"we have so much debt in our nation that
the average person has been described
as someone driving on a bond-financed highway,
in a bank-financed car,
fueled by credit-card-financed gasoline,
going to purchase furniture on the installment plan
to put in his mortgaged-to-the-hilt home.
anonymous
the average person has been described
as someone driving on a bond-financed highway,
in a bank-financed car,
fueled by credit-card-financed gasoline,
going to purchase furniture on the installment plan
to put in his mortgaged-to-the-hilt home.
anonymous
In addition, he forgot to mention wearing credit-card financed clothes!
Money is a hot topic these days with the cost of gas soaring and in turn affecting just about every other item we buy.
I tweaked and tightened up our budget this year in order to make room for big purchases, payments and changes coming up. I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to stick to it and it would end up too restrictive but happily so far it's been working out just fine.
I set up several different bank accounts for various goals and have been using mint to manage all of our transactions. Both have been an incredibly helpful to me in terms of visualizing everything and where it's all going. Money that we are saving towards particular categories (travel, insurance, cars, toys, house, emergencies, medical etc) is automatically transferred into the appropriate accounts so we don't even see it and thus don't feel more flush than we actually are.
I cut our grocery spend down drastically by upping our meal plans to monthly and only making one grocery trip a month. I love love love not having to go to the grocery store as much now and not having to meal plan as often. Seriously, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner!
We've also changed up the way we've been eating a bit and that's also helped in cutting down on the grocery bill and our eating out budget.
Home inventorying our house has been quite the ordeal (how do we have so much junk!?!) but it has been eye-opening seeing how much I already had, particularly in terms of clothes and shoes.
In order to combat both the feeling of having nothing to wear and wearing the same 10 items constantly, I've taken to devoting an hour of my Sunday afternoons to setting out clothes for the week ahead. This has done wonders for me! I am constantly rediscovering favorites now that I am taking the time to peruse my closet instead of the five minute grab in the morning of whatever is closest. I have a massive closet and certainly don't "need" much of anything so it's really helped me narrow down my shopping to those special little extras without feeling like I'm suffocating from "the budget".
Gas and electricity, not much can be helped there but we do commute together to save the wear and tear on our cars and we've also kept our heat at 52 all winter except for an evening or two during the weeks when it's freeeeezing and I bump it up to 58. Our house is pretty well insulated and in the evenings I just live it up in my north face pants and LEC sweatshirt and Uggs. Sexxxy!
I'm always interested to hear how other people manage their money, so share your tips! How do you budget?
Posts
6 comments:
You're my budgeting, spreadsheeting hero.
I am the type of person who has no clue about their money, probably because I grew up poor and my parents didn't talk money in front of us kids. We were told to save, save, save and never spend more than what we had. Still good advice any way you slice it, but I'm left kind of not understanding budgeting and making good with our money. However, I also earn next to nothing and spend all my money each month on rent and food.
Hubs is the money-savvy one in this relationship. I like being told what to do with my money, so he tells me "Spend X on whatever you want, spend 700 a month on food, spend 100 on gas/metro, and discuss anything else with me." We agreed if we are buying anything over $200, we will discuss it with one another beforehand.
Hubs has been aggressively saving a bit more than 1/3 of his take home salary this year. Add that to his little trust fund, his putnam account from childhood, and his pre-marriage savings account, we're in good shape and haven't touched our savings account since we married.
But when we move for internship, I'll be earning 150% more than what I do now, which is not a lot in terms of money, but its' the most I've ever made in my almost-28 years of life. So we'll need to re-eval our budget. I'd like to have multiple accounts for multiple purposes and have it automatically routed there, but I don't know if G would be down with that. I'd also love to do a Dave Ramsey class with him, but I don't know if he'd be down with that either.
I'm really bad with numbers and money overwhelms me and we often get into tiffs because he explains things at a level beyond me and I do the whole "OMG whatever dude" and he's all "OMG why can't you understand this dude" but I think going somewhere together would be beneficial for the both of us. Because we're going to need to have a solid plan for money once I'm out of school, I think, and expert advice never hurt anyone!
52?! Phew, I thought I was doing good with 64...
I feel like we're really just now starting to be good about our money. We have way more debt than I'd like due to us not making all the changes that we needed to in order to accommodate dropping to one income. But I literally put my credit cards on ice (just like in that movie!), and that has helped a ton.
Other than that, I can't really get J to follow an official "budget" document, but I do track our expenses, and know where every penny is going.
It seems small, but I've drastically reduced a lot of the mindless shopping trips I used to do. I can't remember the last time I actually went on a shopping spree (ie , spent more than $100 at the mall). IT's really helped save money and I don't really miss it that much.
You make my house seem warm now! We keep it around 62, but never over 64 in the winter. If we weren't on the edge of town with the winter wind, we might be able to handle 60!
I actually went through my closet and made a list of all the stuff that I have and what it goes with so I can wear more of it. I think I'm ready to get rid of more stuff because I just don't wear it and there is no point in keeping it! I'm looking forward to a great big purge this summer!
Gah, isn't that quote the truth? So sad.
We have no debt, aside from our mortgage and fully intend on keeping it that way. When we were first married, I was in law school and Z was working--we lived just fine on only one income. Since I started working 2 years ago, we just continued living on one income. My paychecks go straight to savings each month. It is tight and uncomfortable and hard knowing that there is money there when the going gets rough, but we are just being as disciplined as possible beecause we know that our situation may not last forever (i.e. in June when Z is out of the army and may not have employment lined up yet, or when we have kiddos and I take a few months off, etc.). We are all about spread sheets and making sure that we pay our selves first (savings!) and then live within our means for the rest of it. Some months that means I can get a new camera and we eat our a lot. Some months that means that we are doing a lot of cheap home cooking and watching movies on the couch. You just have to know your limits--and stick to them!
Post a Comment