of things? Just looking for some ideas from you ladies who have been at this longer than I have.

Thank you.

[jwill]

I love mint.Com (there is an app for mobile too) to keep track of everything in one place.

[poppy523]

I am old school and like things I can write in and touch. We keep a family binder... Not exactly like this one, but the same general idea and it is where we keep all or budgeting stuff


justagirlandherblog.com/home-binder-with-free-printables/

[wolfpack]

Open communication has been key. We legit had to sit down and discuss everything we spent money on (it wasn't a pretty conversation at times) but we made a budget together and talk about long term goals. Actually writing down on paper helped. Also we started using cash, I will take 20/30 out for small things during the week (like coffee) and that's all I would use. We also have gotten good about splitting meals at places, which helps a lot too.

[seadragon2013]

Our two most useful budgeting tricks have been 1) meal planning to avoid wasting food or going out too often and 2) having set monthly amounts to cover personal expenses ($150 per person per month for all discretionary spending, including breakfast/lunch out). We both work outside the home and this helps us keep our lunch/coffee spending on track. These two things free up at least $400 a month.

We use a spreadsheet to plan out the budget based on several months of data, but don't track all purchases (other than discretionary) normally. A large chunk of each paycheck is deposited directly into savings, but we always have the option to pull some monthly savings out for unexpected large expenses.

[puck1182]

I'm a spreadsheeter. I use a spreadsheet to track income, expenses and savings on a monthly basis (each month gets it's own worksheet) plus have a bonus worksheet that adds up YTD for each category an a section at te bottom where I can play with the monthly budget as our expenses and/or income changes.

I do automatic transfers into savings from each of my paychecks, which helps a lot. I don't have to think about it, and the money is out of checking as soon as it's been deposited, so there isn't temptation to spend it.

And meal planning definitely helps a lot. Less grocery waste, and we're less likely to resort to take out or restaurants if we have the ingredients to make a good meal right here.

I also find that only buying clothing I absolutely love, and being willing to spend a little more on it reduces overall clothing expenses. I buy less, and get rid of things less often because they last (and appeal to me) for much longer.

[ally2011]

We manage everything in Quicken and I can't recommend it enough. I can tell you for he last several years how much we have spent by month on groceries, dining out , drug store, charity, house stuff, medical, etc.....the categories are set up by you and personalized to your life. We can also track investments and our mortgage and have a snapshot of our net worth at any time. We need to be much better about budgeting and it has tools for that too. But as for keeping up with every dollar and knowing generally what your finances look like at any time, you can't beat this program. It links to all of our accounts and we just run an update, it dumps everything in and then we categorize it out. Very easy once you get in it set up and get in the habit. 

[aydee]

Mar 1, 2015 17:09:02 GMT -5 puck1182 said:

I also find that only buying clothing I absolutely love, and being willing to spend a little more on it reduces overall clothing expenses. I buy less, and get rid of things less often because they last (and appeal to me) for much longer.

This is a great tip and something I want to focus on more with my clothes budget.

[fignewt]

I needed something quick and simple. DH and I came up with a number - how much we could spend each month on everything (groceries, clothes, prescriptions, birthday gifts, gas, going out, etc.) Then every time we spent money, we would come home and put the dollar amount on the calendar. That way we could both see at a glance how much we had spent, and how much we had left for the remainder of the month.