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.
How Do You Budget?
Lori's pp about how the economy has changed us has me thinking about my spending habits. I like to go out for lunch dates and dinners a couple times a week. Usually if I'm out shopping, I pretty much buy whatever I need. And I love trying new recipes, so I'll just purchase the items without considering the cost. We're pretty comfortable where we're at financially, but I think that there's always ways for me to improve (I'm definitely the spender between the two of us---granted a lot of the stuff is for the home).
So, how do you budget? Do you use a program? Do you list everything you purchase into categories? How do you decide how much $$ to allot for each area?
Re: How Do You Budget?
Thanks for info above, Allie!
MH developed began tracking our bills and spending about 6 months ago. He was surprised at how much he was spending eating out for lunch. This really motivated him to change and since that time, we've been better at planning our meals, esp lunch and dinner. We have really been more conscious about our spending, especially since we got the house.
I used to track my personal finances in Excel -- tracked every penny in and out. I set a monthly budget for each category then manually tracked my expenses (usually by reviewing online bank/credit card statements).
Since MH and I combined finances, it has been tough because he likes to use cash and isn't good about recording his expenses. We recently switched to a simpler method. Our budget is his paycheck. My entire paycheck goes to the savings account. I don't spend so much time categorizing and recording everything. As long as we can be living on one paycheck, we're doing good
When we moved to OK we went to an all-cash system...we pay all of our bills online and then use cash for things like gas, groceries, personal items, eating-out, entertainment, etc. When the allotted cash is gone, no more spending.
To keep an handle on spending our cash we always make a grocery list ahead of time and are not brand-loyal for most things so we just get whatever is the cheapest that day if we really need it or we buy things if they are our regular stuff and are on special (like 2 for 1 on the peanut butter we use or buy one get one 1/2 off on the pasta we like). That said, we don't buy "national" brand stuff very often and mainly stick to store brands. And we try to buy natural and organic food as much as possible so if there's a sale on a conventional item we don't buy it just because it's on sale.
We also "spend" our money on paper first...we created a spreadsheet with all of our bills listed in date due order and then added categories like food, gas, toiletries, etc.
Oh, a HUGE saver this year has been using my FSA account for medical stuff like co-pays, prescriptions, etc. I am amazed at how much we're saving by using this. And we also added some funds in for dependent care which I am using to pay my mom for helping us with Libby's day care needs.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
I love this post because it is something we've been slacking on lately, and especially since joining our finances since becoming married. About a year ago I was using pearbudget.com to track my spending and it was wonderful. I really think I may start it up again because my money is disappearing with nothing to show for it and DH has been laid off... again!
One fun money saving method my mom uses is that she saves dollar bills with certain letters in the serial numbers. Like J for her initials. She is able to purchase holiday presents with the amount she saves every year. However, if you're not someone who uses cash often, this may not be a fun saving practice for you.
I confess, I'm very bad at this. Retirement and savings come straight out of my paycheck and whatever is in my checking account over is a free-for-all - bills, entertainment. My paychecks are fluctuate depending on how much extra I work but I always know the minimum amount. Not much help for planning. So most months there's a little left and some months I have to transfer a little from the savings.
MH is the exact opposite - he's a spreadsheet kind of guy. He likes having everything planned and put into columns or buckets. He saves all his receipts and reconciles at the end of the month and has a pretty good idea of where everything goes.
Is it showing yet that we haven't combined finances? We still have to figure out how to work out a budget together.