So I fell off the personal finance bandwagon for a bit. I've since caught up with my Quicken entries and have also established some goals for the year. I'm trying to not be too ambitious so I don't set myself up for failure.
I am still struggling with a budget. For now, I am budgeting mandatory expenses and what is left over is for discretionary spending. Not the greatest system but I cannot budget for every single line item because inevitably some unplanned, unexpected expense comes up and then I have to juggle budgeted money from one category to another. I find that having "left over" money, after mandatory expenses, is easier to manage as long as I update Quicken as we spend money and monitor my "left over" balance. I don't know how great this system will work since I just implemented it this month so we shall see.
I've automated most of my bills so that all I need to do is schedule the payments in online bill pay at my bank's website. When I open Quicken my scheduled transactions greet me and I enter those that have been paid, online or via snail mail. It's a rather simple process once I got it set-up in Quicken. I started a new Quicken file this year and so I had to start from scratch. That wasn't fun but I'm glad I did it as I think things will be cleaner now.
I have been searching for ways to cut expenses and just this evening saved $86 on our 6-month car insurance premiums. I'm excited about that and will transfer that savings to our emergency fund.
Tomorrow I hope to FINALLY sign my husband up for his 403(b) plan at work. I'm also anticipating a cost of living increase that his employer has given annually; hopefully this year that will continue. If it does, I plan on saving the difference to our emergency fund. I believe the percentage increase is either 3% or 5%, can't remember at the moment.
I have lots swirling in my mind right now and blogging about it helps clear my mind. More to come later.
Back at this AGAIN
January 24th, 2009 at 06:42 am
January 24th, 2009 at 02:21 pm 1232806919
January 24th, 2009 at 02:38 pm 1232807926
January 24th, 2009 at 04:07 pm 1232813230
January 24th, 2009 at 06:51 pm 1232823074
Glad to know that lumping everything into an "everything else" category works. At least I know I'm not way off base in my thinking. Having two school aged kids makes determining amounts for discretionary budget line items difficult at best because there is always something that comes up that you hadn't anticipated at the first of the month (birthdays, school events, sports stuff, etc.). I figure as long as my mandatory expenses and savings are paid first, that is what is most important.
Homebody,
Yes, I had about 5 years worth of Quicken in my old Quicken file. I didn't really like how I set it up and figured it was easier to start over than to try to fix the old file. I have a new laptop so my new Quicken file is on that and the old stuff is on the desktop in case I need to run a report or something. I am liking how I have it set-up now, trying to envelope budget for our savings categories, and so far it seems to be working. Class I soccer-can't wait . We won't be buying a new car lol, did that 2 years ago, but people tell us she is talented so we shall see were that takes her. She's only in 3rd grade so we have LOTS of time!!!
Ralph,
I have a love/hate relationship with Quicken. Been using it for years and I love that I can track every penny and run zillions of reports. What I hate is that the budgeting feature; it leaves much to be desired. I've tried using an excel spreadsheet in conjunction with Quicken but I hate having to duplicate my efforts. I figure I only want to put the info in once and that's it. The best solution I can come up with is to budget for mandatory expenses and savings and whatever is left over, just monitor and manage it until the next month.