getting back in the swing of things

melissa&mark · March 2015

I haven't visited this site in quite a while, but I was hoping for some advice as I try to get back into budgeting and saving.

Last year was a really rough year for us because my husband's job was SO slow (he's a union electrician). Finally, after waiting 9 months for things to pick up he quit, and was unemployed for 4 months before securing a stable job again. Because of his work situation we were basically in survival mode for a year and unable to save anything.

Now that things are stable again I want to have a regular budget again, but I'm not sure where to start. I have all our bills budgeted, then I have three categories: Groceries, Gas, and misc. I'd like to break that misc. category up better, but I'm curious what savings/spending items you ladies have beyond bills, gas, and groceries?

Even with our rough year last year we still have a decent amount in savings so I don't feel like our emergency fund needs to be a monthly contribution item.

Thanks!

hoffse · March 2015

I have a category for fixed expenses (mortgage, insurance, hulu subscription, etc.), a category for utilities since they are not discretionary but they also aren't fixed, groceries/gas, and then slush spending.

Slush is generally things like clothing, gifts, eating out, dry cleaning... stuff that is pretty discretionary.

I think I'm in the minority with how we budget. I think most people on this board break it down to much smaller categories. I just tend to have a 30,000-ft view of how much money we have any given month, and when I tried narrower categories I was always "borrowing" from one discretionary category to fund overspending in another. It would make me feel guilty, even when we would end the month significantly under-budget in total. So I finally just lumped all of our discretionary spending together, because that fits our general approach better. I did not find that we spent more or less under either system. As long as we don't have to deal with an emergency, we almost always wind up with $300-$400 leftover net. I've tried budgeting 3 or 4 different ways, and it always ends up being the same for us. I have no idea if that's common or not.

I think I actually have more categories for savings on our spreadsheet than I have for spending. I have annual expenses/dues, Roths, vacation, LLM (school), house remodel/furniture, and general slush (this is where that $300-$400/month usually goes).

Sorry, probably not helpful for what you are looking for.

AprilZ81 · March 2015

Here is what we have, I hope this helps! Like you we have an emergency fund that we are comfortable with so that isn't something we contribute to on a monthly basis.

Monthly Categories:

-Gas (Car)

-Groceries/Supplies

-Mortgage/Utilities/Cell Phones

-Husband Fun Money

-Wife Fun Money

-Entertainment

-Church Tithe

-HELOC Payment

-ROTH IRA Savings

-Christmas/Other Gifts

-General Savings

-Car Insurance & Car Maintenance

-Vacation

ETA: Added some that I forgot.

Also, we also transfer money between accounts as needed if we want to fund something that wasn't budgeted for. As long as it doesn't affect a "need" we tend to be pretty flexible.

als1982 · March 2015

Here is ours. We budget by the paycheck. My apologies for any formatting wonkiness, I'm cutting and pasting directly from Excel:

Bathroom remodel
Car Gas
Electric
Entertainment
Food
Food
Gym
H Mad Money
H Student Loan
House Gas
Misc.
Mortgage
My Mad Money
My Studen Loan (auto)
My Student Loan (manual)
Phones
Roths
Vacation

dragonstarjk · April 2015

I'm actually pretty similar to @hoffse. I don't break everything down into each individual thing because some months I might need it for a haircut and some months we might feel like eating out more.

I also have more savings categories--HSA, vacation, home improvements, and gifts/shopping. I consider these bills and they are funded directly from my paycheck before I ever see it. I use the gift/shopping account for birthdays, parties, weddings, etc.

kaso17 · April 2015

Here's ours:

Fixed:

Mortgage

water/trash

cable

auto insurance

phone

loans

netflix

variable:

gas

groceries

electricity

dinner out

gifts

spending money/misc

savings:

efund

vacation

christmas

@hoffse I really like the idea of a slush category where a lot of stuff is lumped together. I agree, I'm usually borrowing from other categories and then feel guilty.

brij2006 · April 2015

Here's what we do:

Groceries and toiletries
My gas
H's gas
Eating out
Entertainment
Pet care
Car maitenance
House maintenance
Hair care
Clothing
My fun money
H's fun money
Baby expenses
Medical
Postage
Church tithe

kmurphy2131 · April 2015

I use YNAB for my budgeting and have the following categories:

Monthly Bills:

- Rent & water bill (the management pays our water bill then we pay them back)

- utilities

- student loans

- car payment

- car and renters insurance (though this really just goes to savings to lump sum pay later)

- retirement

Expenses:

- groceries/toiletries/cleaning supplies

- gas/tolls

- medical expenses

- my personal spending

- H personal spending

this also includes some categories that come and go - christmas, birthdays, moving expenses (this month), job assoc costs. Those are where I get a little nit picky but our other categories would be out of control and I wouldn't be able to compare month to month if I didn't spread it out a bit more. We moved and H started a new job (which required some new stuff) so I wanted to pull it out from our normal expenses so I can still look at other categories and compare between months/same month between years.

Rainy Day Funds: (what YNAB calls it)

- emergency fund

- car maintenance (or other car stuff like license or registration renewal)

Erikan73 · April 2015

Car Payment
Car Insurance
Gas - Husband
Gas - Me
Gym
License plate (I take the annual renewal cost & divide up over twelve months)
Bowling
AAA membership (Again, take annual renewal costs & divide up over twelve months)
Water
Gas
Electric
Cable
Cell Phones
Pets
Yard
Lawn Care
Household goods
Home Repairs
Car Repairs (we both have new cars, but even new cars need oil changes)
Prescriptions
Dining Out
Groceries
Entertainment
Clothing
Gifts (we figure out who we need to get gifts for birthdays/christmas/mother & fathers day and our budget for each person & divide the total over twelve months)
Mortgage
Life Insurance
Garbage

hoffse · April 2015

@kaso17 - it took me some time to figure out how much we need to fund in our "slush spending" so that we have enough money to live well, but not so much we're spending frivolously. I'm still tweaking it, actually. All of our eating out, entertainment, clothes, pet care, etc. goes here. H and I also don't do separate "mad money" or "blow money." If we spend random money on just ourselves, it comes out of that fund. Anyway, it's taken a few months to get the amount right for all of that.

But yeah. It seemed ridiculous to feel guilty about "overspending" when we were actually ending the month a net positive. This system makes us feel like we can be more fluid. It also lets us take advantage of sales. We spent most of our slush fund this month on new work clothes because our wardrobes are starting to get worn and we ran into some great deals last weekend. It was several hundred dollars. I don't know how else to budget for that sort of thing, and I don't want to keep 20 mini accounts that all roll over from month to month.

cbee817 · April 2015

Ours are:

1. Mortgage - $1330 but will increase slightly (probably by $15) when our escrow is reevaluated in April.

2. Day Care - We have a daily rate for each so I have the monthly amounts already figured out in a spreadsheet. Some months are as low as $780 (2 kids going 2 days a week in the summer when DH is home) and some months are as high as $2,100 (2 kids going 5 days a week)

3. Utilities - gas, electric, water, cell phone - averages $320/month for all 4, but water is only paid quarterly. Right now our gas is high, electric is low, but that will flip in the summer.

4. Savings - at least $1,500/month (sometimes more depending on if it's a 3 paycheck month). That money is later moved to our Roth IRA accounts and the girls' 529 plans. We plan on maxing all of those ($21K total) this year. This $ is automatically transferred the day after our paychecks go in- no thinking about it.

5. Credit card bills- we charge everything we buy so our credit cards are for groceries, gas, toiletries, clothing, stuff for the girls, gifts, car repairs/insurance, minor house repairs, furniture, everything! We have average amounts for each card- some months, it's lower, some months it's higher.

6. Sewer repair bill- this is also on a credit card- 0% for 15 months so we pay a fixed amount ($700) every month to finish that by December. It was a huge repair but instead of taking $8,200 out of savings, we opened a card to get amazon prime free for 1 year and $175 worth of gift cards.

7. Life Insurance - we can't put that on a credit card, have to write a check for it. $497.50 for the year for both of us.

We're aren't very precise on our budget- I'm not going to set a grocery budget each month because we eat everything we buy (our fridge is empty by Saturday afternoon), we don't buy junk (usually spend $50/week or so on fruits/vegetables), and we don't eat out very much (1 meal a week at the most). Same thing with gas for our cars- if it's low, it needs to be filled up since we have to go to work. We put the girls' clothes/shoes ahead of our own- they are growing like weeds, but luckily most of DD#1's stuff can be reused for DD#2.

To me, as long as we save $ every month, don't dip into savings, and pay all of our bills, we're doing good. We have enough saved where we can be flexible if it's a pricey month (April is already looking a little high since we bought DD#2 a big girl bed that is being delivered on Friday) and we pay ourselves back when it's a lighter month.

simplyelise · April 2015

Tithe

Rent

City Utilities

Cell Phones

Gas

Car Maintenance

Car Repair Savings

Groceries

Restaurant

Clothing

Netflix

Entertainment (date night)

Blow Money

Haircuts

Toiletries

Medical (copays)

Life Insurance

Auto/Renter Insurance

Student Loan

MISC (one-time only expense, 5k registration this month)

melissa&mark · April 2015

Thanks everyone. My misc. fund is like the "slush fund" mentioned above, but I think the problem I've had with it in the past is that number is high at the beginning of the month which tends to make me overspend. I guess I just need to stay on track more. It's helpful to see how you allot your savings. I think I'll do a budget post and see if you all can help me figure out some ideas on how I should allot mine.

getting back in the swing of things

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