Money Matters
melissa&mark
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.
Best budgeting system?
I'm trying to get with the times and start tracking my budget some other way then the pencil and paper method. I bought a Quicken program today but afterwards I looked at mint.com and it seemed pretty similar. I remember trying mint years ago and not liking it because it had to many categories. I budget my bills, gas, food (grocery) and anything that doesn't fall in one of those categories falls into the misc. category. So what do you all suggest?
Re: Best budgeting system?
H and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University - and it was well worth it! I would recommend listening to him on IHeartRadio. We are also looking into purchasing YNAB (You Need A Budget), it seems like a pretty neat program
Training to be the next companion.
I know my way around the internet, if you catch my drift, and I got a copy of YNAB to try out...it is a pretty neat program! The user interface is simple and clean, and overall it looks like it's worth the money. I believe there's a mobile app that you can get that syncs with the desktop app, which means you can keep up with your expenses while you're out and about. c:
My only problem is that I don't know how to budget, lol. (But I'm only 19, so I think I can cut myself some slack ;D )
All in all I'd say go for it! It's on sale on steampowered.com for about 34% off.
(Steam is generally known as a gaming client, but they have a bunch of software that isn't gaming related. They have awesome sales every season/holiday, so do take a look! It's a plus if you/your man are into PC gaming. Don't let the "gaming" part of the site throw you off, if something's on sale then take it! At least, that's my philosophy, lol. )
^^^ jeez I talk too much
My husband and I have been using an Excel spreadsheet we made as well. It has a row for each expense category with a column for our target expenditure on that category, what we really spent, and the difference-- which turns red if we went over and green if we were under budget. Each column has a total at the bottom which shows us exactly how much we should spend and how much we actually spent each month. We also have a section to input our income and investments so we can see how much is left after what we spent to put into savings (for a down payment on a house!) I used to update the spreadsheet whenever we paid a bill or bought groceries, but this took too much time and I found I was obsessing over money. Now I just do it at the end of the month using our debt card statements.
We have been over our budget on food quite often so we have started a new system. At the beginning of each month we have been putting our max allotment for food and toiletries in cash into an envelope so we can physically see how much we have used and how much is left. So far, this system has worked pretty well for us.
I read the book "America's Cheapest Family" (which I took out from the library). It has some really good ideas as to how to set up a budget and how to skim excess expenditures from your budget.
I like to break down that miscellaneous to more categories. Entertainment, clothing, personal care, education, vacation, vehicle maintenance/registration/replacement, charitable giving etc. For me it is easier to get a clearer picture of spending without a category that is huge with a mish-mash of items.
hyperion - a budget is a plan on how to use the money you have.
You take the money you have coming in and plan how to use it. First - save, then necessities, followed by debt repayment then non essentials. You want to keep ALL spending less than your income and not support a lifestyle you cannot pay for by using credit cards.
I also use excel. I have two columns for each of our incomes, and expense columns for all of our bills. I created the spreadsheet to show all income and expenses 6 months out to help manage my spending and avoid going into the negative for the next month. I have been using this method for over a year and it has worked great for us. I am able to pay bills in a timely manner, budget a "must have spending" (i.e. groceries, gas, allowance), and place money in a savings account each week. Since I have the spreadsheet for 6 months +, it gives me an idea of when debt should be paid off, allowing us to see if we can pay off anything quicker.
The only time I update the spreadsheet is when I spend outside our "must have spending", our monthly payment changed, or one of our incomes changes. I still use a checkbook and this allows me to keep my checkbook up-to-date.
Keeps me sane I guess.
As others have said, Excel is a good program for budgeting and tracking expenses. I used one of their budget templates and modified it for my family's needs. I like that it is specifically for what we need (I like to put in specific stores--i.e. Walmart vs ShopKo), and I can change it each year if I need to, and all my financial info isn't available online (like mint.com). I'm paranoid like that, though; I'm sure it's pretty safe.
If you don't know Excel, it's a great program! Do a basic training on it (a local community college course or have someone sit down and teach you the basics), and it'll make it a lot easier to work with. Takes a little bit to learn at first, but is super easy once you know what you're doing.