Oh, if only I could say all of my problems were due to an increase in money...but alas, that's not the case.
In fact, every day I think, "we should set up a budget." Have we done it? Not so much. We tried it a couple of times. We sat down, looked at how much we spent each month, and on what. Then we set a budget in each of our variable amount areas. The next month, we looked at it and said, "Oh, look we spent more than we wanted to." Awesome budgeting folks.
How do you budget? How do you set aside money for those things that aren't monthly expenses, like when the kids need new pants? They don't need them every month, but maybe every 4-5 months. And what about haircuts? I don't get one every month. Do I just average those out and have a million little accounts set up for hair cuts, kids clothes, grown up clothes, random purchases...?
I know some people do the envelope system (X amount for groceries...when it is gone, it's gone), maybe some have a grocery account, gasoline account, mortgage account, etc. But what about all those little things? Like birthdays, Christmas, new clothes because none of my old ones fit me, a new book or two, items from Target that you just can't say no to...things that aren't a monthly occurrence.
We have a long term savings and a "fun savings", so I don't worry about that, but just the month to month stuff. Do you just average it out? Do you keep track of it using some sort of computer software program, your brain, a spreadsheet....what works for you?
2 comments:
I wish there were other comments here because I want to read what others have to say. Last month my husband told me to start tracking my expenses so I could see what I spend my money on, and just knowing that I have to show him whatever I spend money on makes me want to spend less than I used to :-) It also makes me want to check my fridge before deciding what to make for dinner and going out and buying all new ingredients. So I don't have budget tips, just the idea that tracking money makes you spend less, so you can feel good about that!
I am horrible with budgets, we try and try and jut never really do. We have just come to say this is our target credit card range and try really hard to not to go over that. And then you spend it on what you do and hopefully you get to eat that month, haha :)
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