https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 04 May 2026 20:31:53 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2908858 Thu, 23 Jan 2020 14:00:53 +0000 gotkimchi 2908858@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have most of my tax info - I think we might owe federal, hoping we get a state return to offset it </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2908759 Wed, 22 Jan 2020 12:30:56 +0000 graceandjoy 2908759@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Doing good! Recently found out DH has leftover HSA money so what I've been saving as deductible for my upcoming birth, I can pretty much re-direct it elsewhere! But I'm gonna keep status quo for now and make sure the payment goes through after birth first. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2908758 Wed, 22 Jan 2020 12:22:51 +0000 gotkimchi 2908758@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How’s everyone doing? Any bigs wins or problems? I’m just chugging along making payments on everything and hoping we get a tax return! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2908004 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:18:40 +0000 ilovepie 2908004@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Carrot: oh ok. DH was very against linking our accounts to anything so everything I've tried is manual input. It's definitely more work. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2908003 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:05:11 +0000 PurplePeony 2908003@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Carrot: if you liked Learnvest, I bet you’ll like Personal Capital. Once you have your accounts synced, it’s easy to use and it’s pretty customizable. If you try it and have any questions about how to do certain things, let me know! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907999 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 17:05:14 +0000 graceandjoy 2907999@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Carrot: I think I saw something about an app called Spendify? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907993 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:22:36 +0000 Mrs. Carrot 2907993@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PurplePeony: Thanks, I'll check those out! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907992 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:21:26 +0000 Mrs. Carrot 2907992@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ilovepie: In fairness I haven't drilled down deep into the budgeting stuff out there, but I tried YNAB a couple years ago and found it really didn't fit my needs because it was much more focused on money in and out and moving things around and I just wanted something to help me categorize expenses and give me a clear picture of what we were spending. I used a tool Learnvest had previously and loved it because they downloaded all my transactions and I could set up whatever category I wanted to put those transactions into, but they shut it down a couple years ago. I don't love Mint because it's a little limited in categories, so I went to a spreadsheet but it forces me to download all our transactions manually and that's the part I'd love to automize ideally. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907988 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 15:49:10 +0000 PurplePeony 2907988@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Carrot: I really like Personal Capital, the tools are way better than Mint. They do call every now and then, trying to get me to use their paid services, but I just ignore the calls. There’s another tracker I’ve heard mentioned on some podcasts I listen to called Clarity Money, but I don’t have any experience with it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907977 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 14:41:45 +0000 ilovepie 2907977@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Carrot: is there a reason you don't want it to be a budgeting site/app? The most powerful analytics for spending I've found were in budgeting apps. I guess you could also use the drill down on credit cards with their categories they use.</p> <p>My guess is that you probably could create a rough budget pretty easily with the expenses that are set numbers and have everything that you don't know where it's coming from be a flexible category. Then you just enter your expenses throughout the month. Assess at the end of the month, then reset and tweak for the next month. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907968 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 14:24:15 +0000 agold 2907968@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Carrot: I could have written your exact same post! Bigger house and a couple new expenses and yikes! I need a budget quick. I have started a manual one, and it really needs to be addressed weekly because our every week is different. I'm a bit exhausted by it already, but I'm really hoping that having one will help me worry less about our new tight budget. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat/page/2#post-2907954 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 13:40:09 +0000 Mrs. Carrot 2907954@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@graceandjoy: We're in a similar place with money flying so my goal this year is to start tracking expenses again and see how much we're spending where. I did it religiously through a Mint-like platform that no longer exists, and then I got lazy last year because we were living pretty well below our means. And then we went from a light mortgage on our condo as our only debt to a larger mortgage on a house, a new car payment, plus all the new utilities and maintenance expenses that come with and there's definitely a need to get a better understanding on where everything is going so I'll be going back to a spreadsheet I designed. It's a little too manual for my liking so if anyone has a good financial tracker recommendation (not a budget and I'm not fond of Mint), I'd love ideas. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2907932 Thu, 09 Jan 2020 11:39:15 +0000 graceandjoy 2907932@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Soo I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant with my 3rd and all the nesting has been doing so much damage to my budget! Plus baby #3 is our 1st boy and we also have nothing and no shower, so I've been getting my huge registry order ready to check out and lately it's just $$$ flying out everywhere :silly: I budgeted for baby stuff, but wasn't super prepared for how crazy I went about re-organizing my house again haha! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906117 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:38:50 +0000 bhbee 2906117@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: that sounds like a good plan! I pushed to get my daughter’s ear tubes done this month to save us $4k (vs January) and I am thinking we need a decent vacation this year too :grin: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906113 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:10:39 +0000 gotkimchi 2906113@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bhbee: we have had a lot of medical payments too, husband needed wisdom teeth out, both kids had ear tubes, one had adenoid removed, so many appointments, dental work etc. its just life I guess but it has felt hard to make any traction and I do think a break sounds nice! We also have some money in savings and I am considering pay some stuff off when those balances equal each other. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906112 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:58:50 +0000 bhbee 2906112@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: jealous of your 8 payments left, that’s amazing! It just seems like they drag on forevvvvvvver. I can understand wanting a break! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906111 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:54:43 +0000 bhbee 2906111@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: we had a lot of grad school debt between us. When we graduated we got some floating interest rates and some fixed that were near 3%. Then interest rates fell keeping the floating ones low (below 4%) as well which helped. I did pay extra when I could pre getting married - but then dh was laid off a long time, then we had kids and childcare and then I started staying home so we went back to making the payments for all that time. We try to avoid debt when we can but also have a mortgage where we just make payments. Right now no car payments and saving cash every month since we probably both need new (to us) cars in the next 3 years or so. </p> <p>Recently though we decided to plow some savings into paying off the two larger amounts of the four left. It felt AMAZING and now we’re snowballing those payments into the last two so they’ll be done in a year or so. Then that money will probably all go into 529s for the kids which we have done very little with so far. So that was the motivator, to get moving on those. We have spent a ton on healthcare the last few years and could never prioritize them it seemed like. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906110 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:50:09 +0000 DesertDreams88 2906110@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: woohoo, 8 payments! That would be so exciting and motivating! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906109 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:45:54 +0000 gotkimchi 2906109@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: we’re in a similar spot where before kids I threw a lot of money at debt but now with kids and bills we don’t have much left over. My student loan has 8 payments left and after that I think I’m going to save that money v send it to other debt. Just to have a little breathing room. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906108 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:45:43 +0000 DesertDreams88 2906108@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi:<br /> DH &amp; I regularly sit down and write out our financial goals, sort them in order, and set a target year for completion. It looks like this. Maybe that would be a good conversation to have? But, keeping in mind that goals can't be met without a plan :) The purple means the goal is complete, and the rest of the colors indicate year. </p> <p>An ongoing goal is to have our emergency fund at about 3-6 months of expenses, but that keeps getting used, and then we have to build it back up. </p> <p>This is another model of how to decide on goals: <a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/dave-ramsey-7-baby-steps" rel="nofollow">https://www.daveramsey.com/dave-ramsey-7-baby-steps</a></p> <p>[attach=5393/19/q2nyl4.356x402.Goals.JPG] </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906107 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:41:14 +0000 DesertDreams88 2906107@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: it depends on what your financial goals are. </p> <p>For the first 5 years of our marriage, we focused on debt repayment, because we had 80-85K of student loan debt, average APR 6-7%. That's not low interest to me, especially at that amount of principal. So we lived really frugally and spent 25% of our take-home $$ on debt repayment. We got the balance down under 30-40K quickly, but then had kids. </p> <p>Now that we have kids (plus unpaid maternity leaves, big medical bills, etc), AND that our student debt is at a more manageable level (17K at 6%), our financial goals have shifted. We recently saved up and paid cash for 19K worth of backyard improvements, and that's 4-5 months of take-home income for us - so, it was a big deal. </p> <p>We still have 17K of loans but paying off now vs. paying the standard repayment only saves us 3K in interest so that's not motivating to me. This is, again, because we already were in "debt repayment" mode for 5-6 solid years. There are loan calculators online that would help you figure out how much you'd save in interest if you paid off debt early vs. standard plans. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906104 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 09:39:18 +0000 graceandjoy 2906104@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: I think I started around the same time as you since I had DD1 in 2014 and that was probably when I realized I need to turbo boost my budgeting haha</p> <p>@gotkimchi: So I follow The Budget Mom on IG and I think she said that you make the minimum payments, but then you work on your budget to free up extra income so whatever that's saved you can throw it at the highest interest debt. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906100 Tue, 17 Dec 2019 09:05:48 +0000 gotkimchi 2906100@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How does everyone feel about paying off debt? Pay it off early? Just make the payments if it’s low interest? This is something I’ve been really thinking about since I’d like to save more and take a vacation! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906010 Mon, 16 Dec 2019 12:34:05 +0000 Portboston 2906010@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jennlin821: I’ll update my other thread!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2906004 Mon, 16 Dec 2019 12:22:33 +0000 jennlin821 2906004@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Sorry to thread highjack but @Portboston: how are things going? Sounds like you are officially separated? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2905964 Mon, 16 Dec 2019 09:50:11 +0000 graceandjoy 2905964@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jhd: Yeah I have a checking cushion, though for smaller things I'll usually steal from another category. </p> <p>@petitenoisette: There is def a learning curve with YNAB. I also wasn't really getting as much out of it at first, but I bit the bullet and really watched a lot of the tutorials, read their blog posts, and also browsed the YNAB Reddit threads a ton and now I would say for me personally, it's 100% worth using. </p> <p>@gotkimchi: I'm pretty much only credit card spending as well and I also don't do the grocery shopping! It took a while for DH to slowly get used to it, but he basically has a limit on his discretionary spending (aka his creditcard). I was like how hard it is to just watch what your monthly bill is. And for grocery budget, I would LOVE to bring it down and we're working on that, but for now I basically just tell him if we're close to being done for the month and he has to make do with what we have :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2905878 Sun, 15 Dec 2019 11:08:22 +0000 Portboston 2905878@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I’ve always been a huge budget-er. Now a single mom I need to buckle down and figure this out again! I use a manual spreadsheet to track but am considering using an app now that I’m the only one I have to keep track of!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2905833 Sat, 14 Dec 2019 17:17:51 +0000 ilovepie 2905833@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gotkimchi: in goodbudget you can account for credit cards and bank accounts and actually reconcile them while using them. Each month when I fill "envelopes" I decide whether to have deficits roll over or fill the gap. Then whatever is left I allocate into various savings funds. I guess it could be automatic but I like to flexibility of doing it and tracking it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2905829 Sat, 14 Dec 2019 15:29:13 +0000 gotkimchi 2905829@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@petitenoisette: ok this is where I’m struggling with ynab. We also only use a credit card and my husband is terrible about discretionary spending and also if I budget x for groceries but am at the limit it’s not like I don’t buy groceries. I like the idea of just having credit card category </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/budgeting-enthusiasts-chat#post-2905828 Sat, 14 Dec 2019 15:26:53 +0000 DillonLion 2905828@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Love budgetingggg! We moved across the country and went from 2 incomes to 1, so budgeting has been a new adventure lately. We've been faithful YNAB users since 2014. </p>