Money is on everyone's mind, I think, what with the economy being so err… wobbly. We got to talking about various budget techniques when I went to dinner with The Moms last week and it was very interesting to me. So when I read Janet's budgeting post, I thought it would be fun to steal her idea share our budget strategy with you guys.
Our budget is housed in one of my maniacal spreadsheets (sorry MS h8ers … I'm a huge Excel nerd). And I think the overall concept is pretty simple. What comes in is pretty darned consistent (knock on wood) and there are some fixed out-gos (like car note, mortgage). Everything else is tracked and categorized. Then we can see where the $$ is going. Eating out is always our biggest money pit.
But I think we do a few things that have really served us well and that I am very proud of.
1. Savings comes off the top. Some goes to a general savings pool, some to Tabby's college. But it all goes automatically … we hardly even see it, let alone long enough to miss it.
2. While we sometimes end up spending a bit more than we'd like to on certain things, we have strict allowances for personal spending. And personal spending in our house encompasses a lot. Fun things like books and DVDs and necessary things like haircuts and clothes. Matt and I get $200/month and Tabby gets $100/month. She doesn't control this of course, but any parent out there knows how quickly a few clothes and a book or two can add up. If we go over our limit for one month, it comes off the next (thus, Matt will be paying off his ski pass until Dcember).
3. The first place any “extra” goes is to paying down our mortgage. Savings is alrady taken care of, so we can take the opportunity to make an extra payment or two to our mortgage, which is awesome. Because it's all principle.
How do you guys crunch the numbers?
Oh girl, I haven't been crunching enough but that is soon to change dramatically. For a good reason, one wee kiddo will get me to not be such a financial loosy-goosy because my priorities are going to change in a big way!
right now we live pay check to pay check… we try not to buy or do stupid things… but once I finally get to work at the gym and get a paycheck first thing to go is CC and then work on savings… and then Lore's college fund and then paying off student loans etc… I would also like to save up some cash to just buy a new to us used car and not have to do payments…
Oh man. We don't crunch, which is why we are in such a pickle.
I am about to partake in the crunching though because I am tired of being broke. I am tired of the crappy decisions we make. Those decisions, in addition to some REALLY bad luck and some unforeseen medical issues, have led us down into a financial hole.
It has gotta stop somewhere.
I have a 401K plan through work and my savings goes into that. Niel does also. We also have a few savings account for various things. Rainy days, Olivia's college fund, things that break that need buying asap, trips and some fun spending:baby, eating out, clothes, gadgets
I had a very similar setup in excel. I loved it, but Greg refused to learn the system. We switched over to Quicken so he would stop nagging me. As far as budgeting, I just try not to spend money period. I think every purchase to death and can usually talk myself out of it. It's amazing the things that I don't need!
I've never been good at set spending limits… they're worse than diets for me… I see what I 'can' have and want that and then maybe I deserve a little bit more. Without a spending 'goal' I tend to spend lots less on things that I don't really need.