Money Matters
123bedebtfree
member
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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.
BUDGET
Hey yall! I have been reviewing my budget and I do you cash only and I use the Envelope system. I feel like I have so much money going into different categories and I think that before the second half of the year begins, I want to make some changes. I literally budget for every single thing I can think of. So, what is included in your budget? what are your TOP PRIORITY line items? Our line items are as follows:
gas
groceries
eat out
mani/pedi
miscellaneous
parents
kids
household
home savings
entertainment
gas
groceries
eat out
mani/pedi
miscellaneous
parents
kids
household
home savings
entertainment
Re: BUDGET
I save first and then spend - I think you'll run into problems with my method if you try to "save the leftover" without setting strict budget limits first.
It makes planning very easy because I don't really worry about pinpointing groceries vs. eating out. And when our savings comes off the top, we know exactly how long we need to save for goal X because I can project out.
We also use credit cards for points. I do a mixture of cash back, travel points, and light churning for sign up bonuses. I track the value I get out of it. In 2015 we redeemed ~$5,000 worth of value from CC points through cash back and a couple free vacations. In 2016 we redeemed about $3,000, primarily through free travel. I am expecting 2017 to be in the $3,000 range again because I have scaled back the churning ever since Scott's Cheap Flights became a thing.
Some items you might be forgetting are out-of-pocket medical expenses, car insurance, utilities, cable and car payments (if you have them).
I've never done an envelope system, though I've heard they really help some people. It sounds like maybe the envelope system is becoming more burdensome than its worth and you're looking to streamline?
I use Excel and have various tabs on it. My main tab is a grid with bills and loans on one side and due dates on the other side. The top is the date for each Friday of the current month. Over to the side, I have dates when I am expecting certain incomes.
In the middle, I fill in what amounts I'm paying to which bill/loan for each week.
On another tab, I have all my monthly and annual budget items with amounts listed. For the annual items, I break it down per month, but put a note over to the side how much it is annually. Another tab are my assets and their value.
Here are my budget items:
My annual/semi-annual items are:
I currently have credit card payments and pretty much always owe money on my HELOC. But I don't include those in my budget because that is where the majority of my extra monthly money goes anyway. But I do keep track of those payments and (hopefully) diminishing balances on the main spreadsheet.
I know I don't have gas on my list, lol. It's a pretty negligible amount for me and I always forget to add it when I see it on someone else's budget. I'm fortunate to live less than 7 miles from work and I have a gas sipping MINI Cooper. Though she has expensive taste and I have to use Plus or Premium.
Ours are:
-mortgage/utilities/cell phones
-personal fun money (so mani/pedis, hobbies, happy hour, etc.)
-entertainment (going out to eat, movies, ect)
-Gas for cars
-groceries/household supplies
-car payment
-car insurance/car repair savings
-church giving
Then we have a bunch of other savings envelopes for Christmas, vacations, retirement, etc.
-Spending
-Student Loan 1
-Student Loan 2
-Savings
-Husband (this is money I give to him to pay on our 2nd mortgage, and for my portion of our cell phone bill)
-Bed (we have 0 interest for 4 years on our Sleep Number bed)
-Utilities (I don't itemize these because they fluctuate throughout the year and when one goes up the other goes down... ie in the summer, water and electric go up, but our gas bill goes way down. I add to it in the summer too)
-Credit Card (I pay all gas and groceries on this card as I get triple reward points... so I guess this is my gas/groceries budget line item?)
-DirectTV
-Car Payment
I used to itemize even further but it just got annoying. I have a new car so car repairs don't really happen, but if they do come up, I either cash flow them or pull from savings. Same for non-monthly stuff like my car tags and insurance, Costco membership, stuff like that.
If I have leftover amounts in any of these lines, usually that only happens with my utility line, I'll either put in savings or just add to my spending for the following month, depending on what I've got going on.