Looking at making our first REAL budget

[Paxjourney]

Dh and I want to have a very concrete budget for the New Year. We make all our bills and are blessed that he has a secure job with the federal govenment. That being said DH works alot of overtime and we would like to be banking (saving) the overtime instead of including it into our day to day living expenses. Pretty much we want to beable to live on his base salary and still have saving left from the base salary and Bank any overtime.Make sence.

Here are some figure I have right now. Not sure what else I need to look for:

Mortage (includes property tax and homeowner ins) = 1325

Electric this is an average for the winter (we have electric heat)=125

Car Ins: Monthly averages = 145

Car payment (6mo away from being paid off ) = 235

water= 47

Cable = 75

Home phone and internet (includes long distance) = 119

Food = 450 (this is a good guess)

Life inc= ? (need to check with dh)

Gas= ?

entertainment= 100

So what am I missing. For food and Gas I am not really sure how much I spend a good guess with foor is 450-500 I tend to do a big bulk shopping every 6 weeks and smaller shopping trips thru out the month. My plan for October is to see exactly how much is spent on this.
As for Gas same thing My guess would be for my car $90-100 but not sure with Dh's truck.
Thanks everyone.

[polyhymnia]

Try to think of annual expenses too:

1) doctor copays, prescription costs, eye/dental exams if needed
2) car registration, town tax, state/federal tax if applicable
3) car insurance
4) school supplies
5) other annual subscriptions - magazines?

[Natsuki]

Don't forget sections for gifts (weddings, christmas, birthdays), clothing/shoes, 'fun money', eating out, charitable contributions, car and house maintenance/repairs, medical (vitamins, dr. visits, copays, deductible cost), and misc. (stamps, toiletries, make-up, cleaning supplies, etc... - some people roll this into their grocery budget if you purchase them all at the same place).

[EmsMom]

You'll want to add clothes, too and a category for pets (vet) if you have any. Also, any classes or camps for kids. If you are planning to do something big like buy a new car, or redecorate or make houes improvements you may want a category for that too.

[mightymoo]

If you are trying to do this by new years, I recommend you spend hte next few months tracking expenses. Just writing down what you spent each month in say an excel spreadsheet will help tremendously towards figuring out a reasonable budget. When the month is over, go back and group the expenses into broad categories and add up the totals. By December, you should have a pretty good idea of budgeting goals.

I personally do two budgets - a monthly budget and a yearly budget. The monthly budget has all my monthly bills in one section (in essense a 'fixed' section, though it varies a little based on gas & electric, etc), then I have a section/budget for groceries, gas and commuting (DH has to pay for the train and parking). I then contribute a certain amount to my annual budget too.

The annual budget is all the known expenses throughout the year, pretty much two types - the ones that happen once a year like AAA membership, brithday presents, christmas presents, etc. and broad budgets for things you don't always spend every month - I throw clothing into this one, I don't buy clothes every month, I find it easier to track it on a yearly basis than to try to constrain it into a monthly one and have to figure carryover or something. I then calculate 1/12th of this and contribute to it from my monthly budget.

Everything else just gets tracked in the monthly tab under expenses. When I start to see a need for a budget for a category, I put it in.