tell me about your budget.......

[somemama]

Any tips for setting one up? Sticking to it?

Also, have you found that keeping track of every expense makes you and dp more or less likely to fight about money?

[rsps]

We kept track of everything for the first year or so that we were married, and it really helped I think figure out where the money was going. Right now we don't really budget -- but we're both naturally thrifty so haven't had a problem.

[queen620]

Although we don't have a consistent budget. I try!

I heard a financial planner say one time...forget your budget and focus on tracking your money. What he meant was instead of trying to live by the "budget" for one month simply write down everytime you spend money, then at the end "track" and see where your money went.

Although similiar ideas I find that when I track I realize that I had budget $200 for groceries, but I spent $250 for whatever reason, but the next month I only spent $140 or whatever. I think it is also the idea that not everymonth will you be able to fit everything nicely into your budget.

As far as the tracking I find that when I solely use my debit card I can easily track my money, as opposed to being consistent about writing down everytime I write a check or use cash. ( I also do ALL of my banking online. I haven't mailed out a check in almost a year. I love being able to sign on and check my balance and know very quickly what has cleared and what hasn't! This is also a great way to track dh who never remembers to write things in the register or give me the reciept...so this way I usually know he spent $16.00 on gas before he even tells me!)

Oh and for the record my hubby and I both SUCK at balancing our check book, so we are also not so great at budgetting. So "tracking" works well for us.
Regina

[Monkey]

THIS WAS A TUFFY

dh and I have been married for 2+ yrs and in the begining I would handle ALL the money
we would fight all the time about money!
I owuld be mad bc he didnt handle it and he would be mad bc i would spend it!! LOL LOL
so now we have come up with a great plan. HE HANDLES THE MONEY!
i used to get a nice lump evey week to care for food and all the bills beside mortgage and car car ins.
but now I get 300 a week that takes care of food and what else i "need" want" he also gives a little here there whatever
but this has been great bc I like to spend although im so frugil weird im a super bargin shopper but i guess when "im in CONTROL" lol all hell breaks lose we are doing much better and i feel like we have alot more money and we probley do!!LOL
I think it is what ever works out for u two having your "own" money is nice instead of working out of 1 account "mho"

good luck and hth!

money the root of all evil!! the more you have the more you spend the more u want. I m happy with what ive got!
LOL

[DebraBaker]

It has been bad this past year (2 weddings in 11 months and rennovating the house) but we try.

We track typical expenses (electric phone, etc.) and budget for groceries and household expenses.

We have a fixed mortgage and know what our other utilities, car expenses, and insurance will be.

We live slightly below our means.

It isn't easy with eight children (and the married ones are off our income taxes but they are here at least once/week and usually more often, dinner, do the wash because their machine broke down, etc. etc. etc.

....Credit card is outrageous (wedding and rennovation) but we pay it off every month and we can live comfortibly within our means so I guess we're really blessed.

DB

[Mommy&Will]

When I quit work, we set up a budget and now live by it. We use Apple Budget software, which is set up with literally envelopes that you label (mortgage, cars, gas, groceries, etc.) and can automatically distribute money in each envelope each month. Basically, its just like what dh's dad did with paper and envelopes and cash, but on the computer!

It has saved us. My dh is mainly responsible, but we also sit down together every couple of weeks and make sure all reciepts are entered.

Its actually kind of fun - we put ds to bed, grab a few beers, enter reciepts and joke about how poor we are. BUT, it feels so good to at least know where we are financially. And this way we don't overspend.

My dh laughs that he knows the quickest way for him to get lucky is to work on the budget. (Oh, and oooh and aaah over "my" cloth diapers!)

Julie

[Mommy&Will]

I just wanted to add that we basically have an "envelope" for EVERYTHING - savings, vacation, lawn care, gifts, car gas, boat gas, meals, entertainment, dry cleaning, life insurance, property dues, clothing, home improvement. Each month money gets put into these envelopes...

We made it as detailed as we could.

Julie

[somemama]

Originally posted by Mommy&Will
I just wanted to add that we basically have an "envelope" for EVERYTHING - savings, vacation, lawn care, gifts, car gas, boat gas, meals, entertainment, dry cleaning, life insurance, property dues, clothing, home improvement. Each month money gets put into these envelopes...

We made it as detailed as we could.

Julie

I like your name!

Is Apple Budget software just for Mac users? Do you know if there is something comparable for PC users?

And......how can I get my dh to not "overspend" the budget without nagging him about it all of the time?

[Mommy&Will]

I don't know the equivalent to the Apple Budget software for PC.... You could always use Quicken. Our software is very basic (which we needed!) and only cost $20. We downloaded it off apple.com, I think.

Now to get your hubby on board...hmmm. Well, for us, once we saw everything written down, it was clear that we both needed to be on board with the budget. But we also made realistic estimates of our budget. For example, we have a "healthy" amount for entertainment. We KNOW that we will spend money there, so rather than lie to ourselves, we make adjustments so that we have money in that envelope. KWIM?

DH gets spending money that he doesn't have to answer to me about. He needs it since sometimes he has to go out to lunch with work people, etc. And I know he uses it to play his video games and buy a cd every once in awhile. But once its gone, its gone so he has learned to make it stretch!

He gets more spending money than I do since I am home. That may not sound "fair," but I realize I am more thrifty than he is... and I understand that if he feels really deprived, he'll be miserable and this won't work. So I allow him the extra money, knowing in the whole scheme of things, it just makes my life better too. And he has learned to be generous and throw me an extra $20 every once in awhile! LOL!

Also, we don't feel like we are totally deprived. If we want something, we know we can save for it and get it. It just may take a little longer.

For us, we have the knowledge that what we lose in material items over the next several years, we gain in love and a greater bond with our son. So whenever we get down about current financial shortcomings, we just look at the big picture of why we are doing it.

HTH. Good luck - it took a major life change for us to finally do it! : )

Julie

[Missgrl]

Moving this thread to Personal Growth!
Go see this thread to check out a discussion on this topic.