what does family budget night look like at your house?

[ml2620]

My husband and I are having trouble sticking to any plan to sit down and talk about our financed. We say we will, but then we don't. And when we do, we usually only talk about unusual expenses and not the recurring monthly expenses.

I'm curious how other families do budget meetings. Do you have a set agenda? What's on the agenda? What tools do you have ready for the meeting, do you sit down with the pile of bills, a computer, a spreadsheet or what?

This may seem like a basic question and it is. I'm looking for ideas to get us motivated to meet regularly and motivation to improve our communication and saving success.

[BlissMommy]

Hubby and I are just starting to do this. We tend to spend all of our extra moolah and we need to save it. So, we are starting to sit down together and plan it out. Not much help, but we are in the same situation too.

[sunshine]

We treat our family budget, much the same as a corporation would do theirs. . . we meet weekly for the unexpected things - biweekly for the usual stuff (as I get paid every 2 weeks) monthly to check in on how things are going - quarterly for a touch base and adjust if necessary, and yearly to reset goals, etc.

We used to use quicken , but have since gone back to just paper and pen, after a few computer crashes.

[MissSeetonFan]

We don't always both sit down and go over each and every bill. He will do it with me nearby. I'm usually doing dinner or keeping the kids entertained but we talk about things as he figures things out. I'll remind him of things and he'll ask about other bills.

I do have a basic budget set up in a spreadsheet and every so often will double check things by plugging it in. Keeping the spreadsheet up to date is a little beyond our organizational skills right now. Other than medical bills, we have things under control. The medical bills we are working on.

My husband starts things off with writing down income for each paycheck at the top of a sheet of paper. Then he breaks it down doing a running total first with the utilities and rent, etc that will be paid from that check, then with any bills that will fit.

Carry the total over to the next column. Add the paycheck for the second pay period and continue. He did it on his own but it looks a lot like Dave Ramsey's budget forms.

We will "budget" a set amount for utilities, usually the average, but adjust it each month based on previous usage and then when we pay bills, etc., he figures up the math. We've usually padded things so that little surprises don't affect us. Bigger things we have to budget for.

We pull out a set amount each pay period for groceries and gas. That is our envelope system. Anything left over from the budgeted amount goes into a "leftovers" envelope that gets redeposited and put towards a bill or put into the emergency fund or wherever we need it. Sometimes, if we know a necessary trip is coming up, we save it out as cash for that trip so we don't have to worry about "saving from the budget" for it. We know we have a funeral coming up and we are saving for that.

[khaski]

To start I sat down and figured out which regular monthly bill was due on what date. I use a notebook with one page for each month, and list each Thursday (payday). In the bottom right hand corner I list the bill, expected amount, and date due (and I know, in my head, if I pay it online, mail it in, etc). I then plotted out each week, with one listing for regular paycheck, one listing for overtime, each week, and plugged away until every bill was accounted for in time for it's due date. 1/4 of the mortgage is accounted for each week, every week. As I account for regular bills I cross the listing off in the bottom corner til all is crossed off and balanced. I also have a certain amount of 'extra' $ each week, which covers a pizza night or unexpected doctor's visit or what not.

If we know a large expense is coming, say, car registartion and inspection, we will start 'counting' $ towards it a while in advance. We have an emergency fund to cover any real emergencies that come up (though we're still growing it). I do the budget, pay all the bills....hubby knows where the budget binder is if he needs to take a peek. We don't really discuss it unless $ for something unusual comes up...just last weekend, we went to a wedding that cost us $340 between gift, babysitter, drinks....but we had discussed weeks in advance what we felt comfortable giving for the gift and how much the sitter would cost.....it's 'as needed' for discussion.

It was initially really hard to figure out how to allot what $ to make sure everything was paid.....it tooks MONTHS to be comfortable with it, now I think I could do it in my sleep. If you are having trouble sticking to a budegt either a) yur budget is unrealistc and you need to make more or spend less through cutbacks (cable, cell phones, eating out etc) or b) you're not really commited to the process and you're wsting your time, for now.

Stick with it, if commitment is not the issue! It takes practice, practice, practice and I truly believe it's a learned skill.We've been following a written budget for almost 1.5 years now, and I swear i break into a cold sweat if unexpected $ shows up ('but I haven't fit it into the budget yet....now what?'

[Syn D]

Hubby and I usually pay the same things, same amounts every month, so the only talk we might have is ~ Hubby says, "do I get any money this month", I say, "hahaha we'll see". Talk done

[mndtrp]

My husband and I are having trouble sticking to any plan to sit down and talk about our financed. We say we will, but then we don't. And when we do, we usually only talk about unusual expenses and not the recurring monthly expenses.

I suggest making notes about the things you want to talk about as you think them up. Create a document that contains all of those talking points. If you wish, print one out for each month of the year (or weekly, if that is how often you do budgeting). Don't stop the budget meeting until every topic has been touched. If you and your husband feel topics should be added or removed, do so after talking to each other. You'll eventually fall into a routine that works, although even good routines should occasionally be examined.

[Trishagirl]

I have some extra money saved so just need to hold on to it for shopping in Chicago the first weekend of Dec with family! I bought my sister's present yesterday so that's done!
mndtrp how about putting some money in a christmas fund in the bank and not touching it til it's time to go shopping will that work for you?

[zakity]

I budget "backwards". I have a spreadsheet with the paychecks on it. DH gets paid every other week. I have the bills broken out by pay period. Usually, I sit down in November at some point and figure it out for next year. This year, I did it early.

My spreadsheet looks something like this:


3000 date of paycheck
-900 house payment
-1000 credit card payment
-100 electric
1000 total


3000 date of paycheck
-100 gas bill
-100 life insurance
-100 garbage bill
-100 internet bill
-100 phone bill
-100 cell phone bill
1000 total from above
3400 total


Of course, those are just random numbers and random bills, but you all get the idea, right? I have car insurance (gets paid twice a year) and stuff added where appropriate (usually the month before they are really due). We also have the car tags and things like our license renewals added in there. The only thing I don't regularly add in is stuff like doc visits and haircuts.

Doc visits and haircuts come out of the credit card "electronic envelope" system. I have a double entry system in the spreadsheet for using the credit card to pay for regular occuring things. I get points for using the credit card and I use those points to either to fun things or help pay for xmas or dates with the hubby or whatever. The credit card gets paid off each month.

[mndtrp]

I have some extra money saved so just need to hold on to it for shopping in Chicago the first weekend of Dec with family! I bought my sister's present yesterday so that's done!
mndtrp how about putting some money in a christmas fund in the bank and not touching it til it's time to go shopping will that work for you?

I have no clue what you are talking about.

[Ceashels]

Greebo updates Quicken since he does it all online. I use a whiteboard (for agenda notes and totals only) and have a binder that lists the income and expenses for our sinking funds.

We get together usually on paydays, after dinner and run through the numbers so everything is up to date. I like having the whiteboard so we can just take a glance and see how we are doing on our sinking funds. (ie: is there enough for a clothing purchase or ... gee, the water bill fund is getting high... did we pay it?)

On the board, I also keep a list of what amount goes into our envelopes and a list of the usual payments like utilities, phone, etc.

It sometimes takes some prodding on one or the other's part to get us up to the office for our meeting but it is so much easier when it is done. There is a security that comes along with seeing our goals progress, of knowing that if the dogs need shots or meds, there is money in the funds for them already.

[Darlene]

We don't have meetings, we just talk to each other daily,lol. We just have set bills and pay those. Big tax bill coming up? No surprise to either of us and we know we have to keep an eye on saving for it. We have just always kept a list of what we run out of (food etc & tend to buy the same things over & over) and buy it and don't buy extras of anything or big purchaces without talking it over. We never really go anywhere to be able to spend extra money so its pretty simple here.

[krbshappy71]

Ceashels, if I had my budget on a white board I'd take a big ol' eraser and head out to the mall. *grin!!*

Thanks for this thread, folks, still don't know how I will do it with BF. We are talking separate accounts at this point, I have been in control of my own money for soooooo lonnnng, I don't know how I would handle discussions if they didn't go my way. *guilty!*

[Telephus44]

We don't really have budget meetings in our house. I keep track of all the books. DH did all the books for 5 or 6 years, I've been doing them for the last two, so it's not like I'm keeping him in the dark. He prefers it when I handle the day to day stuff.

We do talk about overall strategies - like should we put the extra into savings this month, or towards the car loan? We want a new dining room set, can we have the money saved by Dec or will it be Jan? Should we increase our 401K contributions or put more in the Roth? Or we need to have money for car insurance next month - let's try to keep eating out down for the next few weeks. That kind of stuff. It happens informally when it comes up, maybe every 2-3 weeks.