Are there any financial gurus' on this board?

Tayrusso

I need some budgeting advice.  I have an expense worksheet, but we're still waaay outta whack. 

ETA:  Not sure on the whole guru spelling/punctuation thing...

Megamuffin

I'm no guru, but you might want to try posting your budget on Money Matters. A lot of the ladies over there have some really helpful ideas of how to cut down expenses, pay off debt more quickly, or set up a more realistic budget. I lurk over there sometimes and have learned a lot from them.

Tayrusso

I was thinking about doing that, but when I popped over there today all the posts were NMMR. 

I'm going to try lurking over there for a bit

NewYorkerinAZ

How do you make a spreadsheet? I mean, how do you know what to put on the spreasheet? lol Is it a special program?

Megamuffin

Tayrusso:

I was thinking about doing that, but when I popped over there today all the posts were NMMR. 

I'm going to try lurking over there for a bit

Yeah, it's always good to lurk for a bit to get a feel for the personalities. They do have a lot of NMMR posts, mostly because the regulars have sort of beat the MMR topics into the ground and don't have much to discuss on them anymore. The MMR posts usually come from lurkers or newbies, and the regulars always seem happy to jump back into the topic and respond. 

Tayrusso

I just use QuickBooks and excel... 

imshell

Tay & Stac-I have a nice little budget spreadsheet (excel) that I would be happy to email you.

I ditto the MM ladies, they're good like that.

We have a really strict budget right now.  We hardly ever go out to eat and well, I'm really cheap lol 

Tayrusso

imshell:

Tay & Stac-I have a nice little budget spreadsheet (excel) that I would be happy to email you.

I ditto the MM ladies, they're good like that.

We have a really strict budget right now.  We hardly ever go out to eat and well, I'm really cheap lol 

We're cheapies too  

Shell, I would love to try your spread sheet, tayshelton515@gmail.com Thank you, thank you!!!

 

NewYorkerinAZ

I would love it too!!! samador24@yahoo.com

I wouldn't say we are cheap but I like to save when I can. And with buying a house and TTC, I really want to start saving as much as possible!!

Thanks, Shell!

homespunmetier

i have a love/hate relationship with budgets. we are big big savers. (you kinda know that already tay). i have speadsheets for everything - even a 'bargin' type one where i track how much we save only shopping for stuff on sales, ross, tj maxx, stores like that. hahaha. i could also send you ours once i get home. we did the envelope system before and had get success with it. are you looking at cutting your spending, paying off debt or saving up for something?!?! whats your main money goal right now? making a top goal follwed by smaller ones works. we follow the snowball effect. pay off our smallest debt first and work up to the largest one. sry soo long. haha.

imshell

sent!  if you want a full sample--like with dollars plugged in, I'll send you another--just email me

Tayrusso

Shell - Thank you!  I'm now going to spend my lunch playing with numbers

Dianna - I have two goals (all of which seem unattainable at this point)  

1)  We have four credit cards, total debt is peanuts for most ppl, but for us its significant.  

2)  I'd like to nail down our monthly expenses that are actually necessary, so that I can cut down/cut out the frivolous spending and put that money towards some household items and a savings account.  

I'm having a hard time itemizing our expenses, it could be b/c I'm screen hopping at work and not devoting my full attention or b/c the BOA website is kinda sucky...

I'm starting to wonder if we need to sit with a financial analyst (which could cost some serious $$$).

Anyways, to conclude this insanely long post:  Dianna, I would love to see your spreadsheets as well.  TIA   

NesJas

imshell:

Tay & Stac-I have a nice little budget spreadsheet (excel) that I would be happy to email you.

I ditto the MM ladies, they're good like that.

We have a really strict budget right now.  We hardly ever go out to eat and well, I'm really cheap lol 

Oh Shell, please send it to me too. Pretty please, with a cherry on top. mznessa03 at yahoo dot com

shawnana

Me too, Shell?  DH & I are in need of a budget overhaul. 

shawna.mitchell at hotmail dot com

Thanks, dahrlin'!

jayefay

I love budgets!  Budget preparation and implementation was one of the biggest parts of my last job, and now at my current position I'm going with it too.

For personal budgets - We've been on our strict budget that I set for us almost a year ago, and it works really well.  I've also helped people implement cash budgets, which is really useful when you're trying to tackle debt and decrease discrecianary spending.

If you need any help, just let me know  

cnj050607

I need MAJOR help in this department. We pay our bills... and I know we should have money left but we dont EVER and I am trying to figure out why. But the more I look at it and try to figure it out, the more frusterated I get so then I just ignore it, lol...

CTri17

imshell:

We have a really strict budget right now.  We hardly ever go out to eat and well, I'm really cheap lol 

yep this is us too with me SAH, we use Quicken. 

We also used Crown Financial which is a Christian money ministry, I can give you the %'s of your income that you should fall into for specific categories if you like

homespunmetier

CTri17:

imshell:

We have a really strict budget right now.  We hardly ever go out to eat and well, I'm really cheap lol 

yep this is us too with me SAH, we use Quicken. 

We also used Crown Financial which is a Christian money ministry, I can give you the %'s of your income that you should fall into for specific categories if you like

we did dave ramsey's finan peace univers and loved it! was the crown one offered at your church?

Tayrusso

CTri17:

We also used Crown Financial which is a Christian money ministry, I can give you the %'s of your income that you should fall into for specific categories if you like

I would love to know the appropriate %s.  Should I PM you our annual gross income?

Tayrusso

jayefay:

I've also helped people implement cash budgets, which is really useful when you're trying to tackle debt and decrease discrecianary spending.

If you need any help, just let me know  

Jaye, what kind of info would you need to help us get organized? 

I spent my lunch plugging our numbers into Shelly's spreadsheet, and I also have a BOA budget report thing online.  

JenniferBultman

DH is a financial guy.  That's actually what he does for work, he literally makes money on money for a local school. 

I'm a spender (realed WAY in but still the spender of us).

DH set up a really cool spreadsheet for us, that plans out for the year and itemizes what we save and expenditures.

I'm happy to email it to anyone that wants it.

We're on a similar plan to Dave Ramsey's (which is basic I think).  DH wants our car and house paid off- like yesterday.

Tayrusso

Jen, I'd love to check out your DH's spreadsheet.  My email is tayshelton515@gmail.com

TIA 

JenniferBultman

Great, I'll send it tonight, the 2010 spreadsheet is on our home computer

Tayrusso

Thank you 

imshell

cnj050607:

I need MAJOR help in this department. We pay our bills... and I know we should have money left but we dont EVER and I am trying to figure out why. But the more I look at it and try to figure it out, the more frusterated I get so then I just ignore it, lol...

um one word-KIDS! 

imshell

I like Dave Ramsey--he has a nice brain

When we started, we wrote every.single.little.thing we spent in a notebook for a month--this totally shows you where it goes--oof on how much gets wasted 

cnj050607

Seriously Shelly... that HAS to be it because I have no idea... LoL

Jenn, can you send me yours too? So i can go off of yours and Shellys?

jvivace@yahoo.com

Thanks :-)

JenniferBultman

I spend a lot of money.  Period.

Eating out, purchasing stuff that is nice but not needed, Health and Beauty are big ones.  DH printed out our bank records from January-May and we categorized spending departments (food, needs, wants, health and beauty).  Let's just say it was alarming to me. 

It was time consuming, but helped a lot!

Mrs. Destructo

I really like mint.com! Though it sounds like you might be looking for something a little more involved?

 

jayefay

It really depends on how much information you're comfortable with giving.

Seeing your numbers really helps to get an idea of what you are starting with.  So in addition to having a budget spreadsheet filled out - you would also need to have the detailed information about all of your debt accounts (interest rates, length to payoff, min. payments etc.) and any savings accounts.

If you guys are looking to focus on debt payoff, it would probably make sense to work on snowballing your debt, but it really does require going down to bare minimum expenditures. 

It would also be beneficial to know your short and long term financial goals - efund, debt payoff, retirement savings, other savings? 

If you want, you can email me at jayeaz at gmail dot com.

Budgets are a love of mine  

jayefay

Mrs. Destructo:

I really like mint.com! Though it sounds like you might be looking for something a little more involved?

This!

Mint.com is totally awesome for getting a REAL picture of what categories your spending is going into.  It pulls all your info from your bank accounts and separates out your purchases into budget categories that are customizable.