How Do You Budget?
 

Hi, folks.
I think many of you use some personal budgeting software. Of course
there are many people who use Quicken and Microsoft Money, but those who
do not, tell me what budget organizer you prefer.
I myself use Visual Money since other organizers seemed to me a little
bit complicated and overloaded with useless features. Well, this is my
own experience) I'll be glad to learn more about and discuss yours.

Microsoft Money is relatively idiot proof. I like it lots.

Automatic updates and automatic backup? Righteous.

...

I don't have a lot of activity in my accounts, though.

I do it the old fashioned way.

I write down how much I spend each day and what i spent it on, and at the end of the month I see if that month's expenses exceed my income.

Pen + paper. Like Siege.

Wells fargo online reports, checked weekly against loose monthly spending guidelines.

I don't even use the pen and paper, I just do it all in my head. I'm hardcore like that.

I just keep an excel spreadsheet

I also use my delicious brain. I always round up for bills and I end up with extra left over.

I have separate bank accounts for different things.

Savings Account No. 1 contains all my payments from financial aid refund checks. I use it to pay my bills, which are always about $400/mo.

Checking Account No. 1 contains extra money from various places, and I use it to shop at Costco once a month.

Those accounts are held with a high interest online bank.

I also have two accounts with a local credit union. Savings Account No. 2 holds my day-to-day savings, ie the money I manage to save from tax refunds, extra work, etc.

Checking Account No. 2 holds my day-to-day spending money, never more than $50/week. That way I'm forced to keep myself to a budget, and it's a lot easier to keep track of than writing out every single thing. If I run out of my $50 by Wednesday, I know I'm spending too much and cut back. Pretty simple.

I use Yodlee which manages all (ALL) my accounts. Credit cards, bank accounts, 401k, roth, brokerages. I think Microsoft Money uses the same engine as Yodlee for all their automatic updates.

I can access it anywhere, and I feel that it is secure. Signup can be a bitch though if you cannot find the signup link (lookie lookie - http://corporate.yodlee.com/moneycen...ostlaunch.html)

Mint.com is a new one, a little flashier than Yodlee is, but with some nice community features and ways to reduce expenditures. mint.com

Wesabe.com is another place. Not as automatic (yet) as Mint.com or Yodlee, but probably has the best community features (for now)

hey will..c'mon..im not THAT smart am i??

you want me to do my budgets AND YOURS?? geez louise

I use an excel spreadsheet to make a sample budget and then I keep track of what was actually spent.

I have accounts in two different countries for different purposes. They do not share a common language or currency. I have used MS Money, and liked it a lot, but it can't handle my current needs. About a week ago I found GNUCash, and it seems like it can handle multiple accounts, currencies, protocols, etc., and reconcile it all in one place. I haven't had a chance to mess with it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it can do. Anyone else use this?

Oh BTW, it's multi-platform, and best of all FREE!

That sounds great... I will have to check it out as I have some of the same issues with currencies and countries.

I let Skogafoss do it all :) she uses multiple accounts and mental "envelopes"

when I did it, I did it two ways.

first I stopped upgrading my life every time I got a bonus or a raise.

second, I did it like will, round up and paying extra for things. Set up simple average payments for recurring bills, one time I had rounded up for so long and so much the gas company owed me $900.00.

I get paid every other Thursday, make two credit card payments every month, and other than that, spend it on whatever I have to get (mostly gas and food,) then complain about being broke until next paycheck when I run out of money (usually happens between Sunday and Tuesday after getting paid.)

I use excel spreadsheets. I've sorted all my recurring bills and divided them into which are paid from the 1st or 2nd paycheck of the month. I use that to figure out how much I have to spend for the pay period and then I use a second spreadsheet to estimate our grocery bill.

I took my income and subtracted fixed expenses like housing and set aside an excess for bills, then for everyday of the month I make sure I do not exceed the leftover money / # of days in the month. Usually there's a few days when I don't spend any money and at the end of the month I throw that amount into savings.

It's not fancy but it works pretty well. Like Will I also round up to the nearest dollar.

I use the mark II wife.

I had to upgrade the mark I, because it turned out she was re-routing funds to hotel rooms... :(

I just applied my universal solution to everything. Make more money :P.
Seriously though - budgeting and saving and working for someone else the rest of your life will get you nowhere slowly...

Read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, and there's another book called "Escaping the Middle Class" www.yourleverage.com and start changing your cash flow patterns instead. It took me four years to go from being 80k in the hole to making my old annual salary in a month. I still have budgeting issues, but they go away really damn fast nowadays.

Budget? Like write down what money I spend? Why? Someone just keeps putting more in my bank account every 2 weeks, and it seems to last me...

I budget my finances by doing the following...

Get paid, pay bills, buy shit, pay bills... spend on credit card.

Rinse lather and repeat.