Do you guys use a budget?

[Anonymous]

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@heyitsyeh wrote:

I autopay everything (credit cards, bills, etc) to the first of the month and virtually none of my spending is in debit/cash, so I really only have to check once a month my remaining checking balance to see how I'm doing. Retirement is simple since that is already taken out of my biweekly paycheck. Of course for credit cards I check them once every week for fraudulent charges. Eating out is definitely my weakness, the majority of my ~$1000 total credit card statement is on food alone.

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Your method works ... do essentially the same. Remember to eat healthy

[Anonymous]

Take out food is my downfall also. I can't cook. Nor do I want to learn. I have been bringing sandwiches to work instead of buying food, but weekends are killer on my budget!

[Anonymous]

I am like Jeeper where I need to have everything in order.  I tried so many different sites and softwares to figure out the best way to budget my money since it sometimes varies per month and even weeks.  I came across YNAB from a friend who is a big saver like me.  This budget software works best for me becuase of the way it is set up.  It definitely is set up like a super excel spreadsheet, but I just like it so much better than the ones I created.  I paid one time fee of $56 and best bang for my buck!  It allowed me to really track every single penny.  Unlike Mint, with YNAB it forces you to be a lot more proactive with everything.  I have been using it for a little over a year and the progress I have made with my emergency funds and savings is astronomical!  So yes, I use a budget and I am very disciplined about it. 

[Anonymous]

My unexpected dental bill was only $85.00 and my electric bill was much less than expected, so I might come out ok on this first budget after all. But I might need to cancel Taco Tuesday for a few weeks to make up for my overage on fast food.

[Anonymous]

I started a budget about 5 years ago and have done relatively well. I always tracked all spending on my phone just never did anything to add up each category. I finally synced my phone with quicken and did the auto budget. I was a bit amazed with how much I spent eating out (myself and two boys half the time), it was around $1200 a month. I told my boys that if we ate at home more often we could take the savings and buy a new boat to wakeboard with (they were 6 at the time). I explained that if we limited eating out to 1 night a week it would be doable, my one son asked if we HAD to eat out once a week as he really prefered to just eat at home and didn't like going out much. The other boy readily agreed and we set a budget, bought a boat and have done well sence.

Now my boys are 10 and old enough to start helping with the cooking and cleaning so it is even easier to eat at home and stick to the budget.

Edit: forgot to add, I get really caught up in not going over budget. Many times if I would go over I would spend a week or two not looking and stressing over it as I found it a failure. I have since learned that I just budget enough that going over is not an issue and I take any extra budgeted money left over and make extra loan payments. It has made it easier then trying to seriously cut spending because I am close at the end of the month and stressing about going over a budget by $10 one month. Of course this is my needing everything to be just right, and with my strange mentality I love making extra loan payments and seeing my monthly interest paid reduced.

[Anonymous]

Having a budget is the easitest thing to do, sticking to it and being discipline with it is the hard part.  If you have say $2000 coming in from your job and bills are $1950 (including gas, groceries, cable, cell, etc), it's hard to NOT spend the $50.  It's really tempting to just buy lunch at work or buy anything for that matter.  Once you spend $51, you're already in the hole $1...imagine spending more? 

I use excel for my budget, i have all my bills there (mortgage, utilities, groceries, gas, school child care, cell, water bill, etc) with the due date and amounts.  It works perfect because i'm able to see how much i'll have from my checks coming in vs bills for the following month and see how much is left.  My wife and i are pretty good at not spending money  on items other than bills, so that extra goes to savings.

[Broke_Triathlete]

Listen to Dave Ramsey and you'll never look at money the same. He's completely changed the way I look at my wants. I'm still getting used to budgeting, which is relatively new to me. I use Mint for that, and an excel spreadsheet. Every new month is a new game for me... to see if I can beat the budget. 

[Anonymous]

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@Broke_Triathlete wrote:

Listen to Dave Ramsey and you'll never look at money the same. He's completely changed the way I look at my wants. I'm still getting used to budgeting, which is relatively new to me. I use Mint for that, and an excel spreadsheet. Every new month is a new game for me... to see if I can beat the budget. 

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I also use Mint and use my own Excel spreadsheet also. As for Dave Ramsey - I don't agree with his saying not to use credit cards at all and only use a debit card, erase your FICO scores and disses the use of rewards cards. He acts like "what's a couple hundred dollars a year", which rubs me the wrong way because us sheep are the ones who made him rich where $200 or $400 a year is a lot to me. Plus using a debt card instead of a credit card is a lot riskier and you don't get the instant fraud protection when fraudulent charges are made. Sorry Dave, you have some ideas that make sense but many I do not agree with.

[Broke_Triathlete]

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@Vulcan1600 wrote:

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@Broke_Triathlete wrote:

Listen to Dave Ramsey and you'll never look at money the same. He's completely changed the way I look at my wants. I'm still getting used to budgeting, which is relatively new to me. I use Mint for that, and an excel spreadsheet. Every new month is a new game for me... to see if I can beat the budget. 

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I also use Mint and use my own Excel spreadsheet also. As for Dave Ramsey - I don't agree with his saying not to use credit cards at all and only use a debit card, erase your FICO scores and disses the use of rewards cards. He acts like "what's a couple hundred dollars a year", which rubs me the wrong way because us sheep are the ones who made him rich where $200 or $400 a year is a lot to me. Plus using a debt card instead of a credit card is a lot riskier and you don't get the instant fraud protection when fraudulent charges are made. Sorry Dave, you have some ideas that make sense but many I do not agree with.

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I should say I meant from the money spending standpoint and setting up a retirement account. As for the CC's, I don't necessarily agree with him either. I use my cards and pay them off. I know not to use them as a source of income. I agree with you as well, we made him rich and at some point throughout his second coming into wealth he had to use a CC or loan to get to where he's at today. I love how he says rich people "just buy" cars. That's nice and all, but what about all the people that live paycheck to paycheck. What are they going to do? LOL. 

At any rate, he has a lot of great ideas for sure!

[Anonymous]

I like the fact that Dave Ramsey encourages people to stay out of debt. I don't like the fact that he says you shouldn't use credit cards. I have 7 credit cards and the only debt I owe is around 5k on a student loan (which has always been paid on time). I use the cards for the rewards and convenience. I have read Suze Orman books as well. I think that she does reitterate a lot of common sense advice, but I don't like her fallback advice for young people who don't make enough to live on, which is to use a low interest credit card. COME ON! What young person with a low salary has a low interest credit card with a high enough limit to help them subsidize their living expenses?!?