Do you budget?

This Fat Girl Runs wrote: »

Another Excel budgeter here. Am two months away from paying off over 30 grand in debt. Never would have crawled out of it without learning how to stick to a budget. Harsh lesson but one well learned!!

Did it take you long if you don't mind me asking? Nice to see that it is actually possible well done

I do a very rough budget on excel. I know exactly what will need to be paid in bills and how much I will be saving along with my planned spend on essentials (groceries, petrol etc). At the start of each month I look at what I have planned for a month ahead and try to estimate what I should be spending on other areas. I then keep track of everything coming out of my account and allocate it a category - rent, groceries, medical, travel, car, entertainment, eating out, shopping, gifts, savings so that I can ensure as the month goes on I am not over spending on any one category. I have no loans and I only use my credit card for online payments or for a large unexpected spend. i always pay my credit card balance in full at the next payday and just adjust my personal spends for the following month accordingly.

We budget big style , save roughly 60% of our salery's every month , then have rent , bills etc , leave's about 15% - 20% for food and lil luxurys ... do allot of the shopping in bulk in the wholesalers so that works out a good bit cheaper and make serious use of the freezer.

saving for a weeding and a deposit at the minute so need some serious cash reserves all ready have well over €30k in 13 Months saving

storker wrote: »

Yes if the buyer hands over the money but doesn't do anything with the tool; no if using the tool saves multiples of that €50.

Or you could get a pen and paper and do a budget yourself. And save everything you saved plus €50.

I get paid into my account every 4 weeks. All direct debits, esb, three, eircom, property tax, house/car insurance are paid from that account.
I transfer what's left into my other account, that is for food shop, car expenses etc.
credit card is paid off every month, limit is only €600. Some goes into savings but big enough. I need to tackle my overall spending. Money seems to go nowhere.

I always know account balances and use a notebook to track dds, and other spends.

Yes had to as never thought of drinking was the reason im broke. Was spending 800 euro a month or more on beer and thinks related to beer like taxis etc.

Few Pints Wednesday night to break up the working week 30 euro.

Friday night 50 euro

Saturday 100 euro or more

Sunday 20 euro

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intheclouds wrote: »

Yes, I have already mentioned earlier how this didnt used to be possible and trying to cancel a direct debit was a protracted and difficult process.

Which left me with the mindset that I prefer to be in control of my own money and who gets paid what when.

For that reason I dont use direct debits.

I do have control of who gets paid what and when by handling it manually.

You are, of course, free to have as many direct debits set up as you like, but for me the control over the amount and the timing is more important.

Do you ever fear you will forget to make a payment in time and potentially tarnish your credit rating for 5 years?

Yes: have made quick-n-dirty assessments of available funds vs. looming expenses ever since I was a student (long time ago)

Pencil and a jotter page is all you really need, but over the years, rearing a long family on a short purse, etc, it evolved into a still very simple but foolproof method of keeping track of income / outgoings /and whats-left-over-to-spend. Divided by four, for a weekly sum, since my income has always been monthly.

It STILL features a brief handwritten list on blue paper, since the original ("monthly recurring bills") was scribbled on the blue lining of an envelope. Gets updated once in a while but still the same layout.

EVERY MONTH: Mortgage, fixed outgoings and credit cards.

January - Fuel, subscriptions, heavy credit card bill
February - Phone, gas, lecky,
March - Property Tax

and so on and so forth. Details vary but it works as a system.

Back when I WAS a student, I remember the result that happened quite often, after I had bought a couple of needed books, etc:
there was about a pound a week, left to spend. [early 1970s]
This worked out to a daily ration of about 18 pence a day which bought ten cigarettes which were shared between me and my boyfriend, and 2 cups of tea daily in the cafe to accompany the sandwiches-from-home.

Clothes from Oxfam, transport by bike. I still do some of those things. And I always budget.