Budgeting

[GeneD]

I get pocket money every month and I have a part time weekend job. Even thought this is not a lot I keep a very strict budget and I write down everything I spent money on. And I mean EVERYTHING!

I know this is probably not very healthy and is part of/a symptom of my being very strict with my money. I won’t say I’m stingy with money when concerning other people, only when I spend anything on myself.

I think pedantic budgeting is better than rampant spending, though.

So, how do you budget or keep tabs on your money?

[bigsleepj]

I learned the hard way that budgeting is a smart thing to do. I just don't always remember my lesson.

[Roy Mustang]

Well, I'm kind of a financial nut.

Since I use a debit card and credit card, I have a budget spreadsheet book. I keep up with my bank statements as well as my payments that go to the credit card company and they go into the budget spreadsheet book.

Anything that I don't pay cash with, I keep the receipt untill I have it check off in my book, when the payment has cleared with the bank, after that, I happily feed my paper shredder.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[creed4]

You are very wise. Learning to managing your money young is the best thing you can do

[Sheenar]

I need to do that. Then maybe I'd have some money saved up...

[Warrior4Christ]

I need to do this... and I need to force myself to do it one day.

[Mithrandir]

I received some very wise advice a while back. It goes something like this:

Give God the first 10%.
Give yourself the 2nd 10%.
Live on the rest.

Basically, the first 10 is a tithe, and the 2nd tenth is a savings/retirement investment. The rest, you can live off of. If you don't form a long-term committment to saving for retirement, you could be in a lot of trouble later on. Of course, if you save $100 a month from the time you're 18 until you retire at age 62, you can have a half a million dollars at 7% interest. Of course, if you have a job and can save 1k each month, you can retire at age 62 with almost 5 million. Compounding interest is a very cool thing.

[sharien chan]

I basically spend my money on gas, food, and bills. I know how much my bills and gas are monthly, how much I get monthly, and then I try to save up as much as possible, yet still have some money to spend when the occasion arises. I usually try to save at least $50 a week depending on my bills etc.

[Syreth]

I don't keep close track of my spending when it comes to small purchases unless I know I don't have much money in my account. I'm usually pretty conservative in my spending, though.

That's pretty cool, Mith. I should do something like that. XD

[Debitt]

I used to keep pretty strict to pocketing about $30-40 a month out of the ~$175 I made from my part time job. Lately it's kinda hit the point where I spend nothing all year, then end up with a lot of extra spending as convention season nears. orz I still make a fair effort to save most of my earnings and use those to pay off student loans, or keep them available just in case of an emergency.

[MBlight]

I plan out my spending at the beginning of the month, knowing which bills to pay and that there's enough to go around is important... after all the big NBs are paid I pretty much wing it, most of the time.... I tried keeping track of everywhere my cash goes but it quite simply didn't work....not for me