Today I'm writing up a budget for us....again.
We're an on again, off again budget kinda family. Unfortunately, we are more often off than on.
I find it a bit difficult to budget our lives because our income (and expenses) change so frequently. Brian is essentially his own boss and he does seasonal work so we have no 'fixed' income and it varies greatly throughout the year. We've also had our business and personal money/accounts combined in the past, which is even more confusing. And, since we don't live in a big center our expenses vary lots too. Whenever we do a big trip to the city we usually stock up on cheaper things or clothing/seasonal things.
Anyways, those are just my excuses for not budgeting better, which really aren't good excuses. Over the last few days I've been organizing and trying to get things a little more simplified, and I think it's coming together.
So, how do you budget? What works for you? Does anyone do the cash/envelope system?
4 comments:
I'm looking forward to reading the comments on this! Jesse and I are not very good with budgeting either. One thing I do know is that I seem to be more careful when I actually have money in the bank. When I have less than $2,000 but more than $1,000 it seems to be good for us! Hehehe...hope you get some good tips I can put to use as well!
the envelope method works really well. right now we don't have "our" bank in town. It's an hour away so we don't often get cash out and we have to be really really careful with the debit and credit card.
Sorry - I will be of no help - we have never officially had a budget, but then we have always had a "steady" income, so that makes it easier. Both my husband and I are very controlled spenders and only try to buy what we really need or what we really want and not a lot of other stuff!
We are also 'on again/off again' budget-ers using the cash envelope system, but I am determined to stick with it this year!!!
We are fortunate to have a fixed, regular income, but it wasn't like that when I was working - which was mostly when our 'on again/off again' relationship took place! We'd get a big pay, feel like gazillionaires, spend, then feel foolish even though we still had plenty left. We finally got it (closer to) under control towards the end of my working days by looking at our expected income over an extended span, then breaking it down into weekly periods. Anything we made extra we saved or used for big purchases.
I broke groceries down into a weekly amount from a monthly amount, then tried to use as little as possible of that amount to 'save' for bigger trips. (Obviously there isn't alot you can do with $75 at Costco... but you can feed your family on $50 a week from Superstore, then 'save' and combine the remaining $ for bulk items at Costco... KWIM?)
Anyways, that is what is working for us! Stick with it! It is *so* satisfying!
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