Money management report card

**MaryCarney** · 11-03-2009, 01:41 PM

I think my budget is probably TOO detailed, and I'm slowly getting that fixed. See for a long time, I had certain things that I mentelly put aside out of DHs check (which is a fixed amount every single week) while other things came out of mine (which is biweekly and can vary a LOT depending on how many hours I worked) Don't get me wrong, it is all in the same account, I just allocated it this way.

I think the thing we'd get singled out on is not getting the FFEF built back up. We are completely debt free, including mortgage, but took a hit this year when I lost my job.

It was such a mental blow, that I didn't start back again for three months (I'm a nurse and could have found something) so we ran the EF down from 11K to 4K (although 3K of that went to the final mortgage payoff)

We've not taken anything else out of the EF in three months, and I've finally budgeted to start replenishing it, in addition to looking seriously for a better paying job.

**JanieD** · 11-03-2009, 02:28 PM

I also feel we are on track most of the time. We could be saving more for specific things like medical expenses/bills, car/home repairs & retirement. We've had some unplanned bills almost every month this year & its thrown our savings off. Having a more detailed budget would help us know exactly where we need to focus each month.

**Cricketlegs** · 11-04-2009, 06:51 PM

I said A because we are so strict with our spending. Pay the bills and debt FIRST.

Savings--the minimums should be better.

**dcompton** · 11-04-2009, 10:25 PM

I put myself in the B category. I have very few expenses and I'm putting a good bit, over 30% in savings and retirement.

I don't use a formal budget, but allot a certain amount for expenses each month and try to stay within that. That works better for me than a lot of categories. I don't feel like I'm in a straightjacket, or become obsessive trying to make the numbers match up, but I still know what the limits are.

Something our Money Inquisitor would definitely nab me for is that I have allowed this to be a considerably spendier year than usual, indulging a shocking number of wants, compared with what I usually do. I have spent more on hobbies than usual, and have bought more things for the apartment than usual.

A couple of things the Inquisitor might question:

In my retirement I have somewhat more in equities than the rule of thumb suggests for my age. Not much, but I wonder if it's wise. Still, at least they are very broad based funds, not individual stocks (that would scare me to death).

I cut my emergency fund down, pulling enough out in September to fund an IRA. I still have several months on hand, and I'm old enough that I could get it back out of the IRA without penalty, but it's riskier than having it in the bank.

So ... although I'm still saving substantially, I need to pull back the spending and keep beefing up the retirement. And I need to keep a sharp eye on the allocations in the retirement account. I will probably revisit that in the spring and see if that is what I still want to do.

A "B" for saving, but a "not-A" for spending.

**Preston** · 11-06-2009, 04:43 AM

I know where our weak spots are and I'm working to plug those leaks as I can. We have had a lot of pet expenses recently as one of the cats we adopted had kittens and there we added expenses with that.. So I didn't know how much to budget for the time we had 10 cats. Now things seem to be leveling out now.

**Emjo** · 11-09-2009, 05:11 PM

I voted B but really I would give us a B+/A-. We are spending only 70% of our take home pay (10% tithe and 20% savings), have no consumer debt. We have an emergency fund and life/disability insurance.

Someone else would probably suggest saving more for retirement or focus more on fully funding our emergency fund. We are a family of 4 crammed into a little basement suite so right now all of our savings is going towards the downpayment for our first place.