Comments on: How Do You Organize Your Budgeting?

By: Carnival of Personal Finance #263 – Upstate Edition

Carnival of Personal Finance #263 – Upstate Edition — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:32:53 +0000

[...] about Money presents How Do You Organize Your Budgeting, and says, “Funny wonders if she’s getting altogether too OCD about tracking budget [...]

By: fetu

fetu — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:31:33 +0000

For all spending after the utility bills etc, I use the old fashioned envelope system……has worked well for me for many years. In the old days it included kids allowances and bus money envelopes…..now it is things like movies, haircut and clothes envelopes.

By: Vickey

Vickey — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:05:04 +0000

Very helpful post, thanks. I’ve been mulling over the same concern for several months now.

One thing I’ve noticed is that even tho’ we’re long time frugalists, it still helps to see pretty precisely where the $$ goes, to help maintain good spending habits. Otherwise it’s too easy to slip into squandering bits here & there.

I do our tracking in Quicken, however, because it’s much easier for me than tabbing & mousing endlessly in Excel (and cuz I work in Excel all day long and get sick of it). That’s my compromise, I guess.

By: Victoria - Ozarks Crescent Mural/My Freelance Road Trip

Victoria - Ozarks Crescent Mural/My Freelance Road Trip — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:49:53 +0000

Instead of totaling everything up and deducting it from my income and ending up with some random left-over figure, which can lead to overspending and ending up in the hole, I prefer this method.

I take the individual amounts for everything (bills, savings, living expenses, such as gas, groceries and spending money) and figure out where they’re going to get funded from (I get paid from a few different sources). If I need to earn more based upon my needs, then I just make adjustments in my work flow (being self-employed allows for that flexibility of adjusting your earnings to suit your needs). I never come out under or over and above because I pull it out and it all evens out. And when there is excess, instead of working less, I just put the additional in savings. Typically what happens is that I want to save more, so I work more.

My categories and subcategories are very basic, like Internet, groceries, dog food, cash. I’m not interested in tracking how much I spend on certain food types, or clothes or personal care, and so forth. And my cash amount can go for anything I want. I don’t care whether it’s for fast food, a birthday cake for a family member or for a t-shirt. I think some freedom within boundaries is important.

By: funny

funny — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:35:59 +0000

@ Brenda– Actually, I deliberately have not set up the utilities that way. Under normal circumstances, I can afford to pay the summer bills (I don’t LIKE it, but I can…). The winter bills are very low and that leaves me with plenty of cash between October and June. It means there’s something extra to buy Christmas gifts and to entertain around the holidays. The electric bills in particular would be over $100 a month if they were prorated over the year–compared to $60 in the winter months. Things are tough this summer, but I hope that next year, with the Social Security earnings limitation gone, I’ll be able to earn a halfway decent income, and halfway decent is really all I need on top of SS to pretend to a middle-class lifestyle.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:12:54 +0000

My tracking is about seeing where my money has gone. When money gets tight I go NOWHERE. No gasoline usage, no groceries, eat from the pantry and freezer, no money spent.

Can you set up your utilities to pay a set amount each month? I love no surprises after the a/c has been on. Have you tried fans and wet neck cloths to keep you cool, not the house?

By: Mischelle

Mischelle — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:20:03 +0000

I use to be a neurotic tracker of every dime. Like you, I questioned the sanity in I was loosing in favor of “controlling” all of my cash flow. In January, I took small baby steps and began consolidating some of my ING savings accounts. I still track a few things such as a self-impossed loan repayment to my husbands estate and what I need to sock away for my bi-annual LP gas purchase, but slowly I have released the need to know what I spent on food, gas, etc.

There have been a few times that I’ve needed to find something and can’t because I no longer track it, but I maintain that those few times do not warrant the stress that I was going through trying to record each and ever tansaction. I’m glad I did it!

By: Revanche

Revanche — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:37:57 +0000

After years of “shared” expenses, I’m comforted by tracking every penny that comes and goes. I don’t actually do much with the numbers so I’ve backed off on how the spreadsheets are put together. Instead of tracking the number coming out of each category, I do a complete cash flow spreadsheet with a sheet for each month. If I wonder about any transactions or a particular month’s spending, I refer back to that spreadsheet. I just try to keep any month’s credit card bill below a certain amount and monitor loosely.

It’s probably not a great way to do it now that money’s become even *more* tight.

By: Rainy-Day Saver

Rainy-Day Saver — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:35:51 +0000

I’m a big fan of the chunk o’money approach. When we get paid, I move a set amount of money into our savings to grow that account, and the rest of the paycheck $$ stays in checking to pay for everyday expenses/monthly bills. Anything left over also gets pushed into the savings account. I don’t zero-out the checking account before the next paycheck comes in, though. It’s not perfect, but it works for us (probably because we’ve never needed to watch our finances that closely and don’t have debt/spending issues). We do try to keep our spending down in the areas of entertainment and groceries. We allow ourselves 2-3 meals out a month (takeout, usually) and spend about $200-$250 on groceries.

By: Frugal AJ

Frugal AJ — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:02:14 +0000

I use the “puddle” approach to budgeting. I don’t worry about every little item, although I roughly know what I spend on the bigger categories. It works for me, and I don’t waste time on the little things.