Hawaii Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Personal Budgeting
I seriously need to organize our finances and work on a budget. I used to be really on top of it, but after the baby things just fell through the cracks. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, but I NEED to get our finances in check. What works for you? Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated!
Re: Personal Budgeting
We set up a spreadsheet in Excel with tabs for each month. We start the top with our bank account balance at the start of the month, then enter in our paydays as well as each bill/expense that is due, in chronological order.
We basically "spend" our money on paper before we actually do it, that way we see where everything is going, etc.
Because my DH only works part-time and it's shift work, his income is not very predictable. If we see a week on the spreadsheet where things might be tight, he aims to pick up an extra shift, etc.
We've been doing this for a year now and it's really helped. We also notate "once a year" items like car insurance premiums, registration, etc. in the month that they're due, so that we see it coming and not have any surprises. This plan has also helped us cut back in discretionary spending, like eating out, etc. and we've been able to save some money along the way.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
I don't even have a baby and can't keep my finances straight. I tried to do an excel worksheet but I kept forgetting to update it.
One thing I did do was not eat out at all or buy any prepared food (like muffins, coffee, etc from Starbucks) for a few weeks to get a general "feel" for how much money I was saving.
I try to cook big meals on the weekend to take as lunch during the week to work.
DH takes out a certain amount of $ at the beginning of the month for anything that's not a bill, and tries to pay cash for everything else (groceries, snacks) so he can keep tabs on how much he's spent. This keeps impulse buys to a minimum for him. Anything leftover can be spent the next month as a "treat" (movie, meal out) or put into savings.
He's very bad at spending coins (paying with correct change) so he ends up with a few $ in coins leftover every month. Quarters usually get spent as parking or bus fare but he'll roll everything else up in those coin wrappers and take it to the bank.
I'm curious to know how budgeting has changed for new moms. I feel like I already have unexpected expenses pop up here and there, I can't imagine what it's like with a baby!
The very first thing I'd do is track your expenses for a month, just to see how far out of budget you really are.
I have a spreadsheet that lists our income and expenses, and details what gets spent out of whose money (we have separate accounts, which works well for us) - e.g., the rent comes out of my account, but all of the food comes out of Ben's. Since we auto-pay a lot of our bills and get a certain amount of money sent straight into a separate ING savings account before it even hits our bank accounts, there aren't really THAT many ways we can overspend, and that's what seems to work the best for us - get that cash out of our accounts ASAP so we don't have to think, "oh wait, can I buy this? Have we paid the phone bill?" or whatever.
A lot of people on the Money Matters board recommend Mint.com for tracking your expenses - I haven't used it myself (it's not available outside of the USA), but I've heard it's really, really helpful.
We track our spending about twice a year. I totally admire those who do it more regularly!
We made a very crude Excel worksheet. We start with our incomes and list all the main monthly expenses (e.g., mortgage, car insurance, groceries, bills). We also include our savings and retirement contributions, which we consider necessities.
We then track our spending by saving every single receipt for a month and see how our personal spending fits into the equation.
When we've come up in the red, we've had to talk about how to cut back or how to generate more income. This system works well for us because it's not too time-consuming and it keeps us focused on our priorities, while still leaving a little wiggle room for the occasional personal indulgence. It's also a great way for couples to stay on the same page about money and how it's spent... since I know finances become a sticky point for lots of families. GL!