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Budgeting Advice

Count FunkulaCount Funkula Registered User regular
edited December 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
My wife and I both have decent jobs, and we are doing ok financially. However, I think we could be doing a lot better if we had a better handle on exactly where our money is going every month, especially since we have an 8-month-old son now and all of the expenses that go along with parenthood.

So, my question is what would you suggest for a good way to set up and manage a household budget? MS Money? Some other software package? Pencil, paper and sheer willpower?

Thank you for any and all suggestions.

Count Funkula on

Posts

  • ShawnaseeShawnasee Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    My wife and I both have decent jobs, and we are doing ok financially. However, I think we could be doing a lot better if we had a better handle on exactly where our money is going every month, especially since we have an 8-month-old son now and all of the expenses that go along with parenthood.

    So, my question is what would you suggest for a good way to set up and manage a household budget? MS Money? Some other software package? Pencil, paper and sheer willpower?

    Thank you for any and all suggestions.

    Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.
    He has a sheet in that book that tells you how to do a $0 dollar budget, which means you take your total income for a month and "spend" every last dollar of it. By spending it, I mean allocating it to certain things such as:

    Food
    Gas
    Utilities
    Mortage/Rent
    Slush
    Entertainment
    Car Payment
    Credit Cards
    Phone
    Cable

    and whatever else you can think of.

    I know you're not asking about debt but I was $35k in debt and the budget helped us clear it out in a year and a half, which is an accomplishment because my wife home schools and doesn't work(well, the home schooling is TOTALLY work) and I am a lowly E-6 in the military.

    The book also has some great info on how to get out of debt. And the author(he also has his own radio show) comes straight from the hip and it's not hard to understand. Changed my view on car payments and credit cards.

    I can't speak on MS Money as we just created an Excel spreadsheet (which I can send you a copy of of you'd like) but I am sure there are programs that have a budget feature in them. They would almost HAVE to, wouldn't they? You can't really manage your money unless you have a budget.

    Good luck either way and congrats!! on the baby boy!

    Shawnasee on
  • ImprovoloneImprovolone Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I use a spreadsheet built in OpenOffice's program (Math?). I have rows devoted to damn near everything; her clothes, my clothes, baby clothes, our food, baby food, car insurance, rent, power bill, water bill, home goods, savings from coupons, cleaning products, my unneeded, her unneeded, eating out, etc. I also have some rows devoted to income, and one row devoted to Income-Outcome. Each column is a different month, and I have about 10 of the rows (things which I want to watch the the changes in the most) feeding into a line graph.

    Improvolone on
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  • RUNN1NGMANRUNN1NGMAN Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    As an exercise, for a month your should log EVERY expenditure, and categorize them. You'll be surprised where your money goes, and you can use the results to plan a realistic budget ($X for groceries, $Y for recreation, $Z for utilities, etc.) You can make a budget first, but unless you have good records a lot of the figures you put in your budget will be trash.

    RUNN1NGMAN on
  • Enos316Enos316 Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    An easy way to get a handle on outgoing money that I used was www.mint.com. It aggregates all your online accounts (bank, credit card, loans) and gives you some nice reports and helps you see how all the little stuff adds up.

    Enos316 on

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  • ImprovoloneImprovolone Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I forgot the most important thing... save every receipt untill you enter it into your spreadsheet.

    Improvolone on
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  • FantasmaFantasma Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Are you sure you want to do this?, someone will have to become the account, and the bad guy of the story.

    http://quicken.intuit.com/

    I also heard about GNUCash, which is free.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCash

    Fantasma on
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  • SmurphSmurph Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I just started using this site, which I think is everything I need:

    http://xpenser.com/

    All it does is allow you to record your spending. I didn't want to trust some start up website with my banking accounts, so this was perfect. You can send it a text message from your table at burger king, and it will save the expense you sent to your list. No more keeping receipts. You can record it online, by phone call, IM, text, or twitter. I tried doing the pen and paper, but I kept forgetting the paper or loosing receipts.

    Smurph on
  • AphostileAphostile San Francisco, CARegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I'll second mint.com.

    They're based out of Mountain View and track basically everything you have. Including my Fidelity investments. Pretty nifty little site.

    Even categorizes your purchases based upon where they were groceries, bills, etc, and allows for custom titles. Has transaction history, spending trends, custom budget levels with text messages when you go over it, etc.

    Lots of security, Verisign, all that jazz.

    AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: FREE.

    Edit: I'm an idiot and didn't notice that Enos had posted it. But it's still coool.

    Aphostile on
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  • grungeboxgrungebox Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Enos316 wrote: »
    An easy way to get a handle on outgoing money that I used was www.mint.com. It aggregates all your online accounts (bank, credit card, loans) and gives you some nice reports and helps you see how all the little stuff adds up.

    I used Mint.com. It's easy to use, but there is always that fear when having all your bank account info and whatever in one place online. BUT...it's very good for budgeting practice.

    grungebox on
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  • Idx86Idx86 Long days and pleasant nights.Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Shawnasee wrote: »

    Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

    This.

    Wife and I started his program, cleared out about 30k in debt as well in under 2 years right when we got married. Couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

    Idx86 on
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  • ShawnaseeShawnasee Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Idx86 wrote: »
    Shawnasee wrote: »

    Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

    This.

    Wife and I started his program, cleared out about 30k in debt as well in under 2 years right when we got married. Couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

    Congrats!

    I was skeptical at first when my wife handed it to me and said "before we get married we need to be on the same page about money. One of the top reasons for divorce is finances. This is where I stand."

    I thought it was a get rich quick or some infomercial thing but I couldn't say no to the request. The guy is legit and the whole book made sense. Glad my wife is so smart (about some things! :D ) cause it's definitely helped us and helped our money.

    Being able to track your expenditures is great and it will hopefully help in not having to "follow" your money and where it's going but Dave will teach you how to make your money do what, and go where, you want it to.

    Shawnasee on
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Idx86 wrote: »
    Shawnasee wrote: »

    Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

    This.

    Wife and I started his program, cleared out about 30k in debt as well in under 2 years right when we got married. Couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

    I've gone through the classes as well, and while there's a lot of good advice in it, there's also a lot of dangerous bullshit as well.

    AngelHedgie on
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  • HorusHorus Los AngelesRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I think we should have a forum where people share and help each others spreadsheet budget. I need to work on my 2009 Spreadsheet, wasn't there a site with a free spreadsheet template for budgeting?

    Also if you have a blackberry you can drop the spreadsheet template in there to add your expenses on the go.

    For me though I had to do a year of tracking my expenses to analyze my patterns of expenses, by the following year I cut my wasteful spending by 10k and opened CD account (which atm interest sucks).

    Good luck always set a day to do all your inputting.

    Horus on
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  • Smug DucklingSmug Duckling Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I need to start budgeting. I haven't been having any money woes lately so I've been getting complacent. It feels like my frittering my money away and I haven't been keeping close track of my expenditures.

    I'll start a spreadsheet today.

    Smug Duckling on
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  • Idx86Idx86 Long days and pleasant nights.Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Idx86 wrote: »
    Shawnasee wrote: »

    Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

    This.

    Wife and I started his program, cleared out about 30k in debt as well in under 2 years right when we got married. Couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

    I've gone through the classes as well, and while there's a lot of good advice in it, there's also a lot of dangerous bullshit as well.

    yep, there's some philosophies of his I don't agree with. It's unrealistic to buy a home with straight cash, homey and never use credit in any capacity. However everything else I think falls in line with good personal fiscal policies.

    Idx86 on
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  • WeretacoWeretaco Cubicle Gangster Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I use quicken over most of the other finance packages I've tried mostly because it is good for forecasting.

    It's nice to setup all yoru automated bills and such and see how much cash you'll have after X months or whatever.

    Weretaco on
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  • PeregrineFalconPeregrineFalcon Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    If you've got Office or something that can speak its template formats:

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/templates/results.aspx?qu=monthly+budget&av=TPL000

    (If that breaks, use this link and just search "Monthly budget")

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  • HedgethornHedgethorn Associate Professor of Historical Hobby Horses In the Lions' DenRegistered User regular
    edited December 2008
    RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »
    As an exercise, for a month your should log EVERY expenditure, and categorize them. You'll be surprised where your money goes, and you can use the results to plan a realistic budget ($X for groceries, $Y for recreation, $Z for utilities, etc.) You can make a budget first, but unless you have good records a lot of the figures you put in your budget will be trash.

    I will second this, and will add that you make sure to include that $1.49 Mt. Dew you bought at the convenience store and the $0.50 doughnut you got at the gas station when logging your spending habits.

    There will come a point at which you can stop tracking those little incidental cash purchases, but until you get a sense of just how much cash you spend each much on the tiniest of expenses, you will have a difficult time budgeting your money properly.

    Hedgethorn on
  • YourFatAuntSusanYourFatAuntSusan Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Here's a good budget spreadsheet (.xls) I use.

    http://www.yarlan.com/PABUDGET.xls

    YourFatAuntSusan on
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  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Idx86 wrote: »
    It's unrealistic to buy a home with straight cash, homey and never use credit in any capacity. However everything else I think falls in line with good personal fiscal policies.

    I like to point out that taking his advice on using credit is like asking a reformed alcoholic about how to drink responsibly. But what I find more damaging is his willingness to blame the financial problems of Americans on character flaws while ignoring that most Americans have been losing ground financially for the past couple of decades. He's started to change his tune these days, but I think that's mainly because even he can see that the societal tide be a-changing.

    Again, he makes good points, but just be aware that there's some dangerous concepts in there with them.

    AngelHedgie on
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  • ThanatosThanatos Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Anyone who suggests you never use credit for anything, ever, is a fucking idiot. I mean, the rest of his advice might be great, but that's some grade-A fucking dumb bullshit right there.

    And yeah, the best program I've found for dealing with budgeting is Excel/Calc (OpenOffice's Excel).

    Thanatos on
  • CrashtardCrashtard Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    If you've got Office or something that can speak its template formats:

    http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/templates/results.aspx?qu=monthly+budget&av=TPL000

    (If that breaks, use this link and just search "Monthly budget")

    I just downloaded this template, but do you know how to totally reset it to nothing so I can start from scratch?

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  • zilozilo Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Thirding mint.com. It's easy enough that you'll actually use it.

    I also stick to this rule: if I need to charge it, I can't afford it. Credit cards are for convenience, not short-term loans (which inevitably turn into long-term loans at usurious rates).

    zilo on
  • SeptusSeptus Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    I took the suggestion and took a look at mint.com and I like it a lot, though it's going to take some time to get accurate info. You can't import transaction data, and for my bank at least, it only pulls the first page of transactions, all 20 of them. So I'll have to use today as my starting point instead of my 18 month history.

    Septus on
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  • zilozilo Registered User regular
    edited December 2008
    Yeah, it takes awhile to get up to speed. Plus for some reason it doesn't include my car loan in my "net worth", but it's already plenty negative with my student loans in there so I'm okay with it. ;-)

    zilo on
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