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ORIGINAL: BlueAdept

For example, when you go to the store and purchase 25.00 in groceries and 15.00 in house hold supplies (TP) you have to break that out. Or if you list it all in one area it looks like you went over budget in that area. Maybe you purchased a book while at the store that is a gift, .... lots and lots of variables. So you can't wait to enter that until the bank statement comes, because by that point you will have forgotten what you spent where. (My wife wrote the checks, I had to enter them, and I rarely got a receipt.) As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

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Just remember the K.I.S.S. principle. Keep It Super Simple.

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I actually do my budget by using the bill scheduler. I've inputed all of our bills - even those that only come up quarterly, etc. with reminders appropriate to when we get paid and make deposits.

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ORIGINAL: ta_mosquito

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I actually do my budget by using the bill scheduler. I've inputed all of our bills - even those that only come up quarterly, etc. with reminders appropriate to when we get paid and make deposits.

The bill reminders in Quicken have saved me many times from late fees. Now, if only they could remind me even when the program isn't running!

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ORIGINAL: Row1

we went from terrible money management for the first yearand a half of our marriage, to really coordinated, strong money management in the past year and a half.

i believe the critical starting point is to work out a monthly budget with pencil and paper. [later, if you want, put this in quicken, excel, envelope system, etc.]

get all expenses into one budget. neither of us is a super-strong money management person, and i have to tell ya that this made all the difference.

it also got us on one team as a couple versus husband fighting wife over money issues. We, together, look at the 'bottom line', money coming in each month, and we look at all of the categories of expenses. When WE need to adjust, WE decide how. For example, when the school year ended in June, WE entered 'zero' for the school-lunch debit account line on the budget, and entered zero for the tutor. We took the dollar values from each of those and put those dollars into some other category.

Now, with school about to start, we STILL have those budget entries in our pencil-and-paper list (actually just written up in microsoft word) - and we will need to enter the $60 per month or whatever it is for the school lunch debit account, and the $60 a month or whatever for the weekly tutor.

Then, we look at the budget and adjust that $120 away from some other line. --the most flexible line in the budget is the line with the money devoted to paying off two no-interest credit cards - it gets all the money that is not devoted elsewhere. Once we pay these off, in a few months, that will become the "build a 3-6 months' emergency fund" budget line.

We could go and enter all of our categories on Quicken, or Excel. But I think for us, that would just slow us down. It is easier for us to look at the two-page-long printed budget, and pencil in the little changes that come up each month.

It took us about 3 months to figure out ALL of the categories we need in our budget to be prepared for most everything:
Our monthy categories include: GIVING tithing, gift fund (birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc.), Christmas fund (plan a dollar amt for total expenses, tree-and-all, then divide by 12, and put aside into envelope that much per month), HOUSING mortage, annual neighborhood association fee (again, put 1/12 per month), UTILITIES electricity, water, home phone, cell phones, internet, cable, allowance, FOOD groceries (includes groceries and restaurant), "pocket money" or spending money, school food debit acct, TRASPORTATION gas, car insurance, car license/repair/maintenance, bus pass, CLOTHING clothing, HEALTH life insurance premium, medical visits/drug copays/OTC meds, payment plan for braces, EDUCATION student loan, tutor, annual professiona llicense renewal (again, divide by 12 and add that much per month to envelope),DEBT standard credit card pmt, extra credit card pmt.

We do the envelopes. This makes it FAR more easy to stick to the budget.

I get paid twice per month. At each pay period, I pull out the cash needed to fill the envelopes.

This has brought GREAT calm and stability to our family. Think about it: we NEVER have to tell the tutor we will pay her next week. When gas prices climbed, we simply adjusted this category. When Christmas comes, we simply grab the envelope, with little bump in our budget. When we need to run to the drugstore in the middle of the night for antacids or whatever, we just grab the medical category envelope.

My stepdaughter had a surgery last year. It was so cool to pay the up-front handful of money in cash already set aside, versus pulling out the charge card and wondering how I would make everything work the next month. At discharge, same thing at the pharmacy for the antibiotics and pain meds.

Now, usually, in a couple, one person is "good" at this and the other perso mis not. Simply let the person who is "good" at money management, or setting up lists (i.e., the person who does the taxes) do the muscle work of writing/typing the budget page, but you BOTH discuss how much in each category.

For us, I am happy to keep track and adjust - and I always tell my wife abt these changes.

This can help with wasteful, foolish spending. If you are spending $ on cigarettes, it will become glaringly clear. Don't fight over this. Just enter "cigarettes: $90/month." And put the money in an envelope. I can almost guarantee that the smoking will go down, AND that the smoker likely will quit again in the nexy year. [all smokers have some period of quitting, but most usually go back to smoking].

If either or both of you drink a fair amt of alcohol, you will also adjust this once you see how big a portion of the budget it is. Not even 'problem drinking - just having two beers each time you go out to eat, at twice eating out per week, would be $50/month easy.

Hair cuts, getting nails done, etc - each of you will naturally start adjusting these things as you look at this planned budget each month.

So, try not to fight about some of these things at first. Just get them into the budget, and accept the current expenses, and let some natural change processes happen over time.

I hope the desire to manage your budget, and live more in line with the Bible as far as money management and debt, brings lots more peace to your family, like it has to ours!

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ORIGINAL: Miss Giggles

I know Dave Ramsey says to stick with cash and there is an emotional attachment but I don't have that. Esp since my generation has grown up with debit and credit and online banking.

If I shared a bank account I'd probably do all cash but since I don't it's easier for me to record my debits (on a daily basis, as its spent, of course)

I cannot do a pen and paper budget or checkbook, I make way too many mistakes.