Yes, my husband eased me into a budget a few years ago with a very generalized one. In time I realized we needed to be more specific and detailed even though I had rebelled at first. When I lost my job, and we nearly lost our car and home, if we had not been debt free and on that budget we would have been in huge trouble. Now my husband even has an online program where I can quickly glance to see how much, during the month, I have spent on groceries (my biggest expense) and so forth.
My opinion that 90% people don't plan budget.i really plan budget but many times i forgot the budget plans and over spend the money and broke! i learned my lesson from life at financially hard times so i always try to fallow budget plan to have peaceful life.i hope it is good to fallow plan but do not take it serious.The purpose of money is to spend.
We're on fixed incomes, so strict budgeting is CRITICAL. We use the envelope method. At the beginning of the month we fill each envelope: 1) Rent and Utilities, 2) Food, 3) Non food & meds, 3) Insurance, 4) Gasoline, 5) Auto Repair and Replacement fund, 6) Rainy Day fund. No borrowing from other envelopes is allowed, if an envelope is empty before the end of the month then we just tough it out till next month. Any money left over at the end of the month goes into #5 because that our largest potential unforeseen expense.
We've been doing this for several years now, and so far so good.
In bigger cities and in Mexico, street vendors take grilled corn and dunk it in butter and slather in mayo. Then, they roll in parmesan cheese or crumbly queso and top with chili powder. They either serve it like that or they make it "neat"..cut it off the cob and serve in a cup with a spoon. Make Mexican corn like the street vendors do. It's not an every day dish...(butter and mayo) but it's great for company or to jazz up a boring meatloaf. Just drain a few cans of corn and toss in a casserole dish, add a few pats of melted butter and a few tablespoons of mayo. Mix in salt, pepper, chili powder (or paprika for those with less spicy tastes) a few squeezes of lime and pamesan cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until bubbly! Delicious!
Or make cowboy caviar. Mix different beans, a can or two of corn, a can of tomatoes, diced chilis or jalepenos, a chopped onion and black olives. Pour Italian dressing over the top and let it sit for at least a few hours to overnight. Serve alone or with tortilla chips. Cheap and very tasty.
I'm still tweaking my budgeting skills at 41. It's not been easy when I came from a household that robbed Peter to pay Paul and my spouse came from 2 households; one that indulged him with a car and access to luxuries and the other a household that scraped by to pay the electric. I'm very proud though. I've not only learned to budget for necessities but also to budget for Christmas and vacations(new to our budget). It helps that my husband is fortunate enough to make a living wage though. I do remember struggling when we were making close to minimum wage. It seemed everytime we were caught up something would happen to set us back.
Oh my. I didn’t know that most of my favourite foods ended up in the dirty dozen. I hear a lot about pesticides in food but I've never bothered researching it myself. Reading your article scared me a lot. I really liked potatoes and to think that I made it as a home made baby food… Ugh! I will really have to buy organics this time. Thank you so much for posting this article. I will definitely memorise that list the next time I shop for food. I don’t want my money to be running away from me when I can help it. It’s never too late to make a change I guess.
So I have three budgets, one on Mint, one on MS Money, and one on excel. Unfortunately, I don't follow any of them. :-( I'm working on something that is easier for me to think about proactively instead of at the end of the month.
I don't have a set budget, but follow the "pay yourself first" principle. I have a set amount I save every month, and I know exactly how much I should have at the end of the month. Anything more gets moved into savings. This makes it simple and easy to track my spending by just checking bank statements online.
As it says in the video, it's pretty easy to defeat the pen. The pens use an iodine solution that stains ordinary pulp-based paper. But all the counterfeiter needs to do is use rag paper.
I made an excel doc, and it divide the take into categories: Basic, medical, cars, debt (student loan only), professional, extras, consumer comfort (food out and entertainment), and savings. We stick to it. In the extras area I have an amount that is for all gifts and trips. I have a separate break out for that excel doc- listing gifts by month with an amount for each. Every year I make more and more of them, and this budget area goes down. It really works for us. I am a teacher, and when I get paid in June, I pay all the bills in advance till my next paycheck, and take out the budgeted amounts for other expenses, and put them into envelopes, with a date for each week that gets crossed off as I use that money. We never run out of money, or are late on bills.
I made these GF with a trail mix, flax seeds, and frosted rice flakes. I left out the sweetener. They were fabulous! I will be making another batch for next week. I am so happy I found this recipe. A co-worker gave me this recipe years ago and I had lost it. Your recipe helped me recreate the previous recipe I had. Thank you!
I use YNAB. I am recently unemployed and have cut way back on expenses because of this and am doing quite well. Probably better than when I was employed. :) I like budgeting and am very aware of where my money is going. :)
Thanks,
To your question (What do you think it takes to "budget" effectively? And do you do so yourself?), I think the key is simplicity so that you can keep records everyday quickly without any hassle and examine your data. Fine-grained records would be nice, but more important is to track it daily and get the big picture/pattern based on which you can plan/improve your budgeting.
I use a simple set of spreadsheets to budget (12 monthly sheets, and two sheets where I can see the summary info from the 12 sheets at a glance). Works just fine -- even if for some reason I have to spend a bit above the plan in one month, it is easy to adjust the next month based on the spreadsheet info, and on balance I stay within the budget at the end of the year.
It's good for consumers if they love paying twice the normal appraisal fee ($450 rather than $300) two to three times before getting their loan completed.
It's good for the consumer if they love paying beyond top dollar for a professional service that is near worthless because it's now being bid out to the cheapest and least competent appraisers.
It's great for consumers if the prefer having an appraiser value their home who has driven 100+ miles into their town (which they have never stepped foot into before).
Bottom Line: HVCC has ruined the appraisal profession by forcing tens of thousands of PROFESSIONAL APPRAISERS out of business. HVCC did however achieve one thing. It helped banks turn appraisers into profit centers from which they now reap billions of dollars in additional income.
Sorry appraisers with over 2 years experience...you'll need to find new work.
Sorry borrowers who are now paying $450 to $1,400 in appraisal fees for junk appraisals you'll get over it.
We follow our budget to a "T" but that is because we pay over $1400 a month to our debt. We have to make every penny count after that big chuck of change is gone and our bills go out. It's kind of fun though, because we have limits and we make a game out of seeing how far our few dollars can go.
Not anymore. Thankfully, we make enough money not to have to follow one to the letter. We know what we can afford on a monthly basis. We have our savings taken right out of checks. Any single-item purchase more than $100 dollar is discussed. We don't go crazy buying everything and anything we see.
It's fairly specific and every receipt is tediously entered (by my husband, I swear he doesn't miss one!) into the program we bought for it. He had a budget in high school when he was working a part-time job so I can't take credit for our system or it's success.
I don't follow a budget- I don't feel its necessary. I am already very frugal, and I live well below my means, especially on the big ticket items like housing and cars (in fact, I don't even have a car).
When I tried to use a budget, because that's what PF types say is good, I found myself sitting there frustrated that I couldn't buy a shirt until Tuesday because I had already spent my clothing allowance for the month. Or I couldn't get my brother what he wanted for his birthday, because it was $15 out of the budget amount. It was stupid to me, and all it did was end up making me feel like I was wasting my time because most of the time I was well under budget without even trying, and the other times I ended up feeling bad about myself for going over.
I tend spend money in relatively large amounts opportunistically, not on some sort of schedule. If I see a 40% off sale at a clothing store I like, I may spend a $100-$200 there and be done clothing shopping for the next 6 months- 1 year.
Budgets just don't take life into account either. I got a job last year that required me to wear suits every day (which came w/ a 40%+ pay raise). I had one suit. So I had to go out and spend almost $1000 on a few suits, ties, shirts and a pair of shoes that aren't from payless. Budget's don't take things like that into account. How do they take into account your friend is in town and wants to meet you for dinner? Are you going to say no to your friend because it will put you over budget or feel guilt for going out?
I do much better by living below my means. I lived w/ roommates in the not so nice part of town until I met my fiancee. We now live in a modest apartment close to transportation and don't have cars, saving us thousands a year. When we buy, we are going to buy a cheaper place and get a 15 year mortgage. I max out my 401k, get the best returns available on my free cash, and save about half of my take-home paycheck each month.
Do the big things right and then you don't have to worry about the little things so much.
Over and over again I try to keep on a budget and cannot. I'm hoping, from this book, to learn how to change my life so that I can stick to a budget and be financially happy.
To budget effectively I think you need to create a very realistic list of expenses. That way you don't feel deprived. That's a mistake that causes people to not even attempt a budget I think. They feel like there's no room for fun but it just needs to be accounted for so that you don't over spend. I use mint which alerts me when I went over my allotted budget.
Yes! My spreadsheet software helps me work out my overall monthly totals: how much discretionary money I have each week, how much I'm saving to invest, how much I'm saving for emergencies, how much I'm saving for those bigger wants like a flatscreen TV, etc. In the same spreadsheet, I have my weekly discretionary purchases worked out. I put everything on a rewards card and keep my receipts so that I can keep a running total and know where I stand.
Not every purchase is explicitly planned, but every dollar is apportioned to some purpose through the magic of spreadsheets.
Yes, my husband eased me into a budget a few years ago with a very generalized one. In time I realized we needed to be more specific and detailed even though I had rebelled at first. When I lost my job, and we nearly lost our car and home, if we had not been debt free and on that budget we would have been in huge trouble. Now my husband even has an online program where I can quickly glance to see how much, during the month, I have spent on groceries (my biggest expense) and so forth.
We always budget our money for food--when it's gone, it's gone! No cheating on that. But as far as the other parts of our budget, we are a bit looser
My opinion that 90% people don't plan budget.i really plan budget but many times i forgot the budget plans and over spend the money and broke! i learned my lesson from life at financially hard times so i always try to fallow budget plan to have peaceful life.i hope it is good to fallow plan but do not take it serious.The purpose of money is to spend.
Happy to be the winner- the e-mail address is correct. Thank you.
We're on fixed incomes, so strict budgeting is CRITICAL. We use the envelope method. At the beginning of the month we fill each envelope: 1) Rent and Utilities, 2) Food, 3) Non food & meds, 3) Insurance, 4) Gasoline, 5) Auto Repair and Replacement fund, 6) Rainy Day fund. No borrowing from other envelopes is allowed, if an envelope is empty before the end of the month then we just tough it out till next month. Any money left over at the end of the month goes into #5 because that our largest potential unforeseen expense.
We've been doing this for several years now, and so far so good.
In bigger cities and in Mexico, street vendors take grilled corn and dunk it in butter and slather in mayo. Then, they roll in parmesan cheese or crumbly queso and top with chili powder. They either serve it like that or they make it "neat"..cut it off the cob and serve in a cup with a spoon. Make Mexican corn like the street vendors do. It's not an every day dish...(butter and mayo) but it's great for company or to jazz up a boring meatloaf. Just drain a few cans of corn and toss in a casserole dish, add a few pats of melted butter and a few tablespoons of mayo. Mix in salt, pepper, chili powder (or paprika for those with less spicy tastes) a few squeezes of lime and pamesan cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until bubbly! Delicious!
Or make cowboy caviar. Mix different beans, a can or two of corn, a can of tomatoes, diced chilis or jalepenos, a chopped onion and black olives. Pour Italian dressing over the top and let it sit for at least a few hours to overnight. Serve alone or with tortilla chips. Cheap and very tasty.
I'm still tweaking my budgeting skills at 41. It's not been easy when I came from a household that robbed Peter to pay Paul and my spouse came from 2 households; one that indulged him with a car and access to luxuries and the other a household that scraped by to pay the electric. I'm very proud though. I've not only learned to budget for necessities but also to budget for Christmas and vacations(new to our budget). It helps that my husband is fortunate enough to make a living wage though. I do remember struggling when we were making close to minimum wage. It seemed everytime we were caught up something would happen to set us back.
Christine
dazed1821@aol.com
Oh my. I didn’t know that most of my favourite foods ended up in the dirty dozen. I hear a lot about pesticides in food but I've never bothered researching it myself. Reading your article scared me a lot. I really liked potatoes and to think that I made it as a home made baby food… Ugh! I will really have to buy organics this time. Thank you so much for posting this article. I will definitely memorise that list the next time I shop for food. I don’t want my money to be running away from me when I can help it. It’s never too late to make a change I guess.
So I have three budgets, one on Mint, one on MS Money, and one on excel. Unfortunately, I don't follow any of them. :-( I'm working on something that is easier for me to think about proactively instead of at the end of the month.
I don't have a set budget, but follow the "pay yourself first" principle. I have a set amount I save every month, and I know exactly how much I should have at the end of the month. Anything more gets moved into savings. This makes it simple and easy to track my spending by just checking bank statements online.
I have been using ClickORamaCoupons.com lately and they have some cool coupons.
Lisa
My fiancee and I have been struggling to adjust to one income and could really use the help!
As it says in the video, it's pretty easy to defeat the pen. The pens use an iodine solution that stains ordinary pulp-based paper. But all the counterfeiter needs to do is use rag paper.
I made an excel doc, and it divide the take into categories: Basic, medical, cars, debt (student loan only), professional, extras, consumer comfort (food out and entertainment), and savings. We stick to it. In the extras area I have an amount that is for all gifts and trips. I have a separate break out for that excel doc- listing gifts by month with an amount for each. Every year I make more and more of them, and this budget area goes down. It really works for us. I am a teacher, and when I get paid in June, I pay all the bills in advance till my next paycheck, and take out the budgeted amounts for other expenses, and put them into envelopes, with a date for each week that gets crossed off as I use that money. We never run out of money, or are late on bills.
I made these GF with a trail mix, flax seeds, and frosted rice flakes. I left out the sweetener. They were fabulous! I will be making another batch for next week. I am so happy I found this recipe. A co-worker gave me this recipe years ago and I had lost it. Your recipe helped me recreate the previous recipe I had. Thank you!
I use YNAB. I am recently unemployed and have cut way back on expenses because of this and am doing quite well. Probably better than when I was employed. :) I like budgeting and am very aware of where my money is going. :)
Thanks,
To your question (What do you think it takes to "budget" effectively? And do you do so yourself?), I think the key is simplicity so that you can keep records everyday quickly without any hassle and examine your data. Fine-grained records would be nice, but more important is to track it daily and get the big picture/pattern based on which you can plan/improve your budgeting.
I use a simple set of spreadsheets to budget (12 monthly sheets, and two sheets where I can see the summary info from the 12 sheets at a glance). Works just fine -- even if for some reason I have to spend a bit above the plan in one month, it is easy to adjust the next month based on the spreadsheet info, and on balance I stay within the budget at the end of the year.
It's good for consumers if they love paying twice the normal appraisal fee ($450 rather than $300) two to three times before getting their loan completed.
It's good for the consumer if they love paying beyond top dollar for a professional service that is near worthless because it's now being bid out to the cheapest and least competent appraisers.
It's great for consumers if the prefer having an appraiser value their home who has driven 100+ miles into their town (which they have never stepped foot into before).
Bottom Line: HVCC has ruined the appraisal profession by forcing tens of thousands of PROFESSIONAL APPRAISERS out of business. HVCC did however achieve one thing. It helped banks turn appraisers into profit centers from which they now reap billions of dollars in additional income.
Sorry appraisers with over 2 years experience...you'll need to find new work.
Sorry borrowers who are now paying $450 to $1,400 in appraisal fees for junk appraisals you'll get over it.
We follow our budget to a "T" but that is because we pay over $1400 a month to our debt. We have to make every penny count after that big chuck of change is gone and our bills go out. It's kind of fun though, because we have limits and we make a game out of seeing how far our few dollars can go.
Not anymore. Thankfully, we make enough money not to have to follow one to the letter. We know what we can afford on a monthly basis. We have our savings taken right out of checks. Any single-item purchase more than $100 dollar is discussed. We don't go crazy buying everything and anything we see.
We do have a budget and we do stick to it!
It's fairly specific and every receipt is tediously entered (by my husband, I swear he doesn't miss one!) into the program we bought for it. He had a budget in high school when he was working a part-time job so I can't take credit for our system or it's success.
I don't follow a budget- I don't feel its necessary. I am already very frugal, and I live well below my means, especially on the big ticket items like housing and cars (in fact, I don't even have a car).
When I tried to use a budget, because that's what PF types say is good, I found myself sitting there frustrated that I couldn't buy a shirt until Tuesday because I had already spent my clothing allowance for the month. Or I couldn't get my brother what he wanted for his birthday, because it was $15 out of the budget amount. It was stupid to me, and all it did was end up making me feel like I was wasting my time because most of the time I was well under budget without even trying, and the other times I ended up feeling bad about myself for going over.
I tend spend money in relatively large amounts opportunistically, not on some sort of schedule. If I see a 40% off sale at a clothing store I like, I may spend a $100-$200 there and be done clothing shopping for the next 6 months- 1 year.
Budgets just don't take life into account either. I got a job last year that required me to wear suits every day (which came w/ a 40%+ pay raise). I had one suit. So I had to go out and spend almost $1000 on a few suits, ties, shirts and a pair of shoes that aren't from payless. Budget's don't take things like that into account. How do they take into account your friend is in town and wants to meet you for dinner? Are you going to say no to your friend because it will put you over budget or feel guilt for going out?
I do much better by living below my means. I lived w/ roommates in the not so nice part of town until I met my fiancee. We now live in a modest apartment close to transportation and don't have cars, saving us thousands a year. When we buy, we are going to buy a cheaper place and get a 15 year mortgage. I max out my 401k, get the best returns available on my free cash, and save about half of my take-home paycheck each month.
Do the big things right and then you don't have to worry about the little things so much.
Over and over again I try to keep on a budget and cannot. I'm hoping, from this book, to learn how to change my life so that I can stick to a budget and be financially happy.
To budget effectively I think you need to create a very realistic list of expenses. That way you don't feel deprived. That's a mistake that causes people to not even attempt a budget I think. They feel like there's no room for fun but it just needs to be accounted for so that you don't over spend. I use mint which alerts me when I went over my allotted budget.
Yes! My spreadsheet software helps me work out my overall monthly totals: how much discretionary money I have each week, how much I'm saving to invest, how much I'm saving for emergencies, how much I'm saving for those bigger wants like a flatscreen TV, etc. In the same spreadsheet, I have my weekly discretionary purchases worked out. I put everything on a rewards card and keep my receipts so that I can keep a running total and know where I stand.
Not every purchase is explicitly planned, but every dollar is apportioned to some purpose through the magic of spreadsheets.