https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:29:52 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-408499 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:22:22 +0000 Meridian 408499@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thanks for all the feedback, I appreciate it! And especially those who shared how they budget. </p> <p>Luckily we don't have any debt besides our mortgage, no school loans, no car loans and no credit card debt. We pay off the cc every month, but the card balance sometimes just gets so high that we have to "borrow" from our ING savings account. So even though we have a set amount (like 20% of DH's take home pay) that automatically goes into our savings every month, we end up pulling some out to cover these cc bills or other expense. And then our savings grows VERY slowly.</p> <p>Those expenses listed above are just the ones that went on the CC... I didn't even look to see what other expenses were paid via our checking account! The reason we have to pay so much for DH's family is because his parents are retired and don't really have much income, savings or retirement fund. They worked hard all their lives owning a Chinese restaurant, which ultimately was never profitable and they were only able to "make a living" with very little left over. </p> <p>I try to be understanding about all this which is why I haven't said much to DH about these expenses and bills that we end up covering. For a few years, we were paying half of their property taxes every year, which was even MORE of a large amount! This year for some reason they didn't ask us to, thank goodness.</p> <p>DH's sister and BIL do pay for a lot, and have taken the parents on 2 vacations to Japan and Hawaii, that we did not go on (and therefore did not contribute to). So we felt it was only fair to pay half of this vacation. *sigh* BUT, DH's parents watch SIL's son full time, and he even lives with them full time. So I kind of feel like SIL &amp; BIL should be contributing to their parent's finances because they are saving in the long term. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-408346 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:49:26 +0000 ladyfingers 408346@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a budget based on what we know we need to spend for that month -- bills, groceries, and gas, all based on fixed amounts or ballparks based on our average spending -- plus a set amount that goes into savings (though with baby on the way we've been spending more on my doctor's bills and random stuff like the car seat so much less has been going into savings). Anything left over is for eating out and miscellaneous expenses like random trips to the drugstore, overages on groceries etc., the odd piece of maternity clothing, a book here and there.</p> <p>Anything unexpected that tips us over, like car repairs or illness, goes onto a credit card and we make a plan for paying it back. DH just had $300 in car repairs so he put it on his credit card, we are paying $150 toward it this month and $150 next month so it doesn't just stay on the card. We never put anything on a credit card without a plan for paying it back. Unfortunately, we don't have enough extra to cut out credit card use entirely, and are not willing to cut things like cable, Internet, etc. so that we can make that happen. That's our personal choice, and everybody has to make the ones that are comfortable for them. We have cut down our debt significantly so we are more comfortable temporarily putting something on credit rather than sucking the money out of savings.</p> <p>If we know we have something coming up, we decide whether we will have enough in savings to pay out of there (we are budgeted to put about $500 into savings each month so it currently serves as emergency and random fun stuff fund, but we have a set number we do not want it to dip below). If the fun thing would dip us below our limit, we either put extra aside, or don't do the fun thing. Like others have said, paying as much as you pay for other people to do and get things is just not something we can afford to do. Not to get too personal, but I think that you should develop a plan and boundaries so that you can beef up your savings.</p> <p>One way to defray the costs of things like car repairs, vet visits, etc. is to track what you've spent say, over the last couple of years on those things. Say last year you spent like $300 on car repairs and the year before, $500. Make a plan for setting aside $400 for car repairs throughout the year -- $33 per month, $16 per paycheck, whatever. You can make a separate account or just put it all into one savings account like we do. If you end up with a $400 bill in February, you can take that $400 out of savings as long as you keep putting in the xx designated amount for car repairs. We don't do this, but we really should. It helps soften the blow of unexpected stuff. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-408001 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:26:12 +0000 loveisstrange 408001@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm confused why you are paying your FIL's parking tickets and car repairs? I think you and your DH need to put your foot down HARD on how much you spend on other people. Judging from how much you actually listed and the things you said but didn't list how much you spent... you paid probably like $4000+ out on things for other people since January. That's a LOT of money.</p> <p>As for DH and I, we have an allotment that debits directly out of our account on payday into our savings. That money doesn't exist to us. We live frugally, no credit cards, no unnecessary bills (cable TV, expensive cell phones/plans, etc). We set small goal on how much savings we want to acquire over what period of time. Say... 6 months from now, we want to save another $2000. So we plan out how much money from each paycheck between now and then we need to save to meet that goal. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407992 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:21:15 +0000 Bluebonnet 407992@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Have you tried using mint.com to track expenses? Its really easy to use and does a great job of helping you establish budgets based on your past spending history. It also notifies you when you've gone over budget. </p> <p>We save for major purchases (travel, furniture, large gifts, etc) and don't buy things if we don't have the cash on hand to pay for them. We also have an emergency fund set up, but we only use that for true emergencies. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407990 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:19:33 +0000 DpeachLu 407990@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>wow! I would love to be one of those 7 people! Disney world!?!! I can only dream. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407974 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:14:20 +0000 mrs. wagon 407974@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yikes! You sure do pay for a lot for other people!! :( </p> <p>We almost never travel. We actually RSVPed no to every single long-distance wedding in the past two years (mostly because I was pregnant and we didn't want to travel with a toddler). </p> <p>We have a savings account linked to our checking account that isn't technically used for savings, so I use that as our extraneous expense fund. We usually know when a big expense is coming our way (a trip, a big gift, a wedding weekend, throwing a party, etc) so a few months out we'll start throwing cash into that account until we have the amount set aside that we've budgeted for that expense. I try to keep at least $200 in that account at all times, even when we're not saving up for something specific.</p> <p>For emergencies like a big vet bill, parking tickets, etc. if we don't have enough cash on hand, we use a credit card. I hate hate hate doing that though because it's too easy for us to keep a high balance. That's what we did in the past and that's why we're in way too much debt than we should be :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407960 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:09:47 +0000 Rock n Roll 407960@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I actually write our budget on a quarterly basis (because I'm an accounting nerd.) But also, because it allows us to budget for upcoming events.</p> <p>Here's what we do:<br /> 1) We have a joint account where all of our living expenses go. I average our spending on rent, car payment, electric, gas, gasoline, groceries, phone, internet/cable and that is our bare bones survival account. (Obviously, we can whittle down spending in it if necessary, but we have it at a comfortable level now.)<br /> 2) We budget for upcoming events. This quarter we have Christmas, a trip to see my friend's baby in Chicago, and new cell phones since our contact expires and we're switching carriers. All this "extra" spending goes into a different joint checking account.<br /> 3) We also budget savings and that goes into separate joint savings account. </p> <p>I usually leave us each $100 in our individual accounts after all that is done so we have 50 bucks a week for dumb stuff like coffee or a beer with a friend or whatever so we don't feel like we can't have ANY fun.</p> <p>If some event comes up we weren't expecting and haven't budgeted for, we can either re-arrange our budget to cover it or take the money out of savings if it is really big. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407910 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:53:30 +0000 mediagirl 407910@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was once way over my head in debt and told myself I would never do that again. That's when the above happened. It isn't fun, but life isn't fun if you have tons of debt you're paying off either. Oh, I know that for sure. You just have to buckle down and say, this is our budget, we can't go over. If that means missing out, it means missing out. Blah. Being an adult stinks! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407898 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:49:28 +0000 mediagirl 407898@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Holy moly. I can't imagine spending what you have spent over the past year on vacations + fun things + things for family. How we stay within our budget: Saving up for things. It's the only way to do it.</p> <p>We don't go on vacation unless we saved for it. The last vacation we went on was our honeymoon in 2010. Since then, I saved some money so we could drive to Ohio for my cousin's wedding. Otherwise, we couldn't have gone.</p> <p>We don't fly places. If friends are getting married and we can't afford to fly, we don't go. Oh, we flew to Florida to see his parents but only because his parents flew us down there. We couldn't have afforded it otherwise. We stayed with them, too so no hotel cost.</p> <p>We don't buy things for our family and don't lend family money. </p> <p>We don't "need" things. Like the new bed? We saved up for months before our wedding for a new bed. Our bed was so bad, it had a lump in the middle we would always roll into.<br /> We saved up, though and after our wedding, we had enough to buy the bed without financing or putting it on credit.</p> <p>We save for things like bachelor parties or bachelorette parties or don't go. I've said no to bachelorette parties before and it sucks but it's important to us not to go over our budget for one "fun" night.</p> <p>We don't buy expensive things unless we have saved up for them. </p> <p>Vet bills, dental work, those things happen and have to be paid for. Real Estate licenses are things that you know you will have to pay for. Save up for it the entire year and you won't struggle to pay for it when it's due. Same with taxes, oil changes, new tires, car insurance, etc. We multiple savings accounts that we use for car savings, vacation savings, pet savings (vet bills happen every year whether we like it or not) and our emergency fund. If we have an emergency - like an emergency root canal - we use the emergency fund. Then, we spend some time to pay it back. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407866 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:38:51 +0000 MrsTiz 407866@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Miscellaneous? You mean paying for other people to do things?! You paid for plane tickets and Disney tickets for SEVEN people! </p> <p>You would have so much money left over if you cut back on that. I know sometimes people really really need help, but people do not really really need all these lavish vacations. </p> <p>You said " So I was able to determine average spending on most of those categories and think we can stick to a budget there" which is great! Stick to your budget. Grow your savings, take vacations, etc. But girl that is crrazzytown paying for that much stuff for other people! If DH and I couldn't afford to go somewhere, we'd sit our butts at home, not let for someone else buy our trips! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407861 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:36:06 +0000 tororojo 407861@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Do you have a fund for miscellaneous stuff? I feel you on how there's always something random coming up! If I were you, I would take stuff you were reimbursed for out of the calculations so it doesn't factor into a future budget. Then I would set aside an amount for random things that you can't predict--that's life! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-a-budget#post-407855 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:32:39 +0000 Meridian 407855@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For us, it's practically impossible! We're trying to figure out how to cut back our spending so we can save more in 2013 (we really want a single family home!). I went through our entire year's worth of credit card expenses and broke it down into categories to figure out where our money is going. There were the really obvious categories, e.g. groceries, eating out, shopping, entertainment, auto, cell phone, dog, health and gym. So I was able to determine average spending on most of those categories and think we can stick to a budget there.</p> <p>But then almost every single month, it seems like we have large extraneous expenses that come up and that we can't budget for! Such as:</p> <p>- JAN - we bought plane tix to LA for a friend's wedding in May; bought a new bed (needed one), and bought my family theater tix (we were reimbursed)<br /> - APR - DH went on a bachelor party to New Orleans ($500+)<br /> - MAY - we went to LA for said wedding ($900+)<br /> - JUNE - auto insurance; bought plane tix for 7 people to Orlando for DH's family cruise + hotel + car rental ($1600+, this hurt a lot!); bought iPad for Father's day (were reimbursed 75% of the cost)<br /> - JULY - paid for new tires for DH's dad's car ($440)<br /> - AUG - big vet bill for our dog; went on family cruise so more vacation expenses; plus paid for the Disney World tix for 7 ppl ($700!!)<br /> - SEPT - $200 parking ticket for DH's dad, more car work for DH's car<br /> - OCT - DH renewed his realtor's license fees ($900!) and I had major dental work ($800!)</p> <p>OK, after typing this out, we clearly pay for too much for DH's parents... not sure how to remedy that and say NO. Ugh... but so you see, all of these expenses that are not "normal". Thankfully we don't go on vacation with them often, this was actually our first time EVER, and we split the expenses with DH's sister. </p> <p>But how do you budget for all of these "miscellaneous" expenses?! Any tips appreciated... </p>