Budgeting 101

[lhafer]

Well, I am about to take over the books/bills/budgeting in our household. It's been a LONG time since I have done it. Last time I did it, we had zero money, and I wasn't budgeting - I was dodging (collectors mainly). Since then we have done much better for ourselves, and come out of all the debt we had.

Right now my DH makes really good money for us, so I don't have to work. But we do have some debt (cc) that was recently obtained that needs to be paid off, some student loans, etc. He just pays bills - neither one of us *budget* or truly save.

My goal is for us to pay off our debt and save up $$$ to buy some land in a few years. We already have 529s for both our girls that we put money into monthly. Our cars are paid off. We just bought a house 1.5 years ago that we have a good sized mortgage on.

So please point me in the direction of some user friendly budgeting tools (I am not ready to delve into Ramsey or Suzan world yet).

Also, how do I go about finding coupon classes? I would like to be able to start using coupons, etc when I shop. I have been known to cut tons out, organize them, etc - then they just sit there.

[Mermanaid]

Do you want something online or something you can maintain on a spreadsheet? I can send you the DR budgeting line items if you want to set something up yourself.

[kijip]

You might like mint.com

[lhafer]

Do you want something online or something you can maintain on a spreadsheet? I can send you the DR budgeting line items if you want to set something up yourself.

Either. I'm handy with online stuff, and I know Excel pretty well.

[KrisM]

I use a spreadsheet I made in Excel. I have columns for each pay check and rows for all expenses. The rows are divided by categories of cash, check, long-term savings, escrow savings. I filled in most of the year early this year. Some things change monthly and some expenses are only quarterly or yearly, so that's reflected there. It gives me a good handle on how much we are spending and how much we can save. I have a minimum amount to save each month and tweak the cash numbers to get that. Basically, I save first and spend what's left :).

I have always paid extra on our mortgage and I find it much easier now. I found that more of our bills are the start of the month, so I make an extra payment after the 15th with that check's money. Much easier to do now and not feel like we are running out of money!

We also switched to mainly cash. I HATED tracking where my money went and I have no desire to put in receipts and divide it into categories after the fact. With cash and envelopes, I know what I can spend and I do not spend more than that without taking it from somewhere else. So, no tracking, because I do not care how much I spent on groceries at Meijer vs Kroger, I just know I spent $583 last month because I had $17 left over and I started with $600 :).

You could look at YNAB software (You Need A Budget (http://www.youneedabudget.com/)). I know lots of folks like that a lot.

Congrats on getting rid of a bunch of debt!

[DebbieJ]

We use You Need a Budget www.ynab.com

SUPER easy.

[lhafer]

I use a spreadsheet I made in Excel. I have columns for each pay check and rows for all expenses. The rows are divided by categories of cash, check, long-term savings, escrow savings. I filled in most of the year early this year. Some things change monthly and some expenses are only quarterly or yearly, so that's reflected there. It gives me a good handle on how much we are spending and how much we can save. I have a minimum amount to save each month and tweak the cash numbers to get that. Basically, I save first and spend what's left :).

I have always paid extra on our mortgage and I find it much easier now. I found that more of our bills are the start of the month, so I make an extra payment after the 15th with that check's money. Much easier to do now and not feel like we are running out of money!

We also switched to mainly cash. I HATED tracking where my money went and I have no desire to put in receipts and divide it into categories after the fact. With cash and envelopes, I know what I can spend and I do not spend more than that without taking it from somewhere else. So, no tracking, because I do not care how much I spent on groceries at Meijer vs Kroger, I just know I spent $583 last month because I had $17 left over and I started with $600 :).

You could look at YNAB software (You Need A Budget (http://www.youneedabudget.com/)). I know lots of folks like that a lot.

Congrats on getting rid of a bunch of debt!


We use You Need a Budget www.ynab.com

SUPER easy.

Okay - for those who use YNAB, is it worth $60? Especially when there are things like Mint.com that are free?

We already have everything that can be paid online doing that. So I don't really need to change that (I don't think). I just want to be able to start looking at our budget and putting money aside for savings/future purchases/etc.

[DebbieJ]

Yes, well worth the $60. For us, anyway.

[Katigre]

The first budgeting advice I would give is to STOP the 529 contributions until you have paid off your consumer debt. IMO educational savings should take a lower priority to financial freedom for your family now.

[KrisM]

I don't use YNAB, but I've read many people do like it a lot. I don't use Mint.com either and can't compare at all. Useful, huh?

[infomama]

We use You Need a Budget www.ynab.com

SUPER easy.

I've owned this for a year and have yet to set it up. I always run into a hurdle and walk away from it. Ugh.

[AnnieW625]

I just spent the last 45 minutes on mint.com, pretty cool if you ask me. It will take some time to iron out, but I can see it being helpful. I just hope that my bank doesn't charge me $7.50 like they did the last time I downloaded information to Quicken (well that was the end of that one; thankfully Quicken was free!), if they don't then I can see myself making a go with mint.com .

I have never heard of a coupon class before, but then I don't get extreme couponing at all. I used to clip coupons when I got the newspaper and I never ended up using them either but then I'd also clip for items I rarely used so it wasn't that big of a thing for me. If I have coupons at all I usually just use them for health and beauty items or baby stuff. Thankfully Target provides those often.

[KrisM]

I forgot you asked about coupons until I read Annie's post.

Becentsable has online workshops: http://www.becentsable.net/workshops/

Here is a tutorial of sorts: http://bargainshopperlady.com/online-coupon-class/

But, if you've clipped and organized them, I think the best things to do are either find a local coupon match-up blog or look at either www.hotcouponworld.com (http://www.hotcouponworld.com) or www.afullcup.com (http://www.afullcup.com) under the store you want and see what others are posting for deals. The blog is the best, IMO.

I do a combo of things - I clip and organize in a binder. Then, I meal plan for the upcoming week and make a shopping list from that. I go through the ads to see what I can get good deals on that we'll use and I can stock up on. Before shopping, I pull all my coupons and put them in a poly zipper envelope, but still I bring the binder anyway. Most people will make their meal plan off the ads, and that will save more money, but I'd rather make what we want and go from there.

[daisymommy]

This website is AMAZING!!! I think it has everything you are looking for--household budgeting, 31 days to a better grocery budget, couponing, paying cash and getting out of debt. They paid cash for their dream home! yikes!
http://moneysavingmom.com/beginners-page