How are you prepping your budget ?

[sparks]

I REALLY need to learn to budget. These are all great ideas. My DH does not know the meaning of the word. Working on it though

 

[cheepo]

we are in a situation where my hubby is older than me...and will be retiring probably in 3, years...but fingers crossed he stays healthy and hopefully we still will have the option of him still being able to earn our living expenses for 5 additional years...
his income is substantial...this last year we payed off the house and tax...
but even though that should give us leeway...even though a more is flowing through our fingers...i am more cheeper and stingier than ever...and saving...all i can..and am on a very strict tight budget ..and i worry of the future more than ever...

one thing i really recomend is a change of perception..not living month to month... in budgeting.I am always thinking in terms of the year and not the month...
if the price is right...i cant afford not to stock up...
i know my hubby and son...think i am crazy ...but the savings is substantial...when you add up those costs...on a yearly basis, i rarely ever pay grocery store costs...but when i do...i am utterly appaled...

do the same with power companys...It is empowering and liberating to let some go...eg cancelling cable, and phone costs...and do internet and the basics

Also OWN...be happy with what you have ...avoid credit issues!!!!!!!!!

you know...for christmas. i gave my step brother...some canning...and jams...and he said..i was becoming like one of those old spinsters...
not many in my life, really get the fulfillment..in self providing...
but my hubby really aprecaites...and supports me...which is what matters...

for us...u quit my job when we switched to one car...
which we were able to do for 4 years, but really feel I add way more value saving not working than working...

sparks...would recomend..for 2 months.writing ALL your spending down....then at the end of the month you can evaluate where the money goes and what you can cut down on....and is a really good learning experience...
and helps...because...you think twice about spending because you have to justify it when you write it down...and research frugal living...

 

[heatherlynnky]

Cheepo, I cannot agree strongly enough. What we do right after Christmas is we look at our budget for the next year. Seriously I budget way far out. Sometimes the budget has to change but unless there is a good reason like Huge medical bill the budget stays the same and we stick to it. I start budgeting cash in July to pay for Christmas in cash. So when we sit down to look at the budget ( the one time a year my husband will look at them) we set goals for the year. Things we want to do, or purchase and a savings goal. Everything is stores in a dropbox account so we cannot lose these budgets and I have them saved for the past several years so I can look back and compare.I also look back on the previous months and add up where we went wrong. So stopping by Walgreens and grabbing a coke too often or stopping at Mcdonals at all( husband). Everything not on the budget gets a look and we see where we can cut.

I just find budgets a really useful tool. When we were looking at layoffs it took me maybe an hour after the announcement to tell my husband how much it would cost us to live for 6 months with no cuts, how much with minimal cuts and how much into savings we would need to dip. It took a massive amount of pressure off. We would be considered low income with way too many kids and only one income but its doable. Avoiding credit is the huge one. I swear credit is the ban of our society now. Or maybe the love of Credit.

 

[sparks]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions..

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Kinda hard to explain. I hide money from myself in my checkbook register, by subtracting fake charges that don't really exist. I cook beans about twice a week....or should I say, serve it, because I really cook 3 Lbs of beans at a time. I don't allow my unwanted males to live one hour longer than needed to put on meat. I try to do at least 15 hours of SS activities a week because its me I'm working for and it will pay me and be affecting my budget, no matter how I look at it.

 

[ORChick]

Kinda hard to explain. I hide money from myself in my checkbook register, by subtracting fake charges that don't really exist. I cook beans about twice a week....or should I say, serve it, because I really cook 3 Lbs of beans at a time. I don't allow my unwanted males to live one hour longer than needed to put on meat. I try to do at least 15 hours of SS activities a week because its me I'm working for and it will pay me and be affecting my budget, no matter how I look at it.

Really? And how many sons do you have left then? (My 3 brothers and I are very widely spaced - 13 years between eldest and youngest; I used to joke that my parents actually had 8 or 10 children, but we four were the only ones they let survive )
I really need to convince DH that beans are acceptable more than a couple of times a month.

 

[Marianne]

Budget? What budget?
Since we are paid on commission, we never know from one month to the next what our paychecks are going to be. So we'll continue to live the frugal and SS lifestyle. I doubt that much of anything will change for us. I'm also not worried about it.

Marianne... I don't want to push this thread out of its intended course, but I'm curious. What sort of work do you do on a commission basis? (If you don't mind my asking.) I do commission-based work, too. You've probably mentioned this before on some thread(s) here, but since I've just been here a year I may have come in too late to have seen it. There's a lot to read hear, and a lot gets past me.:/

Sorry Joel, I just saw this.
Both DH and I work for a company in the St. Louis, MO area. The company is a distributor for automotive and body shop supplies (plus some industrial, marine, aircraft). DH makes actual calls to the body shops, etc. I work from home selling from a simple website with a shopping cart. I think I have the link under my signature here.