Budgeting
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Do you budget? If so how?
I think the hardest thing for me is that there are SO many transactions - and they're so easy these days.
I have several streaming, music, news things on-going. All my bills are on auto-pay. I have some monthly amazon grocery subscriptions, etc. etc.
It all nets out fine at the end of the month - but i feel like I have very little visibility into what my "base" level of spend is.
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If you're looking for software to keep track of expenses, there's a ton of options out there.
It's nice to know where the money goes.
@jon-nyc has a spreadsheet he uses for that, as well as for investments, etc.
I just use a commercial product that will download transactions, and give me whatever report I want: "How much did I pay for
cheap Scotchelectricity last year?" -
Just set up an excel worksheet. Once you have the categories figured out its just like a chart of accounts except you don't have to mess with double balance accounting.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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For my household, I don’t budget, at least not in a detailed manner.
If you want to get a rough sense of where you spend your money, put everything on a credit card for a few months. One card, not multiple cards. Then analyze only the statements for that one card.
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Who has a credit card?
I use a credit card for EVERYTHING.
My US Bank Visa card gives me 5% back on utilities.
My Fidelity card gives me 3% of every purchase.
My Amazon card gives me 5% back on every Amazon purchase.
My Bank of America Amtrak card gives me 1 point per dollar spent. AND shopping though their portal can give as much as 2-3 points more per dollar's purchase.
Hell, I pay my income tax with a credit card. Yeah, it costs me 2%, but if I get 3% back, it's worth it!
Yeah, I pay all balances off every month.
This year, I'm at least $500 to the good on rewards, etc.
Paying attention takes time, but if you've got the time, it's worth it.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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I’ll second @Jolly and Dave Ramsey. Like Jolly, I do have a few differences with his program… For instance the whole “pay cash for a car…buy used in cash and build up reserves”. I don’t think you can buy a used car under 10K that won’t mean a lot of extra maintenance costs that put you on the losing end, ultimately. If you finance a car for 5 years that you can trust for 8, you are on the winning side of that equation. Otherwise? Yeah, his program is pretty good.
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Just set up an excel worksheet. Once you have the categories figured out its just like a chart of accounts except you don't have to mess with double balance accounting.
Just set up an excel worksheet. Once you have the categories figured out its just like a chart of accounts except you don't have to mess with double balance accounting.
This.
I don’t budget but I track expenses. I know what cheap months and expensive months look like. I know my average spend by year going back 15 years.
You were warned.
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Just set up an excel worksheet. Once you have the categories figured out its just like a chart of accounts except you don't have to mess with double balance accounting.
This.
I don’t budget but I track expenses. I know what cheap months and expensive months look like. I know my average spend by year going back 15 years.
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Just set up an excel worksheet. Once you have the categories figured out its just like a chart of accounts except you don't have to mess with double balance accounting.
This.
I don’t budget but I track expenses. I know what cheap months and expensive months look like. I know my average spend by year going back 15 years.
Just set up an excel worksheet. Once you have the categories figured out its just like a chart of accounts except you don't have to mess with double balance accounting.
This.
I don’t budget but I track expenses. I know what cheap months and expensive months look like. I know my average spend by year going back 15 years.
Same. I port everything from online.
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Who has a credit card?
I use a credit card for EVERYTHING.
My US Bank Visa card gives me 5% back on utilities.
My Fidelity card gives me 3% of every purchase.
My Amazon card gives me 5% back on every Amazon purchase.
My Bank of America Amtrak card gives me 1 point per dollar spent. AND shopping though their portal can give as much as 2-3 points more per dollar's purchase.
Hell, I pay my income tax with a credit card. Yeah, it costs me 2%, but if I get 3% back, it's worth it!
Yeah, I pay all balances off every month.
This year, I'm at least $500 to the good on rewards, etc.
Paying attention takes time, but if you've got the time, it's worth it.
Who has a credit card?
I use a credit card for EVERYTHING.
My US Bank Visa card gives me 5% back on utilities.
My Fidelity card gives me 3% of every purchase.
My Amazon card gives me 5% back on every Amazon purchase.
My Bank of America Amtrak card gives me 1 point per dollar spent. AND shopping though their portal can give as much as 2-3 points more per dollar's purchase.
Hell, I pay my income tax with a credit card. Yeah, it costs me 2%, but if I get 3% back, it's worth it!
Yeah, I pay all balances off every month.
This year, I'm at least $500 to the good on rewards, etc.
Paying attention takes time, but if you've got the time, it's worth it.
Yeah, but you're a doctor. As we all know, doctors (to quote Ron White) are lo-o-o-o-aded.
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Who has a credit card?
I use a credit card for EVERYTHING.
My US Bank Visa card gives me 5% back on utilities.
My Fidelity card gives me 3% of every purchase.
My Amazon card gives me 5% back on every Amazon purchase.
My Bank of America Amtrak card gives me 1 point per dollar spent. AND shopping though their portal can give as much as 2-3 points more per dollar's purchase.
Hell, I pay my income tax with a credit card. Yeah, it costs me 2%, but if I get 3% back, it's worth it!
Yeah, I pay all balances off every month.
This year, I'm at least $500 to the good on rewards, etc.
Paying attention takes time, but if you've got the time, it's worth it.
Yeah, but you're a doctor. As we all know, doctors (to quote Ron White) are lo-o-o-o-aded.
Yeah, but you're a doctor. As we all know, doctors (to quote Ron White) are lo-o-o-o-aded.
LOL.
What do you pay for cable, electric, internet, gas and internet?
For me it's about $500 a month - that's $25 cash back.
As far as Amazon goes...
Cat food, litter paper towels, toilet paper, garbage bags, canned/boxed foods is easily another $200 a month - that's $10 on routine shit. Then, add all the other stuff you'd normally go to the grocery store for... for me, that's another $30 a month. Anything I can wait several days for, I put on Amazon.
And then there's Amazon Fresh. Same day delivery, 5% cash-back.
I just saved you about $720 a year.
Oh, income taxes? Yeah, I pay 2% to the service, but I earn 3%.
This year, I'm at least $1000 to the good so far, after fees.
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I'm a commissioned sales person with monthly performance bonuses based on performance for my stores. Some months are great, some months not so much. If I don't budget out and have cash reserves for the slow months, I'm screwed.
George, Credit Cards are like the Casinos... They always win. I'm glad you're winning out, but so many people open credit card accounts thinking to do the same, then build up balances they can't pay and get into a debt spiral.
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Who has a credit card?
I use a credit card for EVERYTHING.
My US Bank Visa card gives me 5% back on utilities.
My Fidelity card gives me 3% of every purchase.
My Amazon card gives me 5% back on every Amazon purchase.
My Bank of America Amtrak card gives me 1 point per dollar spent. AND shopping though their portal can give as much as 2-3 points more per dollar's purchase.
Hell, I pay my income tax with a credit card. Yeah, it costs me 2%, but if I get 3% back, it's worth it!
Yeah, I pay all balances off every month.
This year, I'm at least $500 to the good on rewards, etc.
Paying attention takes time, but if you've got the time, it's worth it.
I use a credit card for EVERYTHING.
Same here for the most part. I get 1-3% cash back on all purchases and I just pay off the balance each month. Nice way to earn a little back. Now that we are in Minnesoooooota and go to Target a lot, we also got one of their RedCards (not credit, just debit connected to my checking account) and anyway it saves us 5% on all Target purchases.
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Great ideas. I was mostly curious how much time is reasonable to spend on this.
Things have just been so variable over the past few years (3 homes in the past 3 years, kids, etc.) - I just don’t have a good sense of what my “average spend” is or should be.
I also spend everything on my credit cards. I get to expense lots of things at work so I’m sitting on like $6000 worth of travel rewards right now.
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Great ideas. I was mostly curious how much time is reasonable to spend on this.
Things have just been so variable over the past few years (3 homes in the past 3 years, kids, etc.) - I just don’t have a good sense of what my “average spend” is or should be.
I also spend everything on my credit cards. I get to expense lots of things at work so I’m sitting on like $6000 worth of travel rewards right now.
@xenon I think there are a few budgeting apps that can be tied into your CC.
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@xenon I think there are a few budgeting apps that can be tied into your CC.
@lufins-dad said in Budgeting:
@xenon I think there are a few budgeting apps that can be tied into your CC.
Any one that is worth its cost. Banktivity connects to my credit cards, checking/savings, retirement funds. When I pay a card from my checking account, it's reflected on the card's ledger.
Quicken does that as well.
