| Author | Message | ||
     Timberwolf211 |
With the times being like they are me and my wife have been talking about putting ourselves on a budget and it would be best for our family. So my questions are. Those of you that have been on a budget how well has it worked? Did it take long to adjust too and did you use some kind of computer program? Or was it a strict combination of dedication and will power that made you do it? The reason I asked is we would like to stop living paycheck to paycheck and be wiser with our money. | ||
| P_squared |
I don't use any programs. Just simple pencil & paper. How much is coming in & how much is going out as well as where it's going out to. After that, it's all discipline which no program/spreadsheet/other gimmick can do for you. It's also a little bit easier if you can remove ALL cards you absolutely don't need on a daily basis from everyone's wallet/purse. Hard to use it when the impulse strikes you if you don't have it on you. Good luck. | ||
| Slaughter |
Yeah... no gimmicks. Pencil and paper and record EVERY expense - EVERY thing you do that costs your time. Ask yourself if they were necessary and prioritize expenses by their importance and prioritize your time by the value you gain by doing something yourself. I've found that some things just don't pay to do em myself UNLESS I enjoy doing them or UNLESS I want to learn - but many things I've found are better left to the professionals... and there IS value to your time. Main thing - record your expenses - pennies, nickels and dimes. You'd be surprised how much money goes away to small stuff. I'm NOT a good example... I tend to WASTE money on motorcycles but save it everywhere else that I can. Sunny and I are buying a house this week (close escrow WEdnesday) and I can still race - but we have no kids and no payments on ANY vehicles... and ALL our vehicles are old - but still running. I hear about people making payments on $30,000 cars and trucks rather than OWNING $5000 vehicles. I doubt that ANY vehicle we have is worth more than $3K - except for the motorcycles. Reprioritize, pay attention. You might surprise yourself. Great topic - gutsy to ask! | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Or print your own money and get talking heads to endorse your planned 'incentive spending' as a way to economic recovery... | ||
| Ourdee |
The financial peace university course my wife and I went through was very good. I think it was 100 bucks total for both of us. It was like a one night a week 10 week course. Taught us a lot about each other. http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/ | ||
| Rde48 |
Funny you mention Dave Ramsey. I just picked up his book, Total Money Makeover last week on the recommendation of some coworkers. He does have a plan for you if you chose to follow. | ||
| Ratyson |
The financial peace university course my wife and I went through was very good. I think it was 100 bucks total for both of us. It was like a one night a week 10 week course. Taught us a lot about each other. My wife and I are going through FPU right now. And I gotta say, it is WELL worth it. We are doing it through our church. Definitely start a budget Timberwolf.. You really can't get things straight without one. We have used an excel spreadsheet as our budget plan, and it works well. We now do our planning on paper, then transfer it to the spreadsheet. One thing to remember is that it is going to take a few tries before you get a budget that works. Don't loose hope! Just make adjustments were necessary, and keep going. Once you find out where your money is going, you can make plans to change it. We now have a firm plan in place to pay off $107,000 in debt over the next 66 months. The debt snowball (re: Dave Ramsey) is a wonderful thing!! Obviously it will take discipline to get this done, and sacrifice, but we are VERY excited about it. My suggestion to you would be to get on Dave Ramsey's site, and have a look around. These things CAN be done! Good luck!} | ||
| Delbuort |
My wife put us on a budget a few years ago when we were drowning in debt. She used Microsoft Excel to keep track of everything. She budgeted for everything, gas, food, etc. We stayed within that and she gave us each $100 each paycheck (1st and 15th) to spend on whatever. Once we had everything down on paper (or in the computer) and knew what we had to spend for what it was pretty easy. Most pay periods we found we didn't even spend the $100 each. We got rid of all the credit cards except one (for emergencies, etc.) and paid for everything in cash. If we didn't have the cash, we didn't get it. That was about five years ago and we were somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 in debt and we had crappy cars. Now...we're debt free. We have nothing to pay at all. So, I just bought a new 1125CR. I pick it up April 12th when I get back to the states and we will have it paid off by the end of August. Budgets work...if you use them. I believe it's alright to go outside of it from time-to-time as long as it's not a common occurrence. Being tied down for that long can be a real drag. It's nice to take a little extra and take the wife out to a nice dinner or something ever so often, especially if don't spend you alloted play money each month. Just let it accumulate. | ||
| Greenlantern |
If we didn't have the cash, we didn't get it. That is pretty much the rule of our house. The wife and I hold 1 credit card each which is just used to make those payments for goods or services purchased online or would require walking around with more cash than we are comfortable with. The rule is if it can not be payed during the grace period then it can not be purchased. Neither of us have paid a penny in interest or finance charges on a credit card since our marriage in 1990. And like Slaughter said, keep a eye on the small things. It is absolutely amazing how much money goes for such incidentals as a bottle of water, coffee, newspaper, gum, snacks and so on. Every week I dump the change I have amassed during a week into a plastic pretzel jug. I deposited about a years worth into the kids 529 plan a few weeks back. Came out to $289.46! That averages out to about 80¢ a day! It adds up quicker than you might think. | ||
| Ratyson |
Timberwolf, another thing that you can do to track what you spend on now, is to get yourself one of those little note pads that fit in you pocket and write down every penny that you spend during the day. At the end of the week, go through that list. You will be amazed at how the little purchases add up. That can give you a starting point for your budget. | ||
| Oldog |
+2 on Dave Ramsey, the lessons learned Via the church program paid the 100$ back quickly. ( 2 weeks ) If you have works or x-cell that simplifies the task and can help with orginizing, quicken or similar are usefull too. ( i do this on a spread sheet ) like the others though a pad, pencil and calculator will do the job. the most common area singles miss the mark IMO is eating out, or spending on entertainment I put every thing on my bank card and track it as the month goes on | ||
| Thumper74 |
My wife and I find it difficult to stick to a budget. I'd like to take some financial classes, etc with her to work it out. This week we will have eliminated 15,000 debt for all bills, mostly credit cards. We still have some, but will be snowballing these current payments into the other cards to make a huge dent. I started tracking every penny in Microsoft Money months ago and got pretty disturbed by what we saw in our spending trends. We eliminated some right away, but it's hard to come to an Agreement on the others. We don't watch much TV, but she wants the better cable package. She gives when her son wants a toy... Even when he made out like a bandit for Christmas. | ||
| Delbuort |
Every week I dump the change I have amassed during a week into a plastic pretzel jug. I used to do the same thing when I lived in Japan. Before I left there I used that money to pay all of my final bills. It total it came to just over $400. I didn't even have to touch my bank account. I can't do it anymore because my wife likes to thief all my change.} | ||
| Cityxslicker |
In this tough economy, I have had to cut back on my expenses.... Strippers are just too expensive for the times | ||
| Ourdee |
City! Strippers gotta eat too. At least drop off a bag of burgers when you go by.  | ||
| Ourdee |
The envelope system can help. Put your eating out money in a envelope at the beginning of the week. when it's empty, quit eating out. | ||
| Panhead_dan |
"The reason I asked is we would like to stop living paycheck to paycheck and be wiser with our money." What my wife and I do is to put all payroll in the bank. We never cash a paycheck and pay most of the bills online. We limit ourselves to a small amount of cash each week. I've noticed that just about all the guys at work have to stop at the store on the way to work and have to go get lunch at noon. Then they stop at the store on the way home. This adds up to like $20 a day! Add it up for a month and it's a bike payment! I go to work carrying everything I need all day. I am getting by on very little money and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. | ||
| Oldog |
This week we will have eliminated 15,000 debt for all bills, mostly credit cards. We still have some, but will be snowballing these current payments into the other cards to make a huge dent. Woot! Way to go Thump!  } I buy lunch at the grocery store, I'm single and learning to cook and I make a home cooked meal, and as I clean up I pack the left overs for lunch and freeze any remaining for future meals. I hold about a 300$ per month food budget, ~10$ per day some days its ~$8 others its more. | ||
| Rah7777777 |
we always pay off the credit cards at the end of every month...(screw those interest rates!) But we make sure we have it to spend it before hand. We both brown bag our lunch with the exception of once a week or so. her nor I care about expensive clothes or fancy cars... And what really helps is if I spend a little too much she gets really really really mad and won't have sex for about a week.... i'll try to go for the gold and she'll say... "don't you remember that $410 you just spent on those wheels.....go stick your xxxx in those!" so ive learned a bit! | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Strippers are just too expensive for the times You poor thing, did you have to downgrade to crack whores?  In my world cash is king, always has been always will be. | ||
| Ratyson |
"don't you remember that $410 you just spent on those wheels.....go stick your xxxx in those!"  } | ||
| Timberwolf211 |
Thank you all for the suggestions,advice and humor. Me and my wife will be looking into some of the things here and go with a plan that works for both of us. Thanks again. | ||
| No_rice |
budget?! dont i have to have some money to budget it? always payed child support(which is fine) but now that they have started taking most of my income for health insurance for my daughter, i dont have much left. after i pay my rent and utilities that only cost about 350 a month (no lone payments at the moment) i am left with about $150 a month to live off of. so my budget consists of "no i cant buy it" unless what im debating on is the 10 for a dollar ramen noodles... |
