We have 'weekly money' - every Friday there is $40 cash in our pocket for the week. That is what we use to buy anything that we want for ourselves.
Now with a baby I'm looking for more ways that we can get better at managing our money.
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Planning out a month's worth of expenses at a time has really helped me budget. I write down all the bills/savings contributions that are due, all the paychecks, and then calculate how much money I need 'left over' at the end of every week in order to pay my mortgage at the end of the month. The extra gets divided up between groceries, gas, and fun, and we are not allowed to go below X amount in our bank account every week.
When LO comes I'll be doing what you are, @littlebittyhouse: taking out cash. We will be on such a strict budget that I think having the 40-60$ cash to buy fun things will really help us watch our spending.
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We are planners, so we have a set day each week that we pay bills and know when they come out. We also have a strict $20 a week "fun" money taht can be used for eating out for lunches, random purchases. We also have a date night budget that we can use once a month for dinners, drinks, movies, ect. We aren't allowed to go over it. We had to really adjust our budget when LO switched to pricy formula, it's like having an additional car payment a month!
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I use the Amex for everything possible! It makes it so much easier to track day-to-day expenses.
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We put a certain amount in savings after every single pay cheque, no exceptions. And we never pull from savings. It makes us very accountable. For example, we recently had some big purchases (couple of flights and a new laptop) but we paid for them out of our checking account, and then when DH got paid we still put our normal huge chunk into savings, so we had less to live off of for the week (aka no spring shopping for me this week!), but our savings won't be affected.
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We use YNAB for all our budgeting, and it has changed our way of spending and budgeting. It's paid for itself a hundred times over.
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Like @MsLipGloss: we use our credit card for EVERYTHING so we can easily see where we are spending too much.
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@Mrs. High Heels: Thank you for your YNAB post!
I've been using you need a budget and it is helping tremendously. I'm seeing where all our money is going and it's helping me figure out what we can cut. Also, meal planning has been huge in cutting our grocery budget. We've saved a ton by planning a weeks worth of meals and making a grocery list. We usually cook 4 big meals per week. We cook enough where we eat leftovers for dinner and eat the leftovers for lunch too.
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We meal plan and use a Dave Ramsey zero based spreadsheet each month. We have every dollar we earn budgeted in a category down to the penny. Its awesome because we know where our money goes every month, and because we sit down and agree on it all in advance, we never disagree about finances. Its been a game changer for us!
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We use a budgeting system based off of Dave Ramsey's books. I think it's very effective- basically every dollar we spend is accounted for. We also put money every month in different categories to save up for bigger purchases like furniture or Christmas presents.
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@mrskc: you're welcome - i'm glad it's working out well for you too! i really like that you can "split categories" and how the unspent money in each category just rolls over to the next month. i like viewing it 3-months at a time. i also like how we think ahead and really "save for a rainy day" now. i'm such a ynab junkie haha... i read his blog regularly and i "liked" ynab on facebook. it keeps me motivated.
meal planning has also been the single biggest factor in helping our budget!
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@Mrs. High Heels: Yes to all your points! At first I was totally confused and intimidated by it. But I watched the videos and started using it and I'm hooked now! For instance, we've been saving for a new dishwasher. Was going to buy it this month, but had unexpected car repairs so we're holding off a month or two. Before I would have just said f it! We're getting a dishwasher b/c we technically have money for it. I'll have to "like" YNAB and follow the blog. That's a good way to stay motivated.
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@mrskc: do you guys have the phone apps for it? he made them all FREE... they used to be $4.99!
ah, sorry for threadjacking!
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We started taking a percentage of our income off the top every pay period and putting it straight into savings. It's like we never had it, so we don't miss it or spend it. Also, only grocery shopping every two weeks and meal planning.
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@Mrs. High Heels: Oh yes! I had the lite version and downloaded the full one once it was free. So awesome! Will stop threadjacking now! oops. Maybe we need a YNAB thread. lol
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@Mrs. High Heels: I don't mind the thread jacking!
I am going to tell DH about YNAB tonight - I love that you can have it on your phone!
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@littlebittyhouse: and you get a one-month free trial, so there's nothing to lose just trying it out! i hope you like it though. i recommend starting it at the 1st of the month.
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We actually calculate a 'daily budget' of what we can spend each day in order to meet our monthly savings goal. We recalculate it probably like once a week or even a couple times a week depending on if big expenses pop up.
It really helps because I stop myself before buying something and ask - what have i spent today? what else is essential that i will have to purchase before the day is over? Then I can make a more informed decision about whether or not it's really in the budget.
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