[tinasarangg]

'Ello Soompiers,

Out of curiousity how well do you all budget your finances each month? Cos I'm reviewing my credit card reports and I spent $400-700 a month...on absolutely...nothing And if you do budget well, how do you do it because I really want to learn how to save money.

[erure]

I would like to know as well.

The only advice I have is to keep a notebook of all your expenses, so that you know at the end of each month what you spend money on, how much, etc. The problem is, I try to do that and I stop after a week or so -.-

[HERMIT]

Keeping track of your expenses is a good start, but really that is only half of the story.
The other half, of course, is your income. And quite frankly, it is from your income where you will base your budget on - not your expenses.

Hopefully, you have a somewhat fixed figure as to what your regular income is, whether it be weekly, biweekly, or monthly. This is ideal because it is much more difficult if you have a fluctuating income flow upon which you have to set up your budget. But if this is the case, hopefully the fluctuation in your income flow at least shows some kind of trend over a certain period of time where you could perhaps base your budget on an average income.

Once you have established what your beginning income is for a given period (let's say for the month, for example), it's then just a simple matter of subtracting out your expenses. First subtract out your most essential expenses (ie. rent, utilities, groceries, insurance) and then work your way down leaving the least essential expenses for last (ie. shopping, eating out, misc. entertainment).

As you subtract away from your income, you should be able to observe how far your money goes. The important thing is that you make sure your most essential expenses are taken care of first and then proceeding onward to see how much you have left that you can use towards your more 'luxury' expenses. As you do this little exercise of 'ranking' your expenses and then allocating your income towards them accordingly, you will notice how well you have or haven't been 'stretching your dollar' to cover the things that you spend your money on. Hopefully, it is from here that you will be able make determinations what expenses you might have to do without or, at the very least, figure out how much of a spending adjustment can be made in one or more expense categories in order for you to be able to afford fitting in all the things you want to spend your money on within your given income structure.

The notebook idea is a nice start - but if you are Excel-savvy, making up a simple spreadsheet could be more helpful.

[Pogichinoy]

I don't know how to budget, and will soon learn this skill once I move out this year.

I'll get back to you when I do well, or if I have to move back home. xD

[Aziraphale]

In addition to Eli's post, also try and set aside a certain amount that "cannot be touched" unless necessary. It can help you build up some savings so that you don't max out your income every month. It's also about self-restraint - if you can cut down on, say, going out for drinks every other day, or hold off buying that nice but expensive bag that you don't really need, then that would help some.

[watcher]

Keeping track of your expenses is a good start, but really that is only half of the story.
The other half, of course, is your income. And quite frankly, it is from your income where you will base your budget on - not your expenses.

Hopefully, you have a somewhat fixed figure as to what your regular income is, whether it be weekly, biweekly, or monthly. This is ideal because it is much more difficult if you have a fluctuating income flow upon which you have to set up your budget. But if this is the case, hopefully the fluctuation in your income flow at least shows some kind of trend over a certain period of time where you could perhaps base your budget on an average income.

Once you have established what your beginning income is for a given period (let's say for the month, for example), it's then just a simple matter of subtracting out your expenses. First subtract out your most essential expenses (ie. rent, utilities, groceries, insurance) and then work your way down leaving the least essential expenses for last (ie. shopping, eating out, misc. entertainment).

As you subtract away from your income, you should be able to observe how far your money goes. The important thing is that you make sure your most essential expenses are taken care of first and then proceeding onward to see how much you have left that you can use towards your more 'luxury' expenses. As you do this little exercise of 'ranking' your expenses and then allocating your income towards them accordingly, you will notice how well you have or haven't been 'stretching your dollar' to cover the things that you spend your money on. Hopefully, it is from here that you will be able make determinations what expenses you might have to do without or, at the very least, figure out how much of a spending adjustment can be made in one or more expense categories in order for you to be able to afford fitting in all the things you want to spend your money on within your given income structure.

The notebook idea is a nice start - but if you are Excel-savvy, making up a simple spreadsheet could be more helpful.

sometimes i wish banks and credit card companies can allow me to categorize my expenses online using personal tags and priority levels so that i can just do it all online. it would also help if there was a pivot table to get an even better idea of how the money is being spent and what my spending patterns are. sometimes these things could be hard to find in notebooks or spreadsheets, as the cumulative data is not easily seen 'side by side' [for lack of better term].

i build expense software at the company i work at, and while it's useful for our clients, it's not really adaptable for personal use. i know credit card companies have some a little ways to reach this point. they already categorize expenses and list out all the transactions. if they offered some kind of subscription service... maybe a few bucks a month to allow me to use more powerful software to 'manage' my expenses, i would certainly take it up.

heck, i'll build that software for them if i could. though im sure someday, it'll be there already...

[W-K]

'Ello Soompiers,

Out of curiousity how well do you all budget your finances each month? Cos I'm reviewing my credit card reports and I spent $400-700 a month...on absolutely...nothing And if you do budget well, how do you do it because I really want to learn how to save money.

$400-700.. how much of that is monthly bills like cell, insurance, student loans etc? Cuz if its recurring costs then thats not too bad... if you spend 400-700 a month on going out to eat, clubbing/partying, clothes etc...

I spend on avg ... 50-200 a week. $200 being a hard cap. I rarely put anything on my CC 'cept for online purchases so its a bit easier for me to tally how much I've spent in a week and a month.

[[HyuNi]]

I made a really simple excel spreadsheet to keep track of my expenses.
You enter in your expenses manually in the appropriate rows (personal, entertainment, Daily, etc)
I have the entire year broken down in months and months broken down in weeks.
I have the spreadsheets linked the a full calendar year page which I took a screenshot of and at the bottom, I break down my expenses as fixed (rent, gas [driving to and fro work], daily living expenses) and discretionary spending. I have a spending cap of 20% of my pay for discretionary purchases and when I hit >15%, the cell turns yellow and >20% the cell turns red.

It's a really simple tool to show me how much I spent, where I've been spending it, and illustrates opportunities for me to reduce my expenses.

It's really nothing that great, but if anybody wants it, I could send it to you.

[W-K]

Wow.. I wish I had your salary.

[mofo]

i'm not a very organized person..not a detail oriented person either..so i've never done the spreadsheet or written down everything..
but i am conscious of what i'm spending..on what, and how much..
i know how much i make, i know how to live below my means and to not splurge.
then again things like..parking tickets, traffic violation notices and other unseen expenses can sometimes creep up on u so its always good to have a lil extra in ur piggy bank.

during the week i try not to spend a lot of money..instead of going out to a restaurant at work..i'll just go to safeway and buy some fruits.
instead of driving, i walk..or bike to work..lil things like that can save u money..so when u go out on the weekends, u can spend freely and still not dent ur bank account too much.

[tinasarangg]

Wow you all are so organized! It's really impressive.
Well...thing is my income fluxes since I'm a full-time college student and currently I'm serving part-time and doing retail part time.
I guess I can start averaging my weekly tips...heh.
Thanks so much for your help!

[Tr710]

I made a really simple excel spreadsheet to keep track of my expenses.
You enter in your expenses manually in the appropriate rows (personal, entertainment, Daily, etc)
I have the entire year broken down in months and months broken down in weeks.
I have the spreadsheets linked the a full calendar year page which I took a screenshot of and at the bottom, I break down my expenses as fixed (rent, gas [driving to and fro work], daily living expenses) and discretionary spending. I have a spending cap of 20% of my pay for discretionary purchases and when I hit >15%, the cell turns yellow and >20% the cell turns red.

It's a really simple tool to show me how much I spent, where I've been spending it, and illustrates opportunities for me to reduce my expenses.

It's really nothing that great, but if anybody wants it, I could send it to you.

I know diddly about Excel...can you send it to moi?

[Laxntiga]

Dang... I just look at my credit card and bank card expenses. My income doesn't fluctuate as much so.... its easier to track of.

I usually spend in a range from 600~800 dollars. Most of it goes to gas and food =T



I wish gas princes went down!!!

[MiddleMan]

I really want to learn how to save money.

I hope you pay off your credit card balances; always maintain 0 balance.
That really helps in controlling wasteful spending.

Also, put money in 401K. If you havn't started, start with 2%. Every 6 months or when you get a raise, raise it up a percent. Raise it up to 6 to 10%. I know few guys who put in 16%. Of course, they work lot of overtime and they are old and trying to catch up. If you put in alot when you're single, you can let the power of compound interest work by itself, and you don't have to put in alot later.

I also recommend that you learn Excel spreadsheet. You can make projections - even though stocks are tanking at present. And keep track of expenses.

[D_K]

'Ello Soompiers,

Out of curiousity how well do you all budget your finances each month? Cos I'm reviewing my credit card reports and I spent $400-700 a month...on absolutely...nothing And if you do budget well, how do you do it because I really want to learn how to save money.

Make friends with Excel.

or,

Quicken or Quickbooks. Money not well spent IMO, but quite useful for the spreadsheet illiterate.

I made a really simple excel spreadsheet to keep track of my expenses.
You enter in your expenses manually in the appropriate rows (personal, entertainment, Daily, etc)
I have the entire year broken down in months and months broken down in weeks.
I have the spreadsheets linked the a full calendar year page which I took a screenshot of and at the bottom, I break down my expenses as fixed (rent, gas [driving to and fro work], daily living expenses) and discretionary spending. I have a spending cap of 20% of my pay for discretionary purchases and when I hit >15%, the cell turns yellow and >20% the cell turns red.

It's a really simple tool to show me how much I spent, where I've been spending it, and illustrates opportunities for me to reduce my expenses.

It's really nothing that great, but if anybody wants it, I could send it to you.

For greater accuracy (and efficiency), just export your online bank statements directly to your excel. Then you have line-by-line items of every dime spent. Then you can finally make pretty statistics of your bi-weekly coffee consumption!

[SeX1eStAsaBa]

I'm a cheapo....I'll seriously admit it. I'm on an EXTREME buget. I limit everything I need to pay out.

Currently my expenses are cell phone, student loan, car loan, and credit card/insurance.
Cell phone = $60 monthly
Student Loan = $3,000 - $4000/bi monthly
Car loan = $300
Credit card = $100 without insurance

That's kind of my monthly summary my expenses. My student loan fluctuates depending on how much I make and how much I spend that week. My student loan minimum is $276/month but I REALLY need to pay it off asap. My car loan is only $230/month, but I pay $300 cause I want to increase my credit. My credit card bill fluctuates if my car insurance is due for a 6 month payment. Usually though, I only use my credit card for gas, so I only spend $100/month. When I need to pay my car insurance, it's usually $1000/6 months but I will be switching insurance this month so I'll be half that price. I budget my food to the extreme..........so I'm only allowed to spend $50/week on food. If I happen to go over the limit on food, then I'll just starve until my week ends. I dropped $7,600 on my student loan this way 3 months ago. I only got $5,000 left, woot.

[PaNgIeE]

Just last year I started budgeting my expenses as well. I just went to Excel and created my own simple spreadsheet that helps me out. It's not that best, but it helps me to know what's going out and what my balances are on certains things. I do everything by month because I pay everything monthly. I do direct depost at work and then I have certain amount that automatically goes to savings so that part I don't touch unless emergency. I have certain things that automatically get withdraw so I always check my account and update my spreadsheet against it. It takes work, but this really helps me to estimate when I'll be able to eliminate some bills and save in certain areas.

I think a spreadsheet or making a table of some sort would definitely help if you want to really budget. Good luck!

[D_K]

Student Loan = $3,000 - $4000/bi monthly

3-4 bi monthly on student loans? Sounds pretty ludicrous to me.

[edit] nvm, didn't read the entire post. Good job on the loan payments!

[[HyuNi]]

I know diddly about Excel...can you send it to moi?

Sure, PM your email addy.

For greater accuracy (and efficiency), just export your online bank statements directly to your excel. Then you have line-by-line items of every dime spent. Then you can finally make pretty statistics of your bi-weekly coffee consumption!

I think that would defeat the whole purpose of tracking my expenses. I like that I have to actively keep track of my expenses. It keeps me aware of how much I'm actually spending. It it gets more automated, then there's really no point in keeping track of expenses in excel... I could just look at my credit card statement.
Going into detail to the point of how much I spend on coffee is not material enough for me to look at, and once again I feel like it would defeat the purpose of tracking.

[D_K]

Sure, PM your email addy.


I think that would defeat the whole purpose of tracking my expenses. I like that I have to actively keep track of my expenses. It keeps me aware of how much I'm actually spending. It it gets more automated, then there's really no point in keeping track of expenses in excel... I could just look at my credit card statement.
Going into detail to the point of how much I spend on coffee is not material enough for me to look at, and once again I feel like it would defeat the purpose of tracking.

I can't agree with that. Knowing where your money is being spent is what 'tracking one's expense' is ultimately about. To modify an import to actively become aware of what each item represents is a simple matter of making a few changes and edits to suit your tastes. Not exactly rocket science. I'd rather know how much I'm spending on my coffees and lunch then to have 1 item labeled as 'discretionary expenses'. That line itself defeats the whole purpose of tracking one's expenses.

I've always preferred detail and accuracy. Of course, one shouldn't go to the point of extremity where excessive detail becomes a false precision. Btw, my coffee example was meant to be a joke. I actually don't make graphs and pie charts illustrating my coffee consumption.

Ultimately, do whatever works for you.