Comments on: No Budget? How Come?

By: Ajana

Ajana — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:04:14 +0000

I do the same as Amanda for electricity and gas (water is negligible) bills. The electricity bill is every two months and the gas every three. I always slightly overestimate them and have budgeted them so. This means I sometimes receive a bill with “No Payment Required” on it. And no, I don’t go and spend that month’s budgeted amount on “stuff”.

By: Stephanie H

Stephanie H — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:39:53 +0000

I try to budget as many items in my life as possible. Like others have mentioned even if the bill isn’t due monthly I set aside money monthly. Since my car insurance and registration is due once a year I pay 1/12 each month to a savings account. I started this about 4 years ago and even though my insurance and registration has gone down I still pay the same amount in. The has created a cushion of money to pay for any repairs my car needs (basically my car emergency fund). Recently I have been working on a new budget since I am getting ready to buy a house. The biggest problem I have is not being completely sure how much everything is going to cost.

By: Melaniesd

Melaniesd — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:03:32 +0000

Tracy, I’m sorry to hear your friend is such a relationship. It must be very difficult to bite your lip and not say anything.

Kristin, That description is so wide spread it’s not funny. I live just outside a lower income area of my city. When you drive by that’s just what you see. Satelite dishes and you know the kids are not getting what they need. When I worked at a local grocery store it use to really upset me on “cheque day” when people would be buying the worst kind of foods for their families but have a flat of beer and a case of cigarettes too. I know not everyone on assistance is irresponsible by any means, but it’s really difficult to see people who you know are able to work and do better for themselves but are just too lazy to do so. There are so many people who really need help, while others just milk the system. When I see guys I went to school with “hanging out” in the sidewalk with their buddies everyday while I’m on my way to work, it’s hard not to get angry.
Why can’t people prioritize?

Amanda: I like your suggestion to split up the water bill. I get mine every 3 months too. I should start to do that.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:56:13 +0000

In response to Tracy J. I’ve been there where your friend is at. I solved the problem by having a seperate account where the bills came out of. Unfortunatly though I ended up paying all of the bills etc. from my smaller income and “doofus” got to pay the mortgage (I set it up as a direct debit out of his account) but that was all he paid. I eventually left him and it has taken him 4 years to finally understand that he needs to pay his bills and then go buy other stuff……although I am not 100% he has learned, at least the calls from creditors have stopped calling me. Good luck to your friend Tracy J its a very frustrating situation to be in. Oh and his family thinks I have taken him for every penny and am “rich” ! LOL Oh what a budget can do for you!

By: kristin

kristin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:53:10 +0000

the nerve of some people…on 2 accounts. seriously gail, if i spot you heading to the stall, i won’t be knocking on the door. and as a rule of thumb, never shake hands (or touch anything for that matter) in the bathroom, so not a good place for a meet and great!!!
i’ve always felt sorry for guys with urinals and all, at least we have our pants on.
i’ve worked in some less fortunate neighbourhoods and found it rather sad that you could tell by the building before going in as every balcony had satellites on them. when you go inside, i was baffled by the number of apartments with mattresses on the floor and kids in their underwear, no furniture, 60″ plasma screen TV, cable with the works, cigs, liquor and every gaming tool known to man. not all, but most. it made me want to vomit.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:36:54 +0000

I wrote a blog on July 1st about that being the common thing I would do when I “created a budget” for years. Rounding down my expenses, rounding up my income. now, I do the EXACT opposite when I make my budget up. So far, I’ve been very on target, with change to spare. If I’m ever off, I hope to be off on the plus side, not the negative one. And, yes, I do compare it to my actual expenses as they come out of my account, and against what the bills say, and what the company says I owe them. Usually, if I’ve over-estimated the amount by a lot, I’ll leave it that way, just so that I’m covered if there are any increases in later months.

Another thing I’ve seen, and I blogged about this recently, too; people that have expenses only once every couple of months or once a year that claim they can’t save the money monthly to pay the expense in full once it hits. Like my water bill, which I pay once every four months. I’ve taken to dividing it by four and pretending it’s a monthly expense. I figure, that way, I’ll always have that extra in the bank when it’s time to pay it.

By: Tracy J

Tracy J — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:16:46 +0000

First of all… I learned from this post NEVER to have a mouthful of food when reading Gail’s blog! I nearly choked on my chocolate caramel cookie over the peeing quietly thing! (so funny!)
Second… you are so right! You couldn’t be more right! (My husband and I have a rather modest income by today’s standards, but we have everything we NEED through living within our means, delaying gratification, and buying the needs before getting any treats).
In contrast, I have a dear friend with a family income more than ours by a few bucks an hour, and they are lucky enough to have grandma for free childcare. She always says how “lucky” I am because of my nice home and decent surroundings. It has nothing to do with luck! You see, this friend is married to a doofus, and this spouse of hers is terribly selfish and immature with the tight family money. They have 3 kids, live in borderline accomodations, drive rust-heap clunkers to and from work, and she has had to secretly borrow money from family just to keep the utilities on and food on the table. If he sees a balance in their account, he feels entitled to spend every penny (and as a result their pre-auth bills have bounced on occassion) Savings? Not a chance! It is wearing at her health with the constant worrying and uncertainty. What is the “man” of the house doing while she is struggling? He is smoking cigarettes, buying rounds of drinks for his buddies, and otherwise screwing their budget over with selfish and destructive habits!!! She tried to include him in the budgeting, but he gets angry that HE is the one that has to give up everything for the household! She tried taking away the debit cards, but he said it immasculated him not having access to his pay. He has the mentality of a toddler when it comes to money. It is so depressing to see…

By: Betty

Betty — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:10:22 +0000

I use an excel spreadsheet as well. Keep all my receipts and write down in a notepad anything I don’t get a receipt for. I enter the amounts on the spreadsheet which I have set up to keep a running total of $ spent in each category and how much is left for the month. It’s a real eye-opener to see it in black and white. I too was WAY off in the beginning.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:29:05 +0000

Here here with the recording what you spend. Actually if you record what you eat, it makes an incredible difference what you put in your mouth. Writing stuff down is a way of being accountable. People looking for cheap food can look here for 20 foods for under $1
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22145/52070-20-healthiest-foods–1/

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:24:50 +0000

I’ve found the most useful thing we ever did was record our actual expenses in a little book with a pen and compare it against my carefully prepared excel sheet budget. Wow was I off in the beginning!