Budgeting - How do you do it?

[Disco Dan]

I have been looking at drawing up a budget but was wondering how everybody does theirs!

I have drawn up an Excel worksheet that adds/subtracts automatically etc and I can just fill in expenses as they happen etc.

How do you do yours?

Just on a bit of paper, dont bother at all, computer program?

Anyone in the trade?

After some advice on making it simple!

[Colapop]

I found Excel to be very good for creating a budget. The skill is not in creating it but sticking to it. You can have a basic paper sheet or the most advanced spreadsheet including formulas but none of them will mean anything unless you discipline yourself to your spending limits. That is the real key to a budget.

[Morcs]

The key to budgeting is to first find out what you are actually spending each week/month etc.. on fuel, smokes etc..

Only then can you realistically budget how much money you need, can save etc..

The way to do this is to first have a simple excel spreadsheet - I was going to say to keep all your eftpos receipts, but in this case just keep tabs on everything you are spending each week. Once you have done this for a month or so, you should know how much to allocate for the neccessities each week.

[Disco Dan]

yes I agree, it is certainly the most challenging part of a budget!!

Is it better to go monthly, yearly etc or just keep it to the same as you pay period? ie I get paid fortnightly - fortnightly budget etc.

[Colapop]

You could make up a couple of sheets. In Excel they can be linked. You can start by basing it around your pay cycle. Use the other sheets to budget for longer term goals i.e. yearly or six monthly.

I suggest applying the K.I.S.S principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. You don't need too much in it - just what your income versus expenditure is. Once you know income and outgoings then you'll be able to see where the areas of saving can be made.

[James Deuce]

Budget? WTF?

That's women's work!

[degrom]

Use Money Manager Ex (http://www.thezeal.com/software/index.php?Money_Manager_Ex) ...

Its a small application that you can download from the net for free.
It includes a budget,bank account manager and plenty of reports.

What you do is,download all you transactions you made from you internet banking and import it into this little app. They you work through all your transactions and categoriz them. (app includes almost everything in its list of categories) You can also add manual transactions if you work with cash.

Then with the reports you can see where your money is going.

Next is to setup a budget. You do this by budgeting for things in the category list.

Another neat thing it has is a "repeating transactions" function. You save all your repeating transactions with it and then it will remind you of up and coming payment within the next 2 weeks.

After about 3 months will start to see where your budget is falling short and where you have over budgeted.

The trick is to keep the application up to date will all your transactions. Its also helps to do it weekly while you still can remember where your money went and categorize it properly.

Well I hope this can help. It really helped me.(I have about 6 bank account including a Credit card,transactional account and a few savings account)

Last but not least... It can be run from a USB memory stick making it very,very mobile.

[Disco Dan]

Use Money Manager Ex (http://www.thezeal.com/software/index.php?Money_Manager_Ex) ...

Its a small application that you can download from the net for free.
It includes a budget,bank account manager and plenty of reports.

What you do is,download all you transactions you made from you internet banking and import it into this little app. They you work through all your transactions and categoriz them. (app includes almost everything in its list of categories) You can also add manual transactions if you work with cash.

Then with the reports you can see where your money is going.

Next is to setup a budget. You do this by budgeting for things in the category list.

Another neat thing it has is a "repeating transactions" function. You save all your repeating transactions with it and then it will remind you of up and coming payment within the next 2 weeks.

After about 3 months will start to see where your budget is falling short and where you have over budgeted.

The trick is to keep the application up to date will all your transactions. Its also helps to do it weekly while you still can remember where your money went and categorize it properly.

Well I hope this can help. It really helped me.(I have about 6 bank account including a Credit card,transactional account and a few savings account)

Last but not least... It can be run from a USB memory stick making it very,very mobile.

Oh choice, looks great...

[imdying]

The wife and I did that for a year after we got married to give us some hard data to base future budgeting on... didn't take long before it became 'anything not spent on bills gets spent by imdying in the garage on his bikes/tools'. :D

Marriage FTMFW! :first:

[Disco Dan]

The wife and I did that for a year after we got married to give us some hard data to base future budgeting on... didn't take long before it became 'anything not spent on bills gets spent by imdying in the garage on his bikes/tools'. :D

Marriage FTMFW! :first:

hehe! Priorities!!

if only there was a way to have wired broadband.. without the phone rental charge. *sigh*

[James Deuce]

X-Net. VOIP. Problem solved.

[k14]

The wife and I did that for a year after we got married to give us some hard data to base future budgeting on... didn't take long before it became 'anything not spent on bills gets spent by imdying in the garage on his bikes/tools'. :D

Marriage FTMFW! :first:
Yep same here. I have a budget that i do in excel for paying rent, food, phone etc then the rest is on bike. Not a cheap past time is it. Have to have something to spend our $$$ on though eh?

[Disco Dan]

X-Net. VOIP. Problem solved.

Just had a quick look at the site... looks fantastic!! Cheers for that will check it out to see if they cover the shore.

I gather you use this company???

I have left a message, but line check did not work - said number does not exist, I assume though that as my number was only created a couple of days ago it has not been added to their system yet!

I have a telescum account and xtra broadband.. costing me a flipping fortune!

The whole point of me moving to the shore was to save money... but so far, rent, bills, food etc is actually MORE expensive... gah!

need to cut costs in a few places... eeek...

[degrom]

X-Net. VOIP. Problem solved.

VOIP - Still need the phone line right?(or can you get away without paying for the line it self?)

[James Deuce]

You're no longer paying Telecom for it, so you are down to ISP charges. X-Net leases the circuit and provides Internet connectivity and VOIP connectivity to the PSTN over the one line.

At the moment Dan, for instance, is paying Telecom for a Voice line and his ISP for a DSL circuit via Telecom. Some people (like me) pay Telecom for a Voice line, a second line for DSL, and ISP charges.

I'm very keen to go to X-Net in the New Year.

[99TLS]

whats a budget? never had one, never will :bleh:, you could always get a job that pays more

[degrom]

You're no longer paying Telecom for it, so you are down to ISP charges. X-Net leases the circuit and provides Internet connectivity and VOIP connectivity to the PSTN over the one line.

At the moment Dan, for instance, is paying Telecom for a Voice line and his ISP for a DSL circuit via Telecom. Some people (like me) pay Telecom for a Voice line, a second line for DSL, and ISP charges.

I'm very keen to go to X-Net in the New Year.

I am with X-net but does not have the VOIP thing yet... They offer very good service as an ISP and you only pay for the amount of MB's you download...

I like them... :2thumbsup

[Mike748]

I used excel to work out my situation some time ago, it was great because you could play around with scenarios like getting a better job, interest rates on the mortage and expenses. For me it came down to cutting costs to save $100/month made the biggest difference. The more you earn the faster everyone else spends it :nono:

[NighthawkNZ]

After some advice on making it simple!

Just spend whats left over after my automatic payments... (and thats all budgeted for...)

[sprag]

I just use excel

Setup the amount i get each week, take away money i have to pay for rent/bills and savings, leaves me a amount to put on my creditcard and how much Eftpos cash I have for the week.

But then comes things like a new motorbike jacket and the savings account takes a hit.

:spanking:

I dont need to know what i am spending my money on when it comes to "my spending money" as this is an area that is for me, if i want it i will buy it and not feel bad about it.
But I do know how much i am spending on bills/rent all the important stuff.

[sprag]

Oh and i never do weekly food shopping, i buy food as i want it (which can be bad) but with me if i buy food at the supermarket (a weeks worth) then it will sit in the fridge for a long time and just go off as I dont feel like it.

[imdying]

Oh and i never do weekly food shopping, i buy food as i want it (which can be bad) but with me if i buy food at the supermarket (a weeks worth) then it will sit in the fridge for a long time and just go off as I dont feel like it.

Yeah, I'd probably agree with this (assuming you're DINKs). We shop normally every three weeks... sometimes every 2, sometimes 4... if we run out of stuff, we eat other stuff. Definitely seems to save money, plus we actually turn over some of that crap we normally don't eat.

Has had the added bonus of saving me a few kgs cause I eat all the junk in the first week, but it doesn't get replenished straight away! Well, till I got used to living without junk, now it'll sit there for 2 or 3 shops... noticeable on the waist line for sure!

[sprag]

Yeah, I'd probably agree with this (assuming you're DINKs). We shop normally every three weeks... sometimes every 2, sometimes 4... if we run out of stuff, we eat other stuff. Definitely seems to save money, plus we actually turn over some of that crap we normally don't eat.

Has had the added bonus of saving me a few kgs cause I eat all the junk in the first week, but it doesn't get replenished straight away! Well, till I got used to living without junk, now it'll sit there for 2 or 3 shops... noticeable on the waist line for sure!

And plus i hate shopping for food,

[PrincessBandit]

Budget? WTF?

That's women's work!

Hehehehe, nah, it's what i have a husband for!:laugh:

[Edbear]

I find the best way is just spend less than you earn.:yes:

[Oakie]

I use Excel to track my regular payments. I operate a separate bank account for ALL regular payments ... from fortnightly mortgage and monthly power/sky/telecom thru to quarterly insurance and rates and even annual bike registration. Once it's set up it's a simple matter to extend it out over a year to see how much money I need to put in there out of each pay to meet my commitments. The balance of my regular pay is for food and enjoying life with. It's worked for me for the last 12 years and I've never struggled to meet a regular payment

[Zuki Bandit]

You could always ask Skidmark for advice.:laugh::laugh::laugh:

[Hoon]

I first drew up a budget when I was a single male flatting with a good wage. My money was just disappearing every week and I had nothing to show for it.

First thing I did was download the last 6 months of statements from my online bank account and group up all my transactions. It showed I was spending $150-$200 a week on junk food. Bottled drink/water soon mounts up when you buy one for every meal so I started carrying around a pump bottle and refilling it from the work water cooler. This saved me $50 p/w.