Budgeting - How do you do it?

[99TLS]

whats a budget? never had one, never will , 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...

[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

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

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.



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!

[Edbear]

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

[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.

[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.