How do you budget your money? (savings? debt?)

EmDizzle

Last month Scot and I have just set up a giant budget for the next year, so that we will be credit-card debt free by the end of the year. (2 months in and we're still on track!)

We've been using a combination of Mint.com to monitor our spending habits, and also a Budget Calendar  http://www.mishell.ca/  that is really a big excel document with the facade of an actual calendar. (we found that this visualization of our budget through time has really helped us).

 

So, whether your have debt or are trying to save, how do you and your spouse budget money?  Have an accountant?  Simple spreadsheets?  Programs?  Books?

 

 

hz80408

We have an Excel spreadsheet that I created and we tweaked together...but I actually just signed up on mint.com yesterday, so we're slowly going to try to transition to that.

 Even though we have a decent budget, I don't think it's really strict/detailed enough and that we still waste a decent amount of money.

Mia2700

When we first purchased our home we kept a dry-erase calendar with all of our sticky bills as well as any moving bills (wedding stuff, house stuff, whatever) to have a clear picture of our in/out that month.  We did this for about a year.

Flame away if you must.  Right now, we don't track anything.  Our sticky bills are so routine we don't need the calendar and with the wedding off our radar, there's no large expenses to watch out for.. so .. we just live.  We both have retirement plans that we auto-save to, we have a portion of our checks auto-saving to our bank savings account.. so.. that's it.

kjhharris

First of all, it's notable that DH and I are both 30 and pretty well established in our careers (and corresponding salaries).  The only debt we have is the mortgage on his condo (neither of us has any student loans, car loans <paid them both off last year>, or credit card debt).  

We both max out our 401k; of our remaining income we each put $250 a paycheck into our own discretionary account (for gifts, splurges, etc. that don't come out of joint).  Everything else goes to our joint account.  We transfer anything that isn't needed after mortgage and credit card has been paid to our online savings account (where it's a bit difficult to access, so you're less likely to transfer it back).

We're both using Mint.com; I liked their budgeting tool, just to keep an eye on expenditures (especially around the wedding, as we were paying for it ourselves).  There's a lot to be said for knowing exactly how much you're spending in different categories.  I liked the warning feature it had to tell you that you're approaching your pre-set limit.  DH uses Quicken for monitoring our accounts, as he loves the trend-lines and seeing net worth, etc.

Bre2Be

Similar to what Kearstin used to do, we have a dry erase calendar with all our monthly bills on it.  Nothing fancy.  Also, since Chavis is the primary money manager he has everything in his iPhone and takes care of budgeting and paying bills.  Basically we both make sure to move X dollars every paycheck into our savings.  I really need to get better in this arena.  From just giving it a quick glance I really like this mint.com site.  I'm going to forward it to Chav.  Thanks girls! 

Anabeth420

Quicken, we've been using it for several years now.

campergrlsugar

Well, Im an accountant so Im a spreadsheet nut LOL...We do things a bit unconventionally i think...We have a joint account for house bills and a joint house savings account (for those projects we want to do eventually).  We also have our own seperate accounts for personal purchases (birthday christmas valentines day, etc)...so a set amount is put into each account monthly (or biweekly).  He's a consultant so he does not get paychecks every week like most people...So as long as the house account has enough in it for 3 months (being a consultant we have to plan ahead incase there isnt any work for a few weeks), the rest goes into the house savings account. 

This was the best plan for us because we were both so independent.  We had both owned our own homes for several years.  This way no one was "taking control" of the finances and we can still have our own spend money if we see something we want to buy.

 

 

chantico23

I made an Excel spreadsheet.  Every month we take a look at it and see if there is anything that we need to tweak for the next month.  It has EV-ER-Y-THING on it. Like right now we are already saving for Christmas, we have all of our bills on it, anything in a month that we spend money on has a category, as well as any bigger expenditures that we need to plan for. That is one worksheet in Excel.  Then I have another one that is basically our breakdown of our accounts.  It has The total balance of each (savings and checking) account, and then breaks down what each dollar is meant for.  A third tab has our debt, the minimum monthly payment, and amount that we will pay (we are following Dave Ramsey's "debt snowball" so we pay the minimums on everything except the smallest debt, then once it's paid off we roll it into the next, etc.).  Finally, a fourth worksheet has our bill schedule.  When I get a bill I usually pay it that same day. But when I don't I put it on this spreadsheet with the amount and date due, and then I check it off when I pay it.