Do you budget or fly by the seat of your pants?

Joey_V

exalted512 wrote: »

I keep a spreadsheet of every transaction I make with my debit/credit cards and paypal down to the penny.

We probably have too much debt (mortgages) according to Dave Ramsey, but we have steady jobs, a great 'rainy day' fund, and we're not big spenders. And when the house is paid off in about 16 more years, we'll have a good amount of income from that as well. I just hope we don't have to sell it to get the house we want when we go to start building.
-Cody

Cody -

1. Keeping tabs on your expenditure is smart... you learn where you're bleeding out of and where you're not.

2. According to Dave Ramsey or Susan Ormon, I'm probably a little loose with certain expenditures and I probably shouldn't be buying the gear I have... I can see/hear Suzy Ormon just yelling "DENIED!" if I ever call her on her show. No way she would approve.

exalted512

Joey_V wrote: »

Cody -

1. Keeping tabs on your expenditure is smart... you learn where you're bleeding out of and where you're not.

2. According to Dave Ramsey or Susan Ormon, I'm probably a little loose with certain expenditures and I probably shouldn't be buying the gear I have... I can see/hear Suzy Ormon just yelling "DENIED!" if I ever call her on her show. No way she would approve.

Having kept track of it for so long, it really helps project how much I can 'budget' for in the future. I know I spend, on average XX amount / month on extra stuff that isn't a necessity. For instance, I know over the course of 5 years, I spend about $8/month on clothes. Now of course, it's usually in spurts. I'll spend $100 on clothes at one time and that's it for the year.

The other nice thing is if I need to know when I bought something or how much something was the last time I bought it, it's just a CTRL+F away...which comes in handy pretty regularly. (or to see how much groceries has gone up in the last few years).

But I do disagree with Dave and Suze on quite a few things. From cars to life insurance. I will happily finance a car that I can't afford in cash. My wife and I bought a $37000 SUV 5 years ago that we financed. No way could we ever pay that in cash. Could we have bought something used? Sure. But there's a lot of value in knowing what a car has been through and what kind of maintenance has been done and what it will take to fix it. Granted, we also keep our vehicles for about 10 years. Our goal is to always have one car payment (if that's considered a goal) between my wife and I. She buys a car in 2010, pay it off in 5 years, I buy a car in 2015, she sells her car in 10 years in 2020 and buys a new one when mine is paid off from 2015, repeat.

Although our plans got a little screwed up this time around since we are trying to save for a house. So I should have been getting a new car around this time, but instead we are waiting and holding out until after we build our house. Just gotta hope that her current SUV and my current truck last that long. Which they should. Our next car will likely be a 4-door sedan to help save on gas. We put some miles on our cars since we live about 35 miles away from work. And then we will probably buy a used truck and pay for it in cash sometime in the next 5 years.
-Cody

Joey_V

exalted512 wrote: »

Joey_V wrote: »

Cody -

1. Keeping tabs on your expenditure is smart... you learn where you're bleeding out of and where you're not.

2. According to Dave Ramsey or Susan Ormon, I'm probably a little loose with certain expenditures and I probably shouldn't be buying the gear I have... I can see/hear Suzy Ormon just yelling "DENIED!" if I ever call her on her show. No way she would approve.

Having kept track of it for so long, it really helps project how much I can 'budget' for in the future. I know I spend, on average XX amount / month on extra stuff that isn't a necessity. For instance, I know over the course of 5 years, I spend about $8/month on clothes. Now of course, it's usually in spurts. I'll spend $100 on clothes at one time and that's it for the year.

The other nice thing is if I need to know when I bought something or how much something was the last time I bought it, it's just a CTRL+F away...which comes in handy pretty regularly. (or to see how much groceries has gone up in the last few years).

But I do disagree with Dave and Suze on quite a few things. From cars to life insurance. I will happily finance a car that I can't afford in cash. My wife and I bought a $37000 SUV 5 years ago that we financed. No way could we ever pay that in cash. Could we have bought something used? Sure. But there's a lot of value in knowing what a car has been through and what kind of maintenance has been done and what it will take to fix it. Granted, we also keep our vehicles for about 10 years. Our goal is to always have one car payment (if that's considered a goal) between my wife and I. She buys a car in 2010, pay it off in 5 years, I buy a car in 2015, she sells her car in 10 years in 2020 and buys a new one when mine is paid off from 2015, repeat.

Although our plans got a little screwed up this time around since we are trying to save for a house. So I should have been getting a new car around this time, but instead we are waiting and holding out until after we build our house. Just gotta hope that her current SUV and my current truck last that long. Which they should. Our next car will likely be a 4-door sedan to help save on gas. We put some miles on our cars since we live about 35 miles away from work. And then we will probably buy a used truck and pay for it in cash sometime in the next 5 years.
-Cody

Curious... what does Dave and Suze say about life insurance? Whole life in particular.

treitz3

I fly by the seat of my pants. Always have with both business and personal. All math for the most part has always been done in my head. If I see I am getting thin, I simply hunker down on lavish expenses or I earn more.

Having savings in the bank, being debt free besides the normal recurring monthly bills and paying cash helps me immensely to do "budgeting" my way.

If memory serves, I have balanced my checkbook once in my entire life. Now, I don't even have checks since I may write one to two per year....if that.

Tom

Joey_V

treitz3 wrote: »

I fly by the seat of my pants. Always have with both business and personal. All math for the most part has always been done in my head. If I see I am getting thin, I simply hunker down on lavish expenses or I earn more.

Having savings in the bank, being debt free besides the normal recurring monthly bills and paying cash helps me immensely to do "budgeting" my way.

If memory serves, I have balanced my checkbook once in my entire life. Now, I don't even have checks since I may write one to two per year....if that.

Tom

I might be a little OCD, but I like balancing my check book. My wife, on the other hand, writes checks and does not log it, causing some confusing balances when I get to my checkbook at the end of the month.

gurot1

We both have pre authorized payments into TFSA's and RESP, plus work pension plans...so much easier when it leaves the account automatically so.you don't have much time to miss it...or spend it!

ken brydson

As long as I have checks, I have $$, right?

tonyb

ken brydson wrote: »

As long as I have checks, I have $$, right?

In todays world....and common core math, your absolutely correct. LOL

tonyb

gurot1 wrote: »

We both have pre authorized payments into TFSA's and RESP, plus work pension plans...so much easier when it leaves the account automatically so.you don't have much time to miss it...or spend it!

Good habit to have, out of sight out of mind. That is....until you want stuff. Then you ask...."Wtf happened to all my money ?"

Many good ideas/habits expressed in this thread. Trick is finding that balance between saving and living. You still have to live a life too. Enjoy some of the fruits of your labor, unlike our grandparents who worked like a dog their whole life, saved every nickel and left it to the kids who promptly went out and wasted it.

Joey_V

Speaking of budgets - Chase Bank just texted me:

Fraud Alert - did you spend $412 on clothes? Text 1 for YES, Text 2 for NO.

I wonder what would happen if I texted... "2".

cnh

Text #3 for Fraud is my middle name. Did you call? lol

Joey_V

cnh wrote: »

Text #3 for Fraud is my middle name. Did you call? lol

lol... well it appears I texted Chase too late.... they declined the purchase.

My wife was kinda... surprised.

tonyb

Joey_V wrote: »

cnh wrote: »

Text #3 for Fraud is my middle name. Did you call? lol

lol... well it appears I texted Chase too late.... they declined the purchase.

My wife was kinda... surprised.

Don't see why she should be. This is prime time for CC fraud.

gurot1

I always think texts or emails that say they are from my bank are scams

tonyb

gurot1 wrote: »

I always think texts or emails that say they are from my bank are scams

Depends on what they are asking for. As always, never give out any personal info in an email request. A simple yes or no about a specific purchase though....I would answer.

exalted512

Joey_V wrote: »

Speaking of budgets - Chase Bank just texted me:

Fraud Alert - did you spend $412 on clothes? Text 1 for YES, Text 2 for NO.

I wonder what would happen if I texted... "2".

Your budget must be much bigger than me. Chase emailed me on Nov 30th asking if I had purchased $56.64 worth of clothes, lol!
-Cody

AsSiMiLaTeD

I don't even attempt to budget and am generally not great with managing our money. I acknowledge that weakness though and have money automatically pulled from my check into our 401K, IRA, employee stock, and health care accounts though to ensure that our health care and long term savings needs are taken care of.

Everything else I just deal with on the fly and it's worked out for us so far, my goal has always been to make enough money that budgeting of our short term finances isn't necessary. If I ever ended up in a situation where I was unable to make a mortgage payment I would see that more as a failure on my part to bring in enough money than as a failure of a budget.