Well, all the things I was confused about are now coming together. I have a great starting place and ending place for the Boystown Tour and I think in a lot of ways that was holding me back. But now I can really start marketing it hardcore. So yay. And my starting and ending places are awesome and both are really excited to be a part of this whole thing, so I'm quite pleased.
It is my mother's birthday today.
Okay, so new budget question. How do you guys budget your money? Seriously? Do you budget every dollar every month? The Zero Sum Budget? Do you kind of half budget? Do you use Mint or something else? Do you have your own spreadsheet? I'm sorry, but it feels like budgeting out to the last penny seems #1 really time consuiming #2 like it's never going to work. Something always comes up, always...right?
Do you sit down before every month starts and go through it?
I'm so completely overwhelmed with trying to create a budget for us. It's confusing and overwhelming and ack...I really want to learn how to do this. I read all my sites, I have 1,000 different "free" spreadsheets to help, but I want to know what you guys do, what real people do.
Help me?
2 comments:
Wow, I think budgeting is so different for everyone that I'm not sure my thoughts will help. I tend to save as opposed to budgeting. I know what Brian and I make each year can cover our bills with some extra, so I have money directly taken out of my bank account every month -- a chunk for my IRA, a chunk for our mutual high-yield savings account and a chunk for our vacation account. That way I know I'm not spending the money that's being withdrawn and it's there when we need it.
I have no idea if this helps at all. But I do know having savings helps a ton when things come up.
We budget sort of like Kate does, by having money removed up front, before we ever see it. Paycheck goes in automatically. The mortgage, the car, the savings, the kids, the recurring bills come out the same way. Once that stuff is on autopilot, whatever is left becomes discretionary. I think the biggest thing is to get it out of your view into something with a goal attached. Move budgeted amounts out to 401k's or savings or vacation savings every paycheck or every month. What you have leftover is how you decide if you can afford to eat out or see a movie.
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