May 2010 Weddings
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.
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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.
Budgeting
I need to become a better budgeter.. I'd like to start making double payments on my car so that we can get rid of a car payment. After that I want to pay down SL debt.
Any tips on how to start keeping a budget and sticking to it?
Re: Budgeting
Ditto the other ladies. DH is a financial director and he set up our spreadsheet that we follow each month for budgeting.
Our income doesn't fluctuate each month so we know we have a set number there. Certain expenses are always fixed for us (or fluctuate very little) such as his student loans, our oil payments are always $xx each month, etc. We save a certain amount each month. We plug in those set numbers. Then we see what's left over and we calculate what we feel is a reasonable number for other discretionary expenses (groceries, dining out, clothing, miscellaneous / gifts, etc).
Before you begin setting a budget up, I would spend one month tracking what you actually spending NOW in various categories so you get a baseline of where your money is going. Then it's easier to see what jumps out at you as being an area you can cut back on and also helps you determine what amounts you should allot to each category.
There's a good legit website - www.mint.com
You connect your bank account to it and it categorizes your transactions so you can see where you're going over budget. You can set all of the budgets yourself. I haven't used it much, but I need to start! It's really good.
I agree with mint.com.
We have been using it for a few months and I love it! It helps keep track of everything.
As part of our budget, we use the cash/envelope system. We have a specific amount of money that we are going to spend on gas ($60), groceries ($130), eating out ($50), and entertainment ($50). In addition, both DH and I get a $50 bill each.
We withdrawl these amounts as cash and once the money's gone, it's gone. It has really helped us cut down on the amount of money we spend while we're out and about. We almost never use our debit cards, unless it's unexpected stuff (i.e. car oil, prescriptions).
I feel bad... we don't budget. We probably should. I mean, we could cut corners... a lot.
With the prospect of a kid in 2012, we should start. We'll see.