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Do you live on a budget?
This year, my resolution is to track even more closely what I spend. Can anyone here share how their system works?
I understand the various 'categories' such as rent, food, insurance, etc. but how do you track all the smaller stuff? do you save your receipts and tally up at the end of the day? seems a little tedious. I want to use Excel for this. does anyone know of any websites that might help? or will you share how YOUR system works?
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Jennifer 90 350sdl |
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When I lived on a budget, I found a very simple way -- pay cash for everything except your regular bills. If you don't have the cash, you can't have it -- easy as pie.
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Go to Microsoft on the web. There are a variety of different budget formats.
The family BUDGET is sounding like what you need. The link "budget" will direct you. I use very little cash and track everything with checks or debit card. My bank provides "online banking" that can be downloaded to Quicken. The it just takes a few minutes to catagorize and reconcile.
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BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif 15 VW Passat TDI 00 E420 98 E300 DT 97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME! 97 S500 97 E300D 86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D 86 300SDL (o\|/o) |
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We middle class Canada types get sucked dry from every level of government to the tune of 54% of our wages, so there's not much left to budget. That's why I only own one Mercedes, not several. Anyway, my favourite "trick" in budgeting is to make an ANNUAL budget- not weekly or monthly, and try to calculate absolutely everything I can possibly think of that I would spend in a year, because spending is very seasonal in many cases. This is the only way I can truly determine if I'm standing pat, getting behind, or getting ahead (ha! next to impossible in this country.) I also keep a close monthly talley of all my debts every month, so that I can readily see if I'm going more in debt or less in debt each month, and also when I do my annual budget, I can compare my debt total for the current year compared to last year. When I find I'm more in debt, I then take a close look at my spending habits, and try to change them. If I find I'm less in debt, I consider that "getting ahead".
Dave from the North Country |
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Online bill paying, pay all bills at once, once a month. Take any pocket-fun money as a one time cash payment each month, and if it runs out, TS. Quit eating out a at resturants as much as possible. Move surplus cash out of checking account as quickly as possible, put it in a savings account.
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I just hope i can keep this level of discipline as more $$ becomes available... |
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Budget? Blah. I'm thrifty though, I don't believe in spending $30 on a steak in a steakhouse.
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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman |
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For years I had the policy; hold two jobs. One is for living expenses, one is for playing. I adopted this during graduate school when my wife worked full-time. We lived off her salary and I picked up part time jobs to play on. Kept it going for years afterwards when I worked two jobs and she went to school.
Now my wife is working full time so we live off my salary and save hers, while playing off the income from our rental properties. It's not a very sophisticated budgeting procedure but its simplicity has worked effectively for us for years. We either kept separate checking accounts for each function or ran living expense thru a checking account and playing expenses via cash.
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1977 300d 70k--sold 08 1985 300TD 185k+ 1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03 1985 409d 65k--sold 06 1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car 1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11 1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper 1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4 1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13 |
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__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman |
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Checks are cash..............Pay all bills when they arrive....carry over NO debts to the next month except the mortgage.... when you use credit cards .....and you should to keep credit good, pay bills 100 as soon as they arrive.
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Proud owner of .... 1971 280SE W108 1979 300SD W116 1983 300D W123 1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper 1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel 1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified) --------------------- Section 609 MVAC Certified --------------------- "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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