https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 26 May 2026 14:08:53 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question/page/2#post-1398483 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 15:03:23 +0000 DillonLion 1398483@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: i got around it once, but dont plan on doingit again!!</p> <p>@MamaMoose: thats the direction we are trying to go in. But a little lost on how to get there. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question/page/2#post-1398465 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:56:39 +0000 MamaMoose 1398465@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: using debt properly is a good way to improve your credit. But my point is less about the importance of using credit cards specifically and more about learning to have control and spend responsibly. I just think that if your ability to stick to a budget has to come from outside control (ie putting cash into different labeled envelopes and once it's gone you can't spend any more, which someone told me is part of the Dave Ramsey program) then you really aren't there yet in terms of financial success. You need to learn to make the decision yourself to properly allocate funds between spending and saving. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question/page/2#post-1398459 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:55:05 +0000 looch 1398459@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Freezing my credit card wouldn't work...there are so many other ways I could get the number. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question/page/2#post-1398396 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:30:01 +0000 ShootingStar 1398396@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: Understandable :). What we did to get around that is to go over the credit card spending once a week. We have a weekly ritual of Sunday breakfasts at Panera, so while there we'd look at the expenses and see if we were on track for where spending should be. If that stopped working for us I'd go to the "allowance" model and use a cash system. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question/page/2#post-1398380 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:24:37 +0000 DillonLion 1398380@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaMoose: no self control is my only idea on why. Ha. Our only debt now is student loans, car, and house, so the cc debt has been dead awhile. It just seems to be a slippery slope so we just dont use it. Do you think its impoetant to use Ccs or is it okay that we know those tempt us so we avoid them. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question/page/2#post-1398368 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:20:00 +0000 LindsayInNY 1398368@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We've had one account for a while. I use to balance the check book in the beginning but it got to be too much. Right now I keep a Google calendar of all our bills - how much is due and when. Our paychecks are also on it. Any time we get a raise or bonus, it goes to savings. So if, for example, my paycheck was $1,000 biweekly and I got a raise to $1,250 - I would have the extra $250 per paycheck automatically transferred into savings. On occasion, we touch savings - particularly since we bought last year. But, for the most part, it just sits there. We have similar spending habits so there's no issue there. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398366 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:19:22 +0000 MamaMoose 1398366@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: I think that learning to use your available resources responsibly is the ultimate root of financial success. So I think it would be an important step for you and your husband to sit down and talk about WHY you two can't seem to use credit responsibly and try to sort out those issues. Start small "we will use our credit card only for food this month" and check in with each other daily. Then add baby needs like diapers and clothes, etc etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398357 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:15:58 +0000 DillonLion 1398357@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: yeah, once i figure out a list that makes sense, we will do that. The template i used last month was too detailed and overwhelming. The Feb one seems to be a lot better. I think that will be the one we use repeatedly over the months </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398349 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:12:57 +0000 looch 1398349@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: copy and paste is your friend! you don't have to fill in all the cateogries every month, some may be blank and that's okay, especially quarterly expenses.</p> <p>Our budget planner is an excel spreadsheet with 12 tabs, one per month. At the end of the month, we fill in the actual spend and change the color of the tab to red. The rest of the tabs are gray and represent the budget. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398346 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:12:00 +0000 DillonLion 1398346@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ShootingStar: we have learned time and time again that we cant be trusted to use a credit card responsibly and pay it off every month. Ours are frozen in a block of ice in our freezer :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398340 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:10:33 +0000 DillonLion 1398340@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: thank you! I read Dave Ramseys suggestion of doing a new budget every month since each month is going to have different exoenses. I never thought of that and always wondered how to make a budget that worked all yeat. The answer is it doesnt! So im hoping that doing a new budget each month depending on what is going on and what happened last month will help keep us in check </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398328 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 14:07:47 +0000 looch 1398328@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MamaMoose: At first it was annoying, but I've learned now that I can not be trusted when I say I have used my clothing allowance for the month. So, while he doesn't tell me to return stuff, he asks what it was I ordered it and if I really need it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398307 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 13:59:53 +0000 MamaMoose 1398307@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: omg I would die if my husband got an email every time I spent over $50!!!! I mean, everything is joint and he can look whenever he wants but I certainly don't need him being alerted!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398218 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 13:39:48 +0000 ShootingStar 1398218@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>What we do that makes it manageable is have all of our non-bill spending go on our joint credit card. I just could not keep up with bills + random amounts coming out of the account. I check on our account every so often and make sure that everything's gotten paid that needs to be, that we have enough for upcoming bills, and move the extra to savings. That way I never get in a situation where we don't have enough money in checking and if we were ever in a situation where we couldn't pay the bill off with what was available in checking, I could choose to pay part of the bill and carry a balance. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398208 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 13:38:09 +0000 kjpugs 1398208@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We've had our finances combined for a while, but we REALLY organized pre-baby.</p> <p>I have a separate checking account called my Bills Acct that I use to pay bills out of. I made a calendar for when each bill needs to be paid. Each payday I know which bills need to be paid, I transfer that amount to the bills account, then pay it.</p> <p>We then take out cash for groceries, gas, and spending. We first gave ourselves $50 a week but made it $40 a week later. We can spend it however we like, but we can't go over. It helps keep us in check definitely!</p> <p>This helped a lot because we know how much we have - I'm not constantly overdrafting thinking all bills went through and then the one random bill that takes 10 days finally goes through. I also like that we usually use cash, especially with all the Target stuff going on. If you can't get out cash all the time, you could (depending on your bank- some have a limit) each have your own checking account/card for your spending money, and just transfer $XX in there with each paycheck.</p> <p>I've made bills calendars for some people on HB before, let me know if you want to see it (I also blogged about it in great detail, my blog link is in my profile, you could probably just search "budget" on there.)</p> <p>We transferred all "extra" money to savings first (so if we had $1,000, and 900 of bills/gas/groceries/spending, then we'd put the extra $100 in savings) and then when we saved as much as we wanted, we put that extra in the bills account- so we end up using that account for emergencies, or if I have to write a check, or if we decide to splurge on a dinner out or some kind of "shared" experience. I keep a google documents excel chart that i update weekly - I put the amount in the bills account on top, under it I subtract anything I know we have coming out that hasn't cleared, or anything we're saving for (our LO's quarterly photos) and then it shows how much is left. That helps keep us on track.</p> <p>Feel free to wall me with ANY questions! I used to overdraft monthly and now we have probably $400 or more extra each month. It's been a lifesaver for us and I LOVE it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398172 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 13:28:27 +0000 Mae 1398172@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We share an account and have a very specific budget. All our bills are on auto-pay, and we have savings money auto-drawn immediately after we are paid. We have budget lines for stuff like haircuts and car maintenance so those items are accounted for. Since bills and regular spending are basically predictable, really the only money we spend that varies is: Groceries, eating out, entertainment, our personal allowances, and random (which we classify as like-- a run to target to buy cleaning supplies or toilet paper or whatever). Since there are not that many categories it isn't that hard to keep in mind how much we've spent. Also, we put EVERYTHING on our amex for the rewards dollars and just pay it off every month. Which makes it easier too because on the off chance we do spend too much it isn't like we'll overdraw our checking account (bc the only thing coming out of checking is our auto-pay bills), we just move a little money from savings. But that rarely happens. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1398139 Tue, 04 Feb 2014 13:21:29 +0000 looch 1398139@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No matter what system you use, it only works if you check it and like to deal with it. People talk a lot about making a budget, but if you don't track your actual spend, the budget is useless!</p> <p>We have spending alerts set up for our credit and debit cards, so we get an email if one of us spends more than $50. Plus, we often look up our accounts on line, real time, if we want to see everything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391679 Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:42:02 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 1391679@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We used to use an excel sheet that I created (you can find it linked in this post - <a href="http://www.hellobee.com/2012/07/27/how-the-high-heelers-budget/)" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellobee.com/2012/07/27/how-the-high-heelers-budget/)</a>, then we discovered YNAB and have been using it ever since. I wrote a review of it here - <a href="http://www.hellobee.com/2013/01/25/you-need-a-budget/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellobee.com/2013/01/25/you-need-a-budget/</a>.</p> <p>I love the fluidity and flexibility of YNAB. Traditional budgets are so rigid in the sense that most people think that you set a certain amount and if you go over that amount you "failed". YNAB teaches you to plan for those unexpected expenses, and has a more go with the flow/fluid mentality on budgeting.</p> <p>We have budget categories set up, and account for personal/fun money as one of our categories each month. Another thing about YNAB that I love is that it tracks roll overs, so if I don't use any of my fun money a certain month, it will roll over to the next month and accumulate. It helps us to really save for those big things that we want for ourselves. </p> <p>Like MrsKC mentioned, YNAB also has a smartphone app, so every time you're about to spend money on something you can quickly check if you have leftover money in a particular category before you spend. You can also track your spending directly into your phone app and it syncs up to the desktop app. Very convenient!</p> <p>We almost always pay for everything my credit card. It's easier for us to track our expenses this way than trying to save receipts. We don't track cash spending. Most of our cash spending is on really small stuff anyway so for us it hasn't been an issue. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391672 Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:28:04 +0000 Freckles 1391672@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We put everything on our credit card, which allows us to track everything. We always pay off our credit card in full though. The best way to curb frivolous spending is to allow "fun" money each month. DH and I take out cash once a month, and that goes towards things like beer/work lunches, coffee, purchases that aren't necessary and we don't want to be nagged about. It's hard to keep track of those little expenses, and even harder to keep track of all the multiple withdrawals from the ATM. That allowed us to have a better idea of where our money was going.</p> <p>We use an excel spreadsheet that i created. On the top it makes sure that we have enough money to cover our budget plus the first two weeks of bills, only because we do everything via credit card. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391670 Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:23:08 +0000 indi 1391670@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We do like some PPs above (love Dave Ramsey!). We used an excel sheet to figure out where we were at and what we needed to do, etc, but now it's more so just for reference. It was complicated the first few months, but now it's pretty easy to just drop in $X on the 1st and 15th into the checking account for bills and ship the rest over to the savings account and cash withdrawals. You can do it!! :-)</p> <p>We use our joint checking mainly as a vehicle for bills to be paid out of - so we calculate what amount gets direct pulled each month (cable, electric, rent, etc..we put ALL regular bills on direct debit) and just drop it in when we get paid.</p> <p>Our joint savings account is for our (slim right now, yay student loans) savings and for sinking funds (our savings in case of a car issues, $ set aside for health ins deductibles, etc), and things of that nature. </p> <p>We use cash for our "fun money", grocery budget and dining out (helps to visually see that you are OUT of money), and we each kept our individual checking accounts open in case we'd like to save up our own monthly "fun money" or we get a birthday check from Grandma, etc. It's nice to have that separate account to buy each other gifts, splurge on our own items, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391630 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 23:12:55 +0000 rawrasaur 1391630@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My husband uses Quicken for tracking all of our expenses. Lots of charts and ways to break down your spending. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391623 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 23:03:23 +0000 mrskc 1391623@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Have you checked out You Need A Budget? It's working out really well for us. I usually save all the receipts and enter them in once a week. There is also an app so you could enter expenses right away too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391618 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:58:35 +0000 Mrs. Pickle 1391618@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We use an excel spreadsheet. It has something like 20 columns! Whenever we purchase something it has a number assigned to it. Then the amount is taken from it's corresponding column. I'm going to put a photo of our sample budget on your wall. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391610 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:50:43 +0000 HLK208 1391610@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't use anything other than tracking what comes out of our account (daily, online). I have written down on a calendar, what bills come out each date and whatever is left over in our checking by the time DH gets paid, we put it into savings. </p> <p>We give ourselves a certain amount for fun money and if it's out, it's out until he gets paid again. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391609 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:50:24 +0000 swedishfish 1391609@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: It's easier to e-mail the numbers. Wall me if you'd like to see it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391608 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:47:53 +0000 DillonLion 1391608@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lion: I listen to his podcast every day on the way home from work! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391605 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:45:46 +0000 lindseykaye 1391605@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: Excel can be tricky - I admit that I like my custom spreadsheet in part because I work with excel everyday :) I've been tweaking the same sheet each year little by little for about 5 years now. There have to be good online tutorials though if you're interested in learning more. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391604 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:45:35 +0000 Mrs. Lion 1391604@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lindseykaye: Self control is super hard for us too...especially when there is wiggle room in the budget. We definitely have our rough months where we overspend. I guess the key is to recognize it and jump back on the wagon. I heard something the other day...if you get a flat tire, you don't get out of the car and slash the other 3. You put on the spare and get back on the road. Seems true for finances, as well as life in general. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391602 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:44:04 +0000 Mrs. Lion 1391602@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: The google spreadsheet might help if you are using Excel. I don't use any formulas or anything...it is all very basic (there are directions in my post!) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/personal-personal-finance-question#post-1391601 Fri, 31 Jan 2014 22:42:43 +0000 Mrs. Lion 1391601@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DillonLion: YAY! I really can't say enough good things. I listen to him on Iheartradio too...it keeps me motivated when I see all the pretty things at Target that are wants and not needs ;) </p>