Question of the Day: Thurs. April 26

better late than never. My apologies for the lateness of todays question, but it's still Thursday

My question is about spending/debt/finances:

How do you budget for your monthly expenses? Do you have an app to track expenses, or perhaps pen and paper? Or do you adapt the attitude of spending what you need to? Do you set money aside for savings or RRSP or other investments?

I don't really have a set out budget, although I keep saying we will do that - especially since I don't have the great job I used to and we now take in ~$1000/mo less than we did when I had that job since unemployment is only about half my old take home salary.

I do keep an eye on our spending though, and before any large/unnecessary purchases, we always talk it over and be sure it won't affect us.

Trying to put more money in savings every other week when the BF gets paid. Make the checking account have some even number (ie: If there's $2758.67 in there, I'll put maybe $258.67 in savings and leave an even $2500 in checking - no real reason for doing that :lol3: ) and put as much in savings as we can since that's our money to get out of here.

We don't have a particular budget really. I just make sure all of the bills are paid and whatever is left, we spend.

Dana both have an RRSP as our company matches up to 3%, so it would be foolish not to. I also have a savings bond as well as a savings account specifically for unexpected kitty medical bills/expenses.
 

We've been using Quicken now for about 6 years for our record-keeping. We are on a budget and we generally stay within the budget, although we may have some issues from time to time. For example, last year, we had set a certain amount of money for the six cats, only to turn around and bring Tabby (the seventh) into the house. And she had some really bad ear issues (mites, infections, yeast, etc.) for quite awhile, so there were a lot of vet visits with meds and such. Our cat budget went way, way over, not only with the vet bills, but also with food and such, too. We did some adjusting back in December for 2012 for the cats and seem to be doing OK so far....then again, it's only April. But yes, we do have a budget for household expenses and, for the most part, we really try to stay within that budget. It's not easy sometimes.

Usually, we take a week or so in December and sit down with the Quicken reports to figure out where we're at financially, as far as where we managed to stay within the budget or where it went over (last year, it was primarily cat stuff and groceries...lord, our grocery bills keep going up and up, no matter what I do to stay within budget). Sometimes our "discussions" can get a little crazy; it's difficult to figure out where to cut back, where to increase money, how to handle things. We try to keep a set amount for vehicle expenses, like tires, brakes, etc. We had budgeted for Clarence's inspection, thinking that he would need some new tires this time around, but thankfully, he passed his state inspection with flying colors. We kept the money there, though, because those tires will have to be replaced sooner or later anyway.

We try to budget something for everything: clothing, doctor stuff and meds, clothing, insurances, every single thing we can think of. It's not bad now, but when we first set up the budget years ago, it was tricky. We forgot a lot of stuff.

For quite a while, if one of us wanted to spend more than $50 on an item, we didn't do it without talking about it first. We've since raised that limit to $100. So if there's something that I want that will cost over $100, we talk about it first. Sometimes, I'll buy it, but often I won't.Same with Rick. Even when he's away on union business stuff, if he sees something he would like to have, he'll call me and we'll talk about it.

As for retirement and such, we have 401K plans. In addition, my retirement plan at work allows me to put in up to 17% of my income into an account and it's matched up to 10%....I've been at the max for years. We have some investments. I know it's not much, but it's better than nothing.

atm I keep track of my spending with pen, paper and my online banking lol 

im getting unemployment money so at the end of the two weeks whatever is left I transfer into my savings account