Posted: 10/18/2013 4:10:44 PM EDT
|
Probably not the best place to be asking advice on a budget but I figured their are a lot of successful individuals on here. I make alright money but rarely have anything extra to put away, as of now I'm tired of it and decided to make a change. I don't have crazy debt besides 10.5k left on a car note And a few hundred on credit cards. The wife however has about 4k on student loans, and about 1500 on a credit card. We have stopped using the credit cards and want to pay off everything as quickly as we can.
What type of budget templet or software works well for you guys? |
|
Quoted:
Woah, is this legit as far as adding my bank account to it? I'm very Leary of giving out account numbers. Does anyone actually use this app? Quoted:
Quoted:
Try mint.com Woah, is this legit as far as adding my bank account to it? I'm very Leary of giving out account numbers. Does anyone actually use this app? I do, and its legit. It really is a great app to track finances and investments. I added every account I had to it. |
|
I put cash in envelopes each month the Dave Ramsay way
Each envelope is a category. If it gets spent it gets spent in cash Food Misc includes cloths, kids stuff, car maintenance, etc each get an allowance etc what ever categories you want. once that money is gone, no more in that category Since we live in the internet age and internet doesn't take cash, we have a credit card envelope. charge something on the card, take money out of the category envelope and put it in the CC envelope. all the fixed stuff like utilities, insurance, mortgage gets paid by check. If we write a check for something in a cash catagory, cash comes out of the envelope and goes into the CC card envelope. I dont keep a separate envelope for writing checks. It mostly works for us, been doing it for over 20 years. |
|
Quoted: Probably not the best place to be asking advice on a budget but I figured their are a lot of successful individuals on here. I make alright money but rarely have anything extra to put away, as of now I'm tired of it and decided to make a change. I don't have crazy debt besides 10.5k left on a car note And a few hundred on credit cards. The wife however has about 4k on student loans, and about 1500 on a credit card. We have stopped using the credit cards and want to pay off everything as quickly as we can. What type of budget templet or software works well for you guys? A decent spreadsheet program is all you need... Excel or Libre office. Yes, for people who make shit-tons of money, they might have a real need for Mint, Quicken, or the like, but for the average Joe, all you need are a couple of spreadsheets and truckloads of discipline. I say this with 5 years of business school and lots of grad school under my belt. ETA: you start by listing your income, then all of your bills. You will end up with the gross margin, or what is leftover to pay thing like credit cards and spending money plus savings. It's up to you to divvy it up properly. Don't get discouraged if you don't quite make it a month or two... everyone falters a little. The only thing that really matters is how many times you get back on the horse. Cheers mate |
|
We use Mvelopes. It's easy as can be. It's basically cash envelope budgeting done electronically. When we use our bank card or credit card the transaction shows up. Ask you do is drag and drop it in the proper category. ie groceries. When you get paid you just drag and drop the paycheck and it'll disperse the funds amongst your envelopes. Make the budget once and you'll "set it and forget it". It does the hard part all you do is check balances to see what you are able to spend. This has helped us save for and buy a house quickly. You'll find you won't waste as much money on stupid things like coffee or snacks It's better than Mint. |
|
dont buy shit you dont need... do that for a few months and you will either have a bunch of money in the bank... if you dont have a bunch of money in the bank you have only 3 options
#1 you fucked up and spent money on shit you didnt need #2 you need to make more money #3 you need to be less needy |
|
Quoted:
The "I can't afford luxuries right now" software has helped us button down lately. If you want to know more about it, I'll be glad to tell you. You can always count on GD for either correct answers or tough love. Lucky for you in this thread you got both. |
|
Quoted:
I do, and its legit. It really is a great app to track finances and investments. I added every account I had to it. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Try mint.com Woah, is this legit as far as adding my bank account to it? I'm very Leary of giving out account numbers. Does anyone actually use this app? I do, and its legit. It really is a great app to track finances and investments. I added every account I had to it. Me too. I've been using it for years. |
|
You can't make a budget if you don't know where all your money is going. First write down all your expenses: rent/mortgage, car loan, credit card, gas, electric, water, sewer, phone, internet, cable, food, entertainment, etc.
Take your net pay and subtract the expenses. If there's more money than you expected left over then you're pissing it away and need to find out where it's going. To find out where it's going you need to start keeping track of every penny you spend. Carry around a piece of paper and record what your purchase was every time you spend cash, swipe plastic, or pay a bill. This isn't immediate and it may take a month or two to figure out. Don't lose hope and don't be lazy about it. Take a look at that paper after a bit and circle the unnecessary expenses you're making. For some people the stuff that adds up is: ATM fees, snacks, work lunch, morning coffee, too much entertainment, and alcohol. Mint can help with this since it can categorize expenses based on the store. You'll still have to track cash though if you use it a lot. Make it a point to stop pissing away money so you can use it to pay off debt. Start with the highest APR which is probably one of the credit cards. Use the excess money to pay off that credit card while still making the regular payments to the other debt. When one card is paid off work on the next card which should use your excess cash PLUS what the payment you were typically making on that card when it was being used. Keep doing that until the last of the debt is having big payments eating away at it. Sit the wife down and get her on board. She will need to track her expenses too. Make it clear from the beginning you're not accusing her of being the problem. You want to change the habit of both partners, one person is not being singled out. RESIST the temptation to point out how much your wife may be spending on certain luxuries because she'll just pick a luxury you're spending money on and then you've started a fight. Explain that your goal is to get rid of the debt, and bad habit, and you need her help accomplishing that goal. Acknowledge you both have a bad habit and while one may be spending more that doesn't doesn't mean they have more bad habits. You each have the one bad habit of being to loose with your money, you're equally to blame despite the monetary difference, there's no winner or loser. If you don't have savings then you'll need to bank $1-2k minimum to give you some emergency cash before you tackle the debt. If an emergency pops up while you're shuttling all your money to debt it can be very tempting to use a credit card. The savings will help you avoid having to reenter the cycle. |
|
OP, You Need A Budget.
Seriously worth it. I tried mint, and quicken, etc. but I ended up just tracking my expenses. YNAB works. |
I am going to go with just writing everything down and stop buying as much uneeded shit ie snacks, drinks, booze. I had 4500 in debt at the beginning of April and have brought it down to the 300 on two cc plus the student loans my wife has. My biggest issue is I look online too much and end up buying 200-400 worth of mags and ammo.  it's not worth being a slave to intrest and credit cards though and I'm not buying anything unnecessary until I'm debt free
Thank you guys for all the help and ill report back when I'm debt free |
| I have an excel spreadsheet with 13 user-programmable categories. Each month you track EVERY expense (try to keep all receipts, especially if you use cash) you make, as well as your income. It has a pie chart for each month and for annual to show you where your money is going. It also sums each category so you can see how much you are spending on things like alcohol, guns, etc. I have one for joint expenses and one for personal expenses. If you want me to email it, shoot me a PM. |
Made a great move forward tonight I was thinking about how to better my position and pay as little interest as possible both the wife and myself have a credit card through the same credit union her apr is 16.99% and mine was 14.65 % I called and asked if thy could lower mine and they dropped it to 9.65%  I asked about transferring her balance to mine and thy said I would have to do a cash advance to my checking account and then transfer the money to her to pay her credit card off. The apt on a cash advance is 11.65% which is a fuck of a lot better than 16.99%
It's amazing what some courtesy and politeness will do when taking to customer service and asking for a lower APR |
|
Lots of good advice.
Dave Ramsey if you need to be smacked around a bit, Clark Howard, Crown Financial are good references. It doesn't seem like you need to be smacked around, though some of his perspectives may be valuable to you. You can get his materials for free at the library. We use excel with categories originally pulled from Crown Financial, and tailored for our spending needs and habits. It will take a couple of months to develop. The key is to be completely honest and not overlook the I Tunes song or 20 oz bottle of pop or the box or ammo or whatever. Good job getting the rates dropped. Don't think FREE AMMO. Pay off additional CC debt with that same money. 10% is still high. |