I have a confession to make. I do not have a budget. Well, I suppose technically I have one, my financial planner makes me draw one up. I scribble a few numbers down invasion sheet of paper and then completely forget about it. The money guy then uses, what is essentially a complete fabrication, to determine our entire financial plan for the year. This is probably not an ideal situation.
One of my goals for the new year is to get on some sort of budget. I'm going to start small, probably just the groceries since that is where most of our discressionary income goes anyway. So how do i get started? Do I just pick a dollar amount and try to stay under it every month? How do I keep track? How do I get my husband on board? I know that there are a ton of budget minded mamas out there, give a girl a clue!!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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I'm terrible with budgeting, but my husband isn't! Years ago he started by tracking our expenses. Then he averaged it out and that became our budget. When the kids were little I tried running around and shopping the sales and it didn't work for me - ended up spending more at all the stores. So I started planning a weekly menu around the sales and shopping only at the grocery store. It's so much easier on my time and on my budget - I know exactly what we spend every week and try to estimate the cost on my list (because I do sometimes go over or under.) So you have all your fixed expenses - utilities, gas, etc...then you set some aside for savings, travel, gifts, etc...it takes a lot of work setting it up, but eventually it works.
ReplyDeleteThere are a ton of great money management tools available free online. One I particularly like is called Mint.com . They also do all kinds of links to your banking and stuff, but I think you can skip that part.
ReplyDeleteI'm also a big fan of just drawing up an excel spread sheet and entering numbers of what you've spent at days end.
Jeez - I probably should do this too. lol