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lsubatgirl · Gucci

Budget Advice

Elle · Hermes

We keep it super-simple. We started out by adding together all of our expenses (prioritized) and subtracting the total from monthly income. Then from what was leftover each month, we designated a specific amount for savings, retirement, CC debt, school loans. Then we subtracted that from the 'leftover' total to get the fun/extra/just in case money amount.

1st Tier: Essentials (Can't be altered, highest priority, to be paid first)

Rent, car pymt, insurance, utilities, food, gas, school loan pymt, CC pymt, retirement savings

2nd Tier: Conveniences (Makes life a lot easier, could be adjusted if necessary but only completely given up in a desperate situation)

Cell phone, internet, TV/Cable

3rd Tier: Wants/Likes (Not really necessary, and could be dropped without too much serious consequence)

Gym membership, tivo, other memberships, extras (shopping, morning coffee, dinners out, etc)

I didn't include regular savings in here, because IIRC you have some CC debt which should be paid off before you start putting money away for regular savings. This 'Tier' system got us through some rough times when money was really tight. It might also help you to set up an additional savings account at your bank - we have multiple accounts at our bank, all accessible online, and every time we make a purchase on our credit card, we go into the checking account and transfer that much into one of the savings accounts. That way, when the bill comes, all the money you need to pay it is right there for you and you don't have to worry so much about spending more than you have.

HTH!

NCshopper · Hermes

I *think* Good Ole Suze Orman has some budgeting advice in her Young, Broke and Fabulous book.

There are some basic figures that you can work with, like no more than 30% of your income should be spent on housing, and how much should be food, clothing, savings, etc. (I made up the 30% figure--I think it's somewhere around that, but I can't remember for sure, so don't budget based on that.)

Here's some interesting basic info I found when I googled "personal budget housing food"

http://www.personalfinancebudgeting.com/budgeting-percentages.php

For me, I have an Excel spreadsheet with the next year budgeted out by month. It includes income, routine monthly expenses, other expected expenses (contact lenses in February, a wedding to go to in March, May, and June, homeowners assoc. dues in Jan, etc). For the routine monthly expenses, I have that all itemized on a separate worksheet within the same file and then have that amount deducted from the income every month. I also have my credit card balance and payments planned out too.

It works pretty well for me, but it's not fool proof. I totally blew it in December with my spending and now I have two additional months of CC payments before mine is paid off, which sucks big time. But the spreadsheet method has helped, especially in planning for expenses, like weddings and trips and stuff like that--it's helped take the surprise element out of my finances, which is a good thing.