Who is on a budget? I was wondering do you use your computer or a book and what does it look like? Anyone brave enough the show us how you do it?

I am on a budge but i don't have it written down. I pretty much know what needs to be paid and when and do it.

I have everything in an excel spreadsheet for my guide. It lists how much we bring in each paycheck and what will be paid out of it. It also shows the % breakdown of what the goal is for extra funds. For actual expenses, I have my day runner that has budget pages. I keep the tally in pencil until the end of the month to see if I met our goals and so I have a record for the next year to budget for incidentals and irregular expenses.

Okay now that I am pronouncing myself the village computer idiot, I can admit that my exfiance used to use a computer program, but I couldn't figure it out!! Now that I am on my own, I use a sheet of notepaper and often use the "envelope" method of budgeting. I sure wish I could do it on the computer though. sigh

I'm not on a budget but I NEED to be!!! I use coupons and save money where I can but we still spend to much money on other things!

I have made out budgets in the past, but never stuck by them. I really need to be on a budget, and plan to start sticking by one Jan 1st.

We have a budget but I have a hard time sticking to it. That is my #1 resolution next year. Stick with my budget, period!


Nealy

I have pulled one together, sort of,

I'd love to have it on Excel and all neat and tidy, but until I get it tweaked in January, Iam opperating in a spiral notebook that I keep in my frugal notebook with the coupons and pricebook and menus.

I really don't know if I'll get it on the computer or not, I like to touch and handle things...so probably not.....just more real that way.

I really like tweaking my budget and trying to improve it. I began using notebook paper. For each week I have a due date, expense, and actual paid column. I also include when we get a paycheck. I think what has helped tremendously is get all the debts, all the payments we make, absolutely everything, and write down when they are due. I then give myself about 5 days before the due date for the mailing time. I have some on automatic withdrawal so I don't worry about those.

I also wanted to have all this on the computer so I went to a spread sheet and just entered our current bank account balance on the 2nd column. The first column I use it for dates. Then on the third column I write the amounts that were paid by check and are still pending. The 4th column is used to write the check # and the 5th column is used to write the store. The 2nd column changes as I substract the check, debit transaction, or a budgeted amount. When I talk about budgeted amount I mean things like electricity, water, groceries, gas, things that I don't know yet how much they'll be but which I have given myself a pretty good idea of how much they'll be.
Nothing high tech or anything. I wish I knew how to do formulas in this spread sheet so that when a debt amount changes I can just change that amount and my running total automatically changes.

Each time I decide its about time to go over the budget (usually every 4 or 5days), I'll just change the name from budget1 to budget 2 and so on. I really like all this. I don't know if I explained it clearly, but hopefully you'll get an idea.

Nelly

I am...and I have it set up on Excel. I'm not really strict enough about it though...I really should hold myself (and everyone else in the family) accountable too....

I always found I could never stick with a budget, but I knew what had to be paid and when. When dh got his paycheck, I'd always pay the bills on their due dates.

Now that he isn't working, its changed a bit.

I'm not sure if I'll go to a budget but I do plan on doing something so that we have it written down has to when to pay what.

A friend of mine marks down the due dates as soon as she gets her bills on her calendar. She checks her calendar everyday to check and see when something needs to be paid.

Starting the new year here, I may go to a computer program, will see what the finances are in the purchase of one.

I can't seem to stick to a budget. All the bills are paid on time. I use coupons, but can't seem to limit myself!

I am, but we have gotten really slack lately. After we get back from vacation in Jan. we are going to have to get back to work. I write everything down in a notebook.

i don't know that it's a classic budget properly speaking but here is what we do.

Dh uses Quicken and we do online banking, paying most of our regular bill that way. Direct deposit, automatic withdrawals for our mtg payments etc.

So most of the fixed expenses are taken care of every payday, and we can track the "leftovers" for gas and groceries and household/clothing/medical/education etc.

We take a sum out for allowances and for church before using the remainder for groceries and gas etc.

It is an easy to do budget in that we can track where the money goes fairly easily and there isn't a lot of wiggle room after the bills are paid but it's enough that if we are careful we stay out of debt.

When it's spent it's spent.

We do 2 major things, one is we do some annual expenses in November-Christmas (Christmas gifts, birthday gifts --most of ours are in December and house and car insurance) So we pay off the insurance bills, house and car-- which is also a liscencing fee where we live, about 900+ per year, and then the leftovers we budget out for Christmas gifts. Forgot to say that is an automatic savings plan which gets taken right off dh's paycheck.

The second major thing is the income tax return, and that comes in the summer when we buy clothes, shoes etc and any other major equipment. Tires for the car for example.

If we can avoid spending it, and last year we managed it, we stick it onto the mortgage as an extra payment directly to principal.

Dh does an automatic savings plan for what is called RRSP or Reg. Retirement Sav. Plan that defers taxes on that money till withdrawal in retirement. It tends to reduce the tax load by reducing taxable income and it's another automatic savings withdrawal so we never even "see" the money.

We had to remove most of that (and pay a hefty tax bite) this year for a car which we paid cash for. This isn't how it"s supposed to work but by doing this auto deduction thing with both types of savings we are managing to save.

Some of the savings goes to annual expenses that come up once a year. (auto deduction)

Some is for retirement. (RRSP auto deduction I think they are 409 or something in the States)

Some (from the income tax return) is for "catching up" if we had unusual expenses, and if that can be left untouched we put that onto the mtg to pay down early.

I also try to sock away any extras or windfalls that I can thru out the year.

We had a major accident happen when some guests were sitting on our couch and it just gave way. New couch, armchair and ottoman have come out of that but the sad part is it's taken 3 years worth of savings out with it, and that was our emergency fund/cum wedding for dd fund (nope she isn't engaged, it's just something I did so we wouldn't be without any funds if she does marry at some point.

But the point is that it was there.

My biggest tip is do automatic withdrawals for savings, and have several different savings plans going, one for retirement to help increase your tax return or decrease your tax bite, whichever way you do that,

and another for real emergencies but that should be long term growth. Tuck money aside as you get hold of it, whether a windfall or saving a few dollars here and there, when it goes above a set amount, make a visit and pour it into the savings.

and another for annual biggish expenses that come round once a year.

I keep a budget on paper - tried to on computer but it was just one thing too many to keep track of. Our income varies so when I have good months I go ahead and write checks ahead for the next month or two. The money stays in the checking account and the checks and bill stubs are kept in an envelope till it is time to send them out.

A friend and I are going to keep each other accountable on being frugal in '03. I'm hoping that helps. We will each track our budgets and money actually spent each month. Hopefully we'll be able to help each other find little areas of improvement.

- jul