TTMA: Budgets

[mbjune13]

For those who live on a budget, how do you figure it out?? I have tried and I just cannot figure it out. I am not good at being responsible with my money and probably should have figured this out way before now. I need help, I am not budget savvy. And tips or tricks or just an easy way to do it? Please help me adult!

[mrsdee1982]

((My love for excel is going to show here))

What I did was I took 3 months worth of our bank statements and I highlighted all of our bills.

I then entered the name of those bills in one column and the amount of each bill in the next column.

Then I went through the statements and highlighted our mandatory spending (i.e.: gas, groceries). I averaged out what I thought the monthly cost would be, and entered those into excel.

I then went through and figured out our "fun stuffs". Entered those into excel.

Then I went through and figured out how much income we were bringing in each month and made adjustments to areas that I could to make sure we weren't over spending.

Now, each month, I fill in my excel sheet so I can keep track of our spending. It tells me if we were over/under budget, etc…

See below (Not our full budget. Early prototype)

[mrsdee1982]

Jan 14, 2016 16:57:28 GMT -5 @jemomma said:

mrsdee1982 , equivalent to porn for me.
Thank you.

I love excel so damn much.  I know there are much fancier software programs I could use, but nope!  Give me my spreadsheets all day every day!

[holliberry28]

I've used mint.com before to help make budget plans similar to what mrsdee1982 did. I just can't seem to stay on budget with food (mostly because we don't meal plan and buy lunch most of the time).

[mbjune13]

Thanks ladies!! mrsdee1982 I love Excel too! Thanks for breaking it down though, every time I try I get overwhelmed.
I think my problem lies with us have separate accounts. I will start on my own and make my own budget then work of DH's. I've tried getting joint accounts for almost 5 years but he doesn't want to. We share all our money so I don't see the difference but he doesn't see the point.

[beersandweirs]

Not related to budgeting necessarily, but husband and I each have our own accounts still, but we do also have a joint account that we each contribute to. That way we each have money of our own and no need explain how we spend it, so to speak.

[Bluedaisy]

In our house my husband does it but we use a spreadsheet as well and basically do the same as the other ladies. We also have consolidated our credit cards through the bank and set up as much as possible on direct debit, that way money goes directly into savings and we don't get a chance to spend it.

[mbjune13]

@bubbs and @jemomma
His reasoning is gifts and getting mad at each other for spending money on unnecessary things. I don't understand it myself but the arguments over it aren't worth it anymore. We split the bills to what he pays and what I pay, he pays more because he makes more. If either of us needs something we spend each others money. We do have a joint savings account and credit card but pay checks are separate.

[dogmama22]

We use a Dave Ramsey monthly budget form, broken down by weeks. I have Excel spreadsheets calculated to show when each debt will be paid off based on payment and I do our check register in there. Luuuurvvv Excel!

[Bluedaisy]

DH and I just got joint accounts. Not because either of us didn't want it, it just took us that flipping long to get to the bank and get all the direct bills moved, etc.

I don't want to derail this thread but.... how do you ladies do the whole gift thing? How do you keep things a surprise?

Also...would anyone be interested in a weekly money thread? I noticed that SAH Parenting does one and thought it could be interesting.

[Widget123]

As much as I hate DH watching my spending like a hawk and commenting every time I spend too much on something, I wouldn't want to be in a situation where I have no idea how much money is going in and out of our house (and where) due to lack of visibility on the other half's finances. So if not a joint account, at least a joint credit card which is used for nearly all expenses. We have both.

[jessila]

When we did strict budgeting we went through and figured out all of our costs. I did minor couponing for groceries and we had rather small individual budgets for the month ($100 for anything outside of the budget including eating out, clothing purchases, whatever). We had an excel sheet that we kept track of monthly purchases with and filled it in as we went. This was right after we got married and I was still in school making $100/week working only on Saturdays.

Honestly our saving grace and problem solver has been having a credit card. We are super responsible and pay it almost completely off every month. We get points with it that actually turn to cash back. We initially got it to pay for grad school for me. It made mentally balancing our checking account for every purchase obsolete and has really helped boost our credit scores. I know it isn't for everyone but it's helped a lot over here.

[lo95]

Dirty lurker May 15: I was poking around here looking for a different topic and saw this post. I can tell you that the game changer for us was cash envelopes. I sat and crunched and crunched numbers for 5! years with DH and we never got the budget to work ever. We just went over and that was that. Girl, put those credit and debit cards away. If you don't have them when you're out you will have a winning chance of not spending money you don't have. I only bring mine out once a week to go get gas. Otherwise, want to eat out? Grab cash. Need a new shirt? Check the envelopes. If you need more detailed advice I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's books or podcast.