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budgeting -101... anyone?
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| EarlyWarning |
Posted on January 24 2010 11:59 PM
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Member
Location: Canada
Posts: 120
Joined: 2009-12-08
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Hey all,
I was just wondering if anyone has any advise or methods they implore that help them with budgeting.
Budgeting has always been a problem with me, as it is with any dyscalcliac. So i'm at the point where i'm putting a shout out for idea and help.. because what i'm doing.. just isn't working.
thx.
peace and luv
You May not Live, But you will Die. |
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| griffox |
Posted on January 25 2010 02:27 AM
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Member
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 24
Joined: 2010-01-24
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Well, I'm sure it's different for everyone depending on your situation and what you're spending your money on. It is possible to just simply not make enough money to get by and in that case, I have no idea what you can do but rack up credit card debt trying to stay afloat. But if you're problem is spending your money frivolously there are some things that work for me.
I'm single and live alone, so what works for me is definitely going to be different for someone with kids and a spouse. My main strategy is to not give in to impulse buying. That means that I give up a lot of luxuries or make compromises (like paying for high speed internet, but not having cable tv.) I can definitely understand having a credit card for emergencies...i.e. your car brakes are going out and if you don't have them fixed you won't be able to get to work, but if you do get them fixed you won't be able to pay rent. If you're making enough money to have emergency funds though, I would definitely get rid of the credit card or just be absolutely self disciplined about using the credit card for those emergencies.
I had a problem for a while with overdrawing my bank account and I know there's another post about that. I had to make sure none of my bills were on auto bill pay because I would look at my bank balance and think I had enough money to buy something, not realizing that $60 was about to automatically come out for internet, $100 for electric, etc. Once my income leveled out and I was doing okay with having enough money for bills, I slowly added the auto bill pay back in. I'll admit, without it, I sometimes just plain forget to pay bills, so it can be great.
I'm not super frugal. I don't cut coupons or anything. grocery shopping is where I make the most stupid purchases. I don't cook and I hate doing dishes, so I spend a lot of money on pre-packaged meals, which tend to add up quickly. If you are willing to do cooking yourself, you can save a lot of money making a meal plan and buying the ingredients and putting together your own meals. Make a grocery list and stick to it (just don't forget the list on your way out the door, like I usually do.) Oh...and, stop eating out! No lunches at dairy queen, no (drool) starbucks, no take out. It's amazing how much money you save by not eating out.
Once the necessities are out of the way and you've got money to burn, try to really think through any purchases you make. I find myself getting on the internet and racking up a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff. Usually when I get to the check out page, I start getting a little nervous. That's when I decide to sleep on it and come back the next day. 9 out of 10 times, I decide that I can live without whatever it was and I close the browser and move on with no regret. Plus, I still got the thrill of shopping out of my system without doing any real damage. I guess you should only do this if you trust yourself to not go through with it.
Another thing that gets me in to trouble is looking at my bank account...especially right after a big paycheck. Nothing makes me want to toy shop like having a couple thousand dollars in the bank...I keep thinking, I've got money, I can buy this. Have a savings account and put whatever you don't need for necessities into savings. That way when you look at your checking account, you won't feel like you have money to burn. If something is really worth buying, than it will be worth the trouble of transferring money over from savings (unless that's no trouble for you.) I hate anything that has to do with banking, so i have to really need something in order to transfer money over for it.
I'm sure some people would recommend writing things down to keep track of them. Personally, that doesn't work for me, partially because I make too many number errors and partially because I'm lazy and I never keep up with it. I just always imagine that I'm broke and that really keeps things in perspective. I don't have a credit card, which sometimes is a pain in the butt, because I subsequently have no credit. But at the same time, that's one last bill I have to remember to pay every month.
I don't know if any of this is going to be helpful for you, since I don't know what your budgeting problems are specifically. One thing I know is that sometimes a person just can't work enough to afford all of life's necessities. Every time I see a homeless person, I think, that could easily be me. It's so easy to get behind if just one thing goes wrong and I've been fortunate enough to have parents who have been able to loan me money a few times when I just couldn't make ends meat. interesting that the reason for this leads back to dsycalculia, in that had I been able to get a college degree, I might make more money, but then again maybe not.
I'm certainly no budgeting guru, but this method has kept me afloat so far. |
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| CheshireKat |
Posted on January 25 2010 04:04 AM
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Member
Location: United States
Posts: 1860
Joined: 2008-11-14
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This is what my great grandmother taught my mom, who taught me. Look at your previous bills and figure out how much your "average" cost for each bill is. Some bills are the same every month (like your internet bill), while others vary month by month (like electric) so for the ones that vary, you look at the past 4-6 months and take an average.
Then you add up all of those costs and divide that by 2, or however many times a month you get paid. So if for example your total costs for everything were an even $1,000 a month, you would divide that by two checks, or $500 per check. You put away that much money from each check and don't spend it on anything else. That way you know you will have that money to pay the bills with, and won't overspend on things you don't need while neglecting the things you have to pay.
Once you put away that money from each check, you take what you have left and look at your "second tier" list of financial responsibilities. Groceries are obviously important, so you figure out how much you spend a week on average on groceries. It depends on the person, but I average about $40 a week on groceries. So I would put away $80 from every check, knowing that I need $40 per week times 2 weeks between checks. Now I know I have enough money to eat on.
Once you have the bills and food covered, you can take what you have left and put some into savings. My great grandma always said 10% of what you have left, plus whatever might still be left over at the end of the month. So if you had $100 left over, you would immediately put $10 of it into savings. Then, if at the end of the month you still had $15 left, you'd also put that into savings, totaling $25 put into savings that month. It doesn't sound like a lot but it's $300 a year, which could buy you something nice at the end of the year.
My great grandma used to actually have individual envelopes labeled "utilities", "groceries", "clothes", "savings" etc. because this was back in the 20s and 30s, long before credit cards and checking accounts. It's not as practical to pay everything in cash anymore, but if you keep your amounts written down so that you can "see" how much money you have for each cost then you should be able to budget properly without overspending.
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer |
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| Tigerfeet |
Posted on January 25 2010 04:37 PM
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Member
Location: Scotland
Posts: 51
Joined: 2008-06-24
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I keep a spreadsheet with costs in it. All the costs are fixed, not variable, and this is my budget. If there's likely to be some variability in costs, I tend to presume it at it's highest level and any 'left-overs' at the end of the month get squirrelled away for overpayments on other things or as contingency fund.
Of course, this is presuming you have a fixed and steady monthly income. Anything other than a steady income is guaranteed to get me into trouble. |
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| EarlyWarning |
Posted on January 25 2010 05:20 PM
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Member
Location: Canada
Posts: 120
Joined: 2009-12-08
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Hmmm.. thankyou for all the feedback and ideas.. it's great help. Of course actually being able to do it is another thing entirely.
I do the thing where i have fixed bills and i know how much they are.. and wait for them to come out ect.. So i don't have a prob with paying my fixed bills unless they are more than they are supposed to be.
But with my time distortions thing i forget about incidental bills.. or how much money i've spent or even have in my pocket. I'll have $100 in my pocket.. and know i have that much in my pocket.. Until i pull out the money and count it and find out i'm $60 short of what i thought i knew i had... Then i have to sit down and try my hardest to figure out where i spent it.
Of course sometimes it works in my favor to.. like today when i found $20 in my jacket pocket that i didn't know i had.. i have places i keep things.. *like money in front right pant pocket* and if something is outside of that area then it gets displaced in my memory.
so anyone have any ideas or a system on how a being that experiences severe time distortion can keep a tally of money and spending habits?
You May not Live, But you will Die. |
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| griffox |
Posted on January 25 2010 06:00 PM
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Member
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 24
Joined: 2010-01-24
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I've done that before, too early warning. That's one of the main reasons I don't use cash. It's just too hard for me to keep track of, let alone count it accurately. When I get tips at work, I go ahead and deposit them with my check. I definitely know the feeling of looking at my bank statement, thinking, "where did all that money go?" So, at least, if I've made debit purchases, I can see where the money went...whereas cash purchases are nearly impossible to track down. So, even if I have cash in my pocket that I haven't had the chance to deposit, I still use my debit card. |
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| Kestrel6 |
Posted on January 25 2010 07:12 PM
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Member
Location: Houston TX
Posts: 448
Joined: 2009-08-26
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EarlyWarning wrote:
so anyone have any ideas or a system on how a being that experiences severe time distortion can keep a tally of money and spending habits?
I make it a rule that I can only "buy stuff" on Fridays. That gives bill payments etc time to work through so I have a fairly recent balance amount to work with on Friday.
Also, keep a notepad in your pocket and make note of each expenditure. So if feel like spending on Wednesday, you can look at your record and think "Nope, I just bought something on Monday; gotta hold off for now"
Blessed are the PURR in heart! |
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| EarlyWarning |
Posted on March 17 2010 02:57 PM
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Member
Location: Canada
Posts: 120
Joined: 2009-12-08
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Hey Kestral that's a cool idea..
I just got an Iphone 3GS.. so i'm going to look for an app that i can use for this kind of budgeting
I'll let you all know if i come across anything that is helpful.
You May not Live, But you will Die. |
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| CheshireKat |
Posted on March 17 2010 04:00 PM
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Member
Location: United States
Posts: 1860
Joined: 2008-11-14
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If you keep cash in your wallet, then you should also keep a piece of paper in the very front of your wallet, like where your ID would go. Write down how much cash you have, and then every time you make a purchase, deduct that much from it (you can round). So if you have $100 in your pocket and you spend $12 at lunch, as soon as you spend that money you pull out the slip of paper and write $100 - $12 = $88 and you put a box around $88. Then when you go to the next store and spend $24, you do the same thing right below it, $88 - $24 = $64 and put a box around the $64.
It might also help to write down what you bought and the date you bought it next to the cost. That you don't sit there scratching your head and thinking, "Where and when did I spend that $24?" Carry a small calculator around if you need to (or use the one that is likely on your phone, since you have an iPhone) to do the simple subtraction. This way you will have that piece of paper right in the front of your wallet at all times, showing you exactly how much you spent, and where, and when.
I do this when I'm out shopping so that I don't have to keep track of a billion receipts and try to do the math with them. And obviously since most purchases aren't in exact dollars (it's more likely you would spend $12.47 than an exact $12) just round up to $13. That way you will always have more than you think, which is never a bad thing. 
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer |
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| classclownfish |
Posted on March 17 2010 04:59 PM
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Member
Location: MD
Posts: 125
Joined: 2007-10-12
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http://www.mint.com has some pretty amazing tools, and an iPhone app.
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| EarlyWarning |
Posted on March 24 2010 08:43 PM
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Member
Location: Canada
Posts: 120
Joined: 2009-12-08
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Cool.. thx for the link to mint classclownfish.. i check it out and it looks real cool.. can't wait to install it and start undersatanding money..
You May not Live, But you will Die. |
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| EarlyWarning |
Posted on March 24 2010 09:14 PM
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Member
Location: Canada
Posts: 120
Joined: 2009-12-08
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Awww nuts.. it only supports states banks..  that blows
You May not Live, But you will Die. |
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| EarlyWarning |
Posted on April 06 2010 06:41 PM
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Member
Location: Canada
Posts: 120
Joined: 2009-12-08
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well i downloaded three diff apps for budgeting.. I'll let you guys know which ones are best if anyone i interested in Canada. So far i have a favorite but i'm moving away from it because it doesn't allow for income.. just a set monthly salary. The other is a cool one that projects your money on a calendar so u can see how much money you'll have when, but it isn't very detailed in the expense categories. .
and have two on my wish list for the end of the month that are visual colored time planners for goals tracking and time management.
You May not Live, But you will Die. |
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| eoffg |
Posted on April 07 2010 09:19 AM
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 of clu[26].jpg)
Administrator
Location: Australia
Posts: 1262
Joined: 2005-03-20
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Early, we regularly get software developers here, who are interested in developing some software for Dyscalculics.
Where it would very helpful to get one of them to develop a program for Budgeting, that was made to suit Dyscalculics.
I use Excel spreadsheets, so that I can design it to suit myself.
Though I think that a Spoken Word program would be very helpful, so that numbers can be entered verbally, and then be read back.
But an important part, would be how layout projections?
So that they can easily be understood.
As this is a major part of budgeting, to have a clear idea of the time-line for recurrent expenditures and bills.
Also something can be predictive, based on a history.
For example with Electricity, where the seasons effect it differently.
But surely a Dyscalculics Budget program could be developed? |
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