A Work-in-Progress
Posted by Gail | Filed under Budgets
One of the biggest misconceptions I have to deal with when I’m working with people who want to use a budget is the idea that once you make a budget, that’s it. You’re done. It’s all going to fall into place, tickety-boo. Wouldn’t that be nice? Okay, let’s get back to reality.
When you set up a budget, it is not only important to make sure you’re setting one up that is meaningful to you – it has categories for the things YOU spend your money on – you must be willing to accept that some of those categories will change over time. The activities you do this year may not be the same things you do next. Buy a house and watch your budget change. Have a baby and watch your budget change. Get a raise and watch your budget change. If you aren’t in the driver’s seat as those changes take place – if you aren’t proactively adjusting your budget – that piece of paper with all the number will become totally irrelevant to your reality.
While I’m a huge advocate of doing the background work to make sure your budget is realistic, most people can’t be bothered with this step. It’s just too much effort and most don’t have the gumption for it. So people end up guestimating the amounts for each category. Then, when they don’t “come in on budget” – their guestimates were W R O N G — they get frustrated and say, “See, see, I told ya, budgets don’t work.”
If the process of budgeting is new to you and you feel overwhelmed by the idea of tracking every dollar you spend know that it is only through this effort that you can really make the process work. If you’re doing a budget as a pen-and-paper exercise just to see… well, you’ll get a glimpse, but you won’t have a plan. And if you can’t find the time to take care of your money – if doing that much number-crunching offends your artistic or creative sensibilities – then reconcile yourself to the fact that you’re doomed to a life of never knowing where your money is going.
When you actually start tracking your expenses, you will be absolutely astonished at what you really spend compared to what you thought you spent. On TDDUP, I’ve worked with 104 couples over four years, and only one person (Nicola of “Mark and Nicola”) knew what she was actually spending. That’s less than 0.5% of the people in my show group! While I’m happy to admit to the bias in this group – they were on the show because they were in financial trouble – I think this ignorance may be reflective of the reality for a huge number of folks.
I’m willing to bet once you start tracking your spending you’ll find that you’re almost always spending more than you thought in some categories. Youll also find that there are quarterly or annual amounts you don’t think about – kids’ sports fees, car insurance, house insurance, property taxes – that throw your budget when the bills hit your doorstep. Only by accepting that your budget is a work in progress, that by tracking (tedious, I know, but it’ll get easier over time) will you develop confidence in your numbers and money management skills.
If it feels like too much all at once, start by choosing one category to track for a few months. Groceries is a good one. So is eating out. Or kids’ stuff. Or clothing. Detail every purchase you make so you get a good insight into how often you’re shopping, what you’re spending, and how you might trim back. Will you have to adjust your budgeted amount up or down based on your tracking?
Keep in mind that as you track categories like “clothes”, there will be some months that come in over target while others find you well under. Back-to-school and season changes probably mean your budget will take a big hit. That’s when all the money you didn’t spend on clothes in previous months helps to even things out. This fluctuation in spending is normal and should balance out over a few months. If your running average seems to be over your budgeted amount, it’s probably time to reassess how you’re spending your money and adjust your budget accordingly.
I track my expenses monthly to keep me honest. Sometimes I’m way over, someimes way under. Even now, when I go over I get a flutter in my tummy and have to remind myself that this is a work in progress and it won’t always be pretty.
So how about you? Do you track your spending? All the time? Do you have tricks to share to make it easier?
October 19, 2009 at 7:28 am
I’ve been tracking my spending for a few years now. The easiest way I find to do this is collect receipts from every purchase I make, then jot it down in a lined notebook at the end of each day. At the end of each month I add up the categories – then compare these to income versus expenditures. At first it was a pain, but now I see it like brushing my teeth or watering a plant. It’s part of our routine now. By having an automated monthly savings account – tucking away $250/mo – that does help to cover once a year expenses such as house insurance and car maintenance.
Over the years we do ‘notice’ patterns – such as my hubby was spending a lot of $ on CD music – and wine So now we’ve cut back in those areas and that has helped us to pour more funds against our line of credit (we make our our wine at a fraction of the cost).
We’ve also noticed that we’re putting more funds away for our children’s RESP & chipping away at our mortgage faster. By seeing the ‘hard cold evidence’ of tracking our spending helps us do a ‘reality check’ on a regular basis and fine tune it to suit our needs.
October 19, 2009 at 8:51 am
You definitely learn through trial and error and for the last 5 years I’ve been running a strict budget and can account for every dollar in and out. I budget a month in advance, so basically all the bills for November and the remainder of this month have been accounted for and ready to be paid. When November 1 comes along I prepare for Decembers expenses.
When I was a Financial Planner about 99% of my clients did not have a budget, they just knew that when money came in some had to go out to pay the bills, but they couldn’t put a dollar amount to any figures.
It’s time people in general become financially conscience. Then again, TDDUP and my business would not exist if it were not for those that are not financially aware, so thank you.
October 19, 2009 at 8:53 am
The #1 thing that keeps me on track is tracking my expenses.
Seeing the totals added up at the end, makes me see the big picture
I may have spent $50 here and $20 there, but if it’s $600 at the end of the month, it’s too big to ignore.
Budgeting is secondary to tracking expenses, for me.
October 19, 2009 at 8:54 am
I have been tracking my spending for a few years now. I have a book where I record all my daily expenses and then once a week, I have a spreadsheet set up where I enter my totals. This allows me to see from year to year how my spending varies in the categories and where I need to cut back. Once the system was set up, it only takes a few minutes each week to maintain.
Like Doreen, I also track on the spread sheets how much I am putting into savings so I can see how it is growing and how much the mortgage and debt are decreasing. For me, using spreadsheets help to keep me focused.
October 19, 2009 at 9:00 am
Years ago, my husband created an excel spreadsheet on his computer to track monthly expenses. Expenditure receipts go into a box in a drawer; they’re removed at month’s end when he enters the individual amounts onto the spreadsheet.
Creating this snapshot of our spending helped us plan/prepare for his eventual early retirement, as well as to know where money was being spent (always an eye-opener).
We review the spreadsheet bi-annually and compare the current year’s spending to previous years; spending adjustments are made accordingly, as/if needed. It’s also allowed us to really know if we could afford major expenditures (trips, cottage projects, etc) – always a good feeling.
Thank goodness he’s disciplined enough (in this regard!) for the both of us! Love the show, by the way; I always learn something.
October 19, 2009 at 9:00 am
When I set up our budget I used all the bills for the past year to give me a picture of what we were spending. The power bill for instance: I added up all the amounts, divided by 12, then put that number down on paper as the power expenditure. Obviously we’ll spend more in the winter but all that we didn’t spend in the summer gets saved to cover the higher winter costs. I put this carryover amount in a separate category on our budget and keep a running tally from month to month.
When my husband’s hours were cut back at work, out came the budget. With the new income amount at the top, the bottom line was in the negative so we started cutting things. Gail’s interactive budget makes this so easy, you delete the cell phone and your new bottom line is calculated for you. He also looked at the groceries category and decided that he could cut that down by $100 (and he has; make it a competition and your man will jump on it).
I try to think of everything we would need to pay for, like license plate renewals once every 2 years and make a category for it on the budget. As things I didn’t think about come up (sister getting married, needs gifts), I add the category and tweak accordingly.
To make all this easier I have a 3-ring budget binder with its own special place in an easy to access location. I printed off copies of our budget (a modified Gail budget sheet) so each month I can compare what we did to what we planned to do. Every time a bill or receipt comes in, it gets written down. Midway through the month and at the end of the month I do all the adding and subtracting and let hubby know how we’re doing.
October 19, 2009 at 9:09 am
Did Moneycoach (Tyrone) really just thank people for having money problems and thus providing him with business?
I thought this was a venue for encouraging ourselves and others to be more aware of financial responsiblity and not so much a space in which to advertise one’s services (or for that matter put others down by thanking them for thier financial misunderstandings). Perhaps we can try a little harder to stay positive and encouraging.
October 19, 2009 at 9:10 am
I have tried a few different things, including an excel spreadsheet & quicken, but the one that has stuck the longest and been the easiest is the plain old pen & paper. Our “budget binder” is a small 3 ring binder. In the inside pocket is a sheet that lists all our fixed bills and when they are due/leave our account. The front page is then the Gail web budget, revised every month or so. Then there is a simple page for each category of variable spending. At the top is the month, and the total budgeted for that category. I keep a running total as I spend, but seeing the total amount I have set aside for that category keeps me on track as I add new purchases. If I go over in a certain category, I “roll-over” the money into a new category and write it down as if it were a purchase. This almost always happens somewhere, but I haven’t found a consistent category where we overspend. Some months we have more company than others so our “groceries” are higher, but really it’s entertainment. Other months we’re right on track for groceries but we needed more cat supplies or clothes.
I keep a clear page protector behind each category’s page, and in there goes the receipts for that category.
I do the tallying any day that I spend money. It really takes less than a minute, and when it’s all organized it’s no big deal at all.
Inside the front pocket of the binder, I also keep my “wants” list. Anytime I get the itching to go shopping for something that I know is not technically a need, I write it down on this list. If we come under budget some months I then look back at the list if I still want something on there. Sometimes I do and I’ll go get it, but usually the want has faded by then. Writing it down in the moment as a sort of wish list gives me the feeling like I might be getting it, and sometimes that’s enough!
October 19, 2009 at 9:15 am
Dave, I got the same impression when I read ‘MoneyCoach’s’ comment. You are not alone in your thoughts.
October 19, 2009 at 9:18 am
By far for me the best means to watch dollars is using an accounting software. I log in my receipts every morning over coffee. If I wait more than a day my memory clouds and it becomes easier to lose track.
I detail my receipts according to expense categories that make sense for us, also separating how much is spent on clothing and the like for myself and the children( teens) Monthly I pull up statements to remind me how much has been spent on the month and year to date. An Eye-opener for sure!
October 19, 2009 at 9:44 am
We’ve been tracking expenses for 8 months now. Before, we had NO idea where our money was going, which led to debt hell.
Contrary to Gail’s methodology and what many others say here, I don’t carry or put in jars any cash. As soon as cash is in my wallet, it leaps out and is gone without any record of where it went (keeping receipts/manual tracking just doesn’t work for me or hubby).
Because I use debit from a bank account that doesn’t charge for debit, I am hesitant to buy any impulse items – it’s too much of a hassle, so I just don’t.
The withdrawals we do make are all uploaded to Wesabe (free online software). I can’t praise this product enough. I update it a couple of times a week, and because we buy/have automated payments from the same places all the time, they are automatically “tagged” (categorized) by the program. It has a monthly summary where you can track how much you’re spent in each category, and set targets.
We used Gail’s Excel spreadsheet to set up our initial budget to set those goal amounts. (Thanks for the reminder Gail, we need to review it!)
This system is working great for us. We have money left over all the time now, and we just paid over $700 in cash (by cheques) for DH’s 2 hockey leagues.
October 19, 2009 at 9:45 am
I’ve only been tracking and using the jars for 3 months now so I’m still in the “eye-opener” stage! The two categories that surprised me were “transportation” and “Kids’ expenses”. I learned that we use a lot more gas for the cars than I had originally budgetted so that jar has been increased. The “kids’ expenses” really surprised me. I started with a monthly budget of $75 and that quickly ballooned up to $175/month. Now I’m increasing it to $200/month and that should now be adequate to cover all the cost of new clothing/shoes/coats/school supplies/birthday gifts for them and their friends and hopefully there will be some left over for extra-curricular activities. With 3 young kids to budget for, there’s lots to buy and replace on an ongoing basis.
October 19, 2009 at 9:45 am
I’m 29 and have been tracking our money-in/money-out for 4 years since moving into our house. I’ve built an Excel workbook over that time that works really well for me (not a true “budget”, but a recorder). Every penny in and out has been recorded.
Once a month, I copy all the data from the online accounts into the active Month tab, categorize from 16 dropdown expense categories (a 3 income categories), and a pivot-table tells me how much I spent in every category that month, and the net surplus/deficit.
This info spits onto a Summary tab that shows the categorized spending for every month to date, and calculates the monthly average-to-date for each category. Also tells me the total expense and income for the year. This basically looks like a “grid”, with 12 columns across (months), and 19 rows down (categories).
I also use a blank “grid” (as above) in November/December each year to take a look at the upcoming year to see what the income and expense will be. I plug in values for each monthly category based on previous 4 year’s data, as modified by the outlook for the upcoming year. If I’m planning a vacation in March, it’s included in the projection. If I’m buying new snow tires in October, into the projection.
This projection tool is always useful, and will be more useful yet if I ever have to estimate the impact of a maternity leave, job loss, etc. In 10 minutes, I’ll know the impact on the bottom line, and what we have to do.
October 19, 2009 at 9:47 am
I’m not a tracker.
I started using Gail’s jar system 4 or 5 months ago and for the first couple of months I tried to ‘keep track’ I wrote things down – but the notebook’s got messy and it didn’t work for me. If I budgeted $100 for food, and my food jar is empty – well then I obviously spent $100 on food. I stick very closely to my jar amounts, so I’m comfortable knowing that.
That said, my spending wasn’t out of control to begin with – though b/c of the jars things have been reigned in and my credit card is now paid off.
It was also a great way to get my boyfriend working with me (he puts money in the food jar too).
October 19, 2009 at 10:06 am
I have all my financial info on my computer – various documents for budget and credit card. Because I enter each purchase off the receipt, I know what it was for and my husband and I don’t usually make purchases unless we’ve talked to each other.
When the statement arrives in my inbox, I check the document against the statement to make sure there is no indiscrepancies, It is also helpful in that I recently discovered there were a couple of expenses that were cropping up regularly that weren’t part of the budget. So we remedied that.
October 19, 2009 at 10:17 am
We do a spreadsheet and have for several years. It’s often handy to be able to scroll back and see what we were spending on hydro, or gas or groceries month by month last year so we can predict fairly accurately for this year. I normally always have the next 6-12 months mapped out. Most of our expenses are fairly predictable so it just as easy to predict next May as next month. We have autopayments we know will happen at regular intervals: mortage every other Monday, phone and cell week 3 of every month, property tax and car/house insurance on the 1st, life insurance on the 15th, etc. We plug in planned weekly amounts for gas, groceries, and $40 cash for miscellaneous (we’re actually only using about $40/mth these days). I have to confess we don’t track what that cash gets spent on. Three years ago I used to budget $200/week! Since then we’ve either cut out the expense entirely or made it visible by putting everything in VISA. As the actual amounts for weekly gas and groceries come through on the VISA or directly to the bank account I update the plug numbers on the spreadsheet. If there is an unplanned expense it gets added to the spreadsheet at that point. I we don’t spend money we’d planned on, we delete the row. I pay off the VISA weekly to I stay on top of the charges. I earn the miles and never pay interest.
Having a year mapped out in advance allows you to see well in ahead if there is going to be a problem when an annual bill or seasonal expense arrives. It’s been really handy at times to test out the impact of a purchase – just enter the amount on the spreadsheet and scoll down to see what it will do to the balance weeks or months into the future.
October 19, 2009 at 10:17 am
We have been using a record book to keep track of where our money is going. It is just one of those legal-sized accounting books. So far the only category to go beyond 1 page is food. We use the jars, and we have only spent all of the money in the jars once (going away for the weekend for an adventure race). Food is always gone (I like food
)
We have also noticed that we really only spend our money (other than transportation) from Friday-Monday. If we have made it til Monday without spending all of our money we are set for the week. I only do grocery shopping on the weekend, and any ‘fun’ things we do happen between Fri-Monday.
October 19, 2009 at 10:53 am
Thank you.. I needed this blog as I have a tendancy to set things in stone and then just get frustrated when the stone is too heavy.
As my husband is not a computer guy I think the best tip that I will try is the Monthly binder with a record sheet for each category and the reciepts going into the plastic folders.
I will set a yearly target for each catergory expense and then every month I’ll set the budget for the month. This way I have a glance at the years goals and can be more realistic about the month to month expenses.
As I just blew our $200 misc budget on Saturday past when I spent $235 on gymnastic fees. When I do that I just feel like giving up and saying it doesn’t work… what doesn’t work is how I “work” the system. I was quite pleased though when my grocery total came too $199.96 and my grocery budget is $200.
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Thank you I needed this blog!
October 19, 2009 at 10:59 am
Tracking my spending is new to me. But what I have been doing so far (since September), is keeping my receipts and then writing them down on an electronic sticky note. I just keep a calculator by my computer and input it everytime I spend something. It’s easy since the “sticky note” is on my homepage. I also have the budgeted amount for each section in brackets beside so I know how much I have left…or how much I am over. It’s what works for now. I think later I may move to jars, or tracking with excel. Jars is a bit too difficult right now, I like the convenience of using credit and debit. But keeping track is key!
October 19, 2009 at 11:21 am
I do our finances once a week, and it takes maybe 10 minutes to stay on track. We have a basket in the kitchen that hubby and I throw our receipts into each day (we’ll handwrite on a scrap of paper for anything we forgot to get a receipt for). Once a week, I take that basket and enter the receipts into both a pen-and-paper notebook (which gives us a running total of what we have spent in each Gail jar category), as well as into a spreadsheet (which is set up to add columns (Gail jars) so I can see at a glance how much in total we have spent in each category, as well as the overall total for the month). At the same time I check our bank accounts online, move any money from our savings account to our checking account to cover upcoming bills, pay any bills that have come in in the past week, and file the papers away (hubby is self-employed so we need to keep these for tax purposes). Total time is maybe 10 minutes, and we always know how much we are spending, how much we have left in the budget, and whether or not any weird activities have happened in our accounts (or not happened–e.g., cheques not yet been cashed). And since when I check our account online I look back at the previous month’s transactions to determine the total I need to move to cover bills and automatic payments, I also can see if any bills have gone missing (i.e., oh, I usually pay the Mastercard bill at this time, but I haven’t got it in the mail yet. I’d better call and see what’s up.)
Like I said, this system works well for us and takes about 10 minutes per week. The only other things I do is once every 3 months (when we get our RSP mutual fund statements) I do a net worth calculation. At the same time, I transfer the info from the last 3 months of tracking expenses, use excel to get averages as to what was spent in the different Gail jars, and compare to what we budgeted. I then revise the budget accordingly going forward. Doing both these ‘big picture’ financial things takes less than 30 minutes, 4 times per year.
It really isn’t difficult or time-consuming to stay on top of your finances once your find a system that works well for you.
October 19, 2009 at 11:31 am
I made up a spreadsheet and used it for many years, then I bought an accounting program which I’ve now used for about 15 years. I put nearly everything on my credit card (which I pay off every month) so it’s really easy to enter items. I rarely use the debit card or cash and if I do I get receipts. I update my program each week if not sooner.
October 19, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I made a spreadsheet and it has totals for the month as well as the year to date. That way if one month I am over on clothes shopping for example I can make sure that for the year I am ok. Anything left over at the end of the month goes to savings for the months when I actually use the amounts designated for things like travel.
October 19, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I don’t budget closely, but I budget VERY completely. For me, the important thing is to have EVERYTHING in broad categories. Most categories don’t change much on a monthly basis (mortgage, utilities), so as long as I’m not seeing changes in those categories, they don’t get much attention, as they’ve been scrutinized closely in the past.
The only things I find that I need to track closely to follow the budget is Food (grocery purchases only) and Fun (any discretionary spending at all – dining, cash withdrawls, clothes, gifts).
The important thing is to let unused “Fun” money build up over time, so that you have a fund that you can use for ‘big ticket items’ and don’t feel it necessary to actually spend it every month.
After a while, I got used to having about $1000 built up in the Fun pool ($200 gets allocated per month, but most gets used… that’s not a lot, one dinner out might cost $25!) – it means that when you see something that you absolutely MUST have, but it’s expensive, you have the money available for it. It won’t affect your budget at all! However, you’ll still consider it carefully, because you’re depleting your hard-won Fun cache.
Also, I reward myself with any extra earnings beyond my budgeted earnings by sticking a quarter of it into the Fun cache.
But yes, I do adjust the budget any time something changes. I have the Starting Renting Budget, the Bought a House budget, the Bought a Car Budget, the Got a Raise budget.
Oh, and future budgets too: Paid Off the House Budget, Retirement Budget… Retirement, at least, is FAR in the future, but I think it’s important enough to start thinking about it!
October 19, 2009 at 1:10 pm
My husband and I have been tracking our spending for about 2 years now. It is indeed tedious, but is so very worth it. I need to do it to keep myself honest!
I find that when I explain to people how I save money and track expenses, they are always curious as to why I would do so much work (talking about tracking every dollar). No one seems to understand that it is the only way you can truely see how much you are spending in certain categories and even on certain items.
Some people are just doomed to never get it, I guess.
October 19, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I’ve been tracking my spending since I was a teenager and to be honest – I really enjoy it. My only trick is to try to put everything on plastic (and obviously never carry a balance) so that I can look at my debit and credit card statements at the end of the month and get the full picture.
I plug everythign into a handy spreadsheet that has one tab for monthly income statements and another tab for a monthly net worth calculation. When you can see your assets growing each month, who wouldn’t think this was a little fun?
I guess I have a second more technical tip – if you have a charge on your statment that you can’t identify (IE the retailer is unclear) try putting the info given into google. 9 times out of 10 this helps me figure out who the retailer was and remember the charge.
October 19, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Guilty as charged.
There is work to be done in my financial life right now! This year I somehow managed to track my spending for a few months, and budget for a few months, but never both at the same time.
October 19, 2009 at 3:22 pm
My recommendation for better budgeting is to write have a spreadsheet with each month of the calendar written at the top. Then I write down all the events that happen during that month. This helps me avoid surprises I should have known about. If I forget something, I write it at the bottom and I am ready for the following year.
Examples of irregular expenses (non-monthly)
Transportation: oil change, plates, driver’s license, insurance
Pets: vet fees, toys
After-work activities
Clothing
Gifts (list every birthday and event)
Outings (list events, including holiday socials)
Food (list expected gatherings)
Landscaping
Association fees
Travel
Tuition and books
October 19, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I’ve been using account books for keeping track of our $$ for 40 years – learned to do that from my Mom who did it all her married life. It’s kind of fun to look back into the olden days and see how much things cost.
However, I didn’t start ‘budgeting’ until Nov. 1/08 when I found Gail. I saved receipts for several months and then used her budget to calculate our expenses. I use my own version of the jars and take $240. out of our account for the week for variable expenses. My categories are groceries, transportation, clothing and gifts, other and my health food store. There are only the two of us so I have money left at the end of the week…unless the kids come home and more goes to groceries, or like today when I bought a second hand wooden sleigh for our grandson for $22. It all comes out of that $$. The fixed expense $$ is in our account and bills are paid when due. That means there is nothing owing on credit cards at the end of the month as well.
October 19, 2009 at 6:41 pm
The Excel spreadsheet is a many splendored thing.
I freelance so I already keep strict records of income and outgo that way. I recently decided to track my personal spending again when work started to slow down. All I did was add a new page/tab to the work-related spreadsheet file and now I have one file I open up for all of my bookkeeping be it personal or professional.
If you carry a cell or PDA with you and you don’t get a receipt for a purchase, I suggest having a place in your device where you can list those random little expenses that you will otherwise forget about and then consult it every few days and input the totals into your spreadsheet. I rarely have a pencil on me but I almost always have my phone on me.
October 19, 2009 at 9:15 pm
It hurts to admit it since I work on computers all day…. I can’t seem to build a spreadsheet to save my life! And the one I downloaded off Gail’s site has a bunch of broken formulas when I try to use it (maybe my Excel is too old?). I really prefer pen, paper and 4 different coloured highlighters! I take my bank statements and highlight fixed expenses (with a star beside the irregular ones) in one colour and then a different colour for ALL food and consumable household related expenses, and another colour for transportation and the last colour for entertainment/clothing/gifts. From there it is easier to break them down to more specific categories if need be. By having these sweeping generalizations for categories, I am way more likely to keep it honest and panic adequately if something isn’t working. But the important thing is to make sure the deposits and the withdraws balance out. If they don’t the tweaking happens. It may be a bit reactive, but it works for us because we have a few thousand dollar “buffer zone” in our checking account. When a month is expensive, it is balanced next month….. I am self employed too so the buffer (or float) is a natural thing to us…. and so are unusual months (heck, every month is unusual!).
October 19, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I’ve created a spreadsheet from about 5 different budget spreadsheets, I’ve got my jar amts inputed, and track my expenses daily. I’ve set it up to show where I’m standing for the month, how much I’ve saved(not saved) MTD, and where I’m headed for the month(forecasted). It allows me to see VERY quickly if I’m heading in a bad direction. It also shows daily averages for each category as wel. For each category I have a box, if everything is on on target it’s GREEN if it’s not it goes RED. Icompare month to month to see how I’m doing. I also track my bank account balances every month to see if they’re going up or down. This acts as another safety net.
October 20, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I have just gotten serious about budgetting and tracking our money. When I was single I always would forecast my expenses for the upcoming paycheque and then decide what to do with the leftovers, like savings, etc. Now that my fiance and I are living together I found that we were spending money like there was no tomorrow! We moved into a house that needed extensive renovations back in December and we had certain amount of money for those reno’s. So dropping $800 here and $400 there was not big deal but once the reno’s were done and the reno money was gone we were still in that mode. So we’ve been on the jars for two months and it definately is helping keep us in check. I need to get better at tracking our money spending and forecasting expenses. One thing I have always done is paying myself first by having savings and rsp’s come out my account the day I get paid.
Currently I have three budgets I hade made up:
1. Budget while planning wedding (current)
2. Budget after wedding and honeymoon
3. Budget for when a baby comes.
I think our budget and tracking of our money will always be a work in progress. But I am fine with that. I enjoy it.
I think my budget will alway be a work in progress.