How do you do your budget?

[Anonymous]

Mostly just curious about how others do a budget. Do you go over it daily, weekly, monthly? What tools, websites, apps do you use? Any tips or advice?

We have an Excel spreadsheet using some basic formulas for totalling, averaging, etc. Although we did recently transfer it over to Google spreadsheet so DW and I could both access it easier from multiple devices. I kind of wanted to try out a budgeting app or website, but DW wasn't crazy about it so the Google spreadsheet was our compromise.

We sit down once a month and reconcile all the expenses. We try to do the zero sum thing where all income coming in has a place to go, and no money left unaccounted for. Sometimes there's additional income from me working overtime, so we decide where that will go when reconciling the budget. Everything has a budgeted line item including savings.

One thing I like about our budget is that we have a line item for each of our personal spending. It's our fun money that we can spend however we want guilt free.

I feel like what we do is pretty standard, but interested to see how that compares to others.

[Streetervillelady]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Mostly just curious about how others do a budget. Do you go over it daily, weekly, monthly? What tools, websites, apps do you use? Any tips or advice?

We have an Excel spreadsheet using some basic formulas for totalling, averaging, etc. Although we did recently transfer it over to Google spreadsheet so DW and I could both access it easier from multiple devices. I kind of wanted to try out a budgeting app or website, but DW wasn't crazy about it so the Google spreadsheet was our compromise.

We sit down once a month and reconcile all the expenses. We try to do the zero sum thing where all income coming in has a place to go, and no money left unaccounted for. Sometimes there's additional income from me working overtime, so we decide where that will go when reconciling the budget. Everything has a budgeted line item including savings.

One thing I like about our budget is that we have a line item for each of our personal spending. It's our fun money that we can spend however we want guilt free.

I feel like what we do is pretty standard, but interested to see how that compares to others.

---

I'm with your DW.  My process is like yours.  I have a seperate spreadsheet for my retired Father's household.  I access my spreadsheets weekly, mostly to catch unusual activity. 

My sheets includes credit cards and bank accounts with running balances. Knowing all the moving pieces works for me.  I'm an OG, this has been my process for many years.

[ldkcivilservant]

I carry it on my phone. It gets built every 6 months or so and we stick to it - it neccessary I make adjustments on the fly.

My wife has little or no input on our budgetting, she literally doesn't care as long as there is money there if she needs it and all the bills are paid. Her credit is slightly better than mine

[Anonymous]

I have our budget done for an entire year.  Nothing is on auto-pay which forces me to look at all accounts and finances a few times a week. 
I actually just used notepad, broke it down monthly and then by pay period and what gets paid.  This way, if something happens to me, my husband knows what needs to be paid and how much to pay or if something happens to us, one of my adult kids can take over the bills.  We have a financial goal so when one item is paid we reallocate that money to another debt.  This keeps our budget on track.  I do have to readjust every few months when planned or unplanned expenses happen (like holidays)  but other than that, it hardly ever fluctuates. 

[Anonymous]

What we decided to do is have an identical budget for each month, which includes the expected but non-monthly expenses. For example we (hopefully!) don't have car repair expenses every month, but still have an amount budgeted. With $0 spent most months and a higher amount spent on a few months it evens out. Same goes for holiday/gifts, medical expenses, vet care for pets.

For things that are truly unexpected we have an emergency fund. So if a tree crashes through our roof the budget doesn't get totally screwed up. If we spend from the emergency fund then our line item for monthly savings goes there until it's built back up.

In terms of earmarking different groups of money we have a checking, a savings, and an emergency fund. We don't split it up into separate things like vacation, new car, etc. But we do keep a list of those things with estimated cost and ordered by priority (want or need). Go over it together once in awhile to see if we want to go ahead with one.

[calyx]

I use YNAB (You Need a Budget).   I like that I'm budgeting money I have, and not forecasting (it works out better for me).   I do my budget every time I get paid (once per month) and enter it as I spend it.   I like that it is super easy to use and customizable (I do pay a yearly subscription for it, though).

I periodically (monthly or weekly, depending on what I'm up to) reconcile the accounts to make sure I'm not missing anything.

[VanderSnoot]

YNAB.

[Anonymous]

Like others on this board I also use YNAB. I make a habit to log in every single morning, rain or shine, even if I didn't spend any money the day before and nothing needs to be reconciled. I find that just being familiar with my budget helps train my mindset and curb overspending. 

[Kidcat]

Another YNABer.  Several months ago I went manual, which means instead of linking to my banks to update the numbers, I enter in my spending and reconcile my accounts manually.  I got the idea from the founder of YNAB (Jessie) as a way to actively manage my budget, especially since any bill that can be on auto pay is on auto pay.  I make sure I have a buffer in my bank account, so I don't worry about overdraft.

I reconcile once a week or so (depending on how much spending I've done).  I've been using YNAB for several years and it's helped me save to buy a house and put 2 kids through college.  I recommend it to anyone I talk to that complains about money lol.

[Anonymous]

I use Fudget and just run a ledger for the month. Since I started using it, I always know exactly how much money I have available. I am budgeted until February right now. 

I never used to budget at all and now I am super organized about it. As soon as I make a credit card transaction, I add it to my running tally for that credit card on the next month so I can use my credit card float effectively and I split payments on 0% out across months in advance so that I know what I have available to spend. I also have a ledger I made that just has my card due dates and I drag them underneath a "Paid (month)" entry as I pay them. 

Handy app and the first app I have actually decided was worth paying for in years (was like $5 for iPhone and $2 for Android I think).