Budgets

[JASMAK]

Is anyone good at making budgets? I am looking for someone to either critique mine, or help me make one. I just feel POOR all the fricken time.

 

[Keebs]

Hi, MSE has some great budgeting tools, primarily aimed at the UK market but you may find them useful for working out your own spend. The advice on how to reduce your spending will probably be less relevent alas.

This one is really easy but if you look on the debt free wannabe section they have loads more suggestions.

Hope that helps a little

 

[NDH]

I can't recommend Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover enough. It's been nearly two years since we started putting his methods into practice, and while we're honestly technically no better off due to long periods of unemployment, we've also managed not to accumulate more debt which is amazing to me. Thanks to budgeting when we do have an income I manage to stretch it far enough to get us through some long dry spells. (We're in a semi-dry spell atm after a very long dry spell and not much relief in between but we're not drowning at least). I do look forward to the day I can start budgeting with the intent of getting out of debt though.

I'm no expert but I'm happy to help and maybe have someone to be accountable with if you want.

 

[saitiffeh]

I usually sit down every month, a couple of times even, write down what we get, and what NEEDS to be bought. Everything from Rent, bills, and groceries to clothes, birthdays, even small things like batteries or pens. Everything gets accounted for. Bills get paid first, rent cheque sent to the landlord, groceries done. Then everything else. Somehow, on our limited budget, everything gets done with enough left over for a bit of entertainment.

 

[JASMAK]

I guess I am worried that I am overspending on say, groceries, or whatever...I don't know.

 

[bump2be]

Hi Jasmak,

I think you're in Canada, so you've probably heard of Gail Vaz Oxlade from 'til debt do us part'? She has a great interactive budget worksheet on her website:

https://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources/interactive_budget_worksheet.html

Bump2be

 

[NDH]

The best way to avoid overspending on groceries is to meal plan, avoid impulse buys and spend cash instead of plastic so you have to put those extras you don't really need back if you don't have enough. Resisting the urge to pick up "just one thing" from the store helps too cause we all know it's never just "one thing" lol.

Track your grocery spending for a month or so and find out exactly how much you're spending. If that amount shocks you, challenge yourself to spend even $5 less each week until you get to an amount you feel is acceptable. You need to eat of course, but it is possible to eat well on a budget.

Another thing to consider is the percentage of your income you're spending on the big essential things like housing, transportation and food and then seeing what you have left to work with. If your grocery (including take out and restaurants) spending falls somewhere in the 10-20% range of your total income then you're probably doing just fine.

 

[younglove]

I saw that you live in Canada! I'm from Ontario. I found this website to be a really good resource for coupons and various deals. All of the weekly grocery flyers are posted on the message boards which makes it easy to shop around. There's a woman who posts coupons that can be used against weekly grocery sales. I find that to be quite helpful. The forum has a great section on frugal living. https://smartcanucks.ca/ https://coupons.smartcanucks.ca/ https://forum.smartcanucks.ca/

I find it helpful to search the flyers each week and plan out what I plan to buy from each store before I leave the house. I also stock up on any items we often buy when they are on sale. My husband use to make fun of me but I often buy 10+ blocks of cheese when they go on sale for half price. Since we eat a lot of cheese and the blocks don't expire for 6+ months the savings really do add up! Now that we're saving about 20-40% off our grocery bill using coupons and/or stock pilling sale items DH is a lot less skeptical!!

I also just saved us lots of money by renegotiating our cable TV, internet, home phone and cell phone plans. I researched all the competitors' deals and then called our providers (Bell and Rogers) and threatened to switch if they couldn't match the competitors' offers. They matched the competitors' prices so it was quite successful

I also find meal planning to be very helpful... For example, each Sunday I make a huge batch of spaghetti sauce in the crockpot, a vegetarian lasagna, etc. I also make some homemade muffins (including real fruit!) that we can take for lunches for the week. These are inexpensive foods that are very filling and healthy.

Hopefully these ideas are helpful!

My mantra for saving money is basically stock-up on essentials when they go on sale and when in doubt, don't buy it!!

 

[JASMAK]

Thanks everyone...I have been so busy, I have not even worked on this yet, but hopefully in the new year I will get a bit of time, plus it's nice to have the Christmas season out of the way.

 

[lilyV]

I LOVE budgeting. What specifically do you need help with?

 

[fairy1984]

one thing we have done this year is to use a cashback credit card (which i assume they offer in canada too!)

we basically get 1% back on everything we spend in a cheque once per year (in jan wahoo) so this month we'll get a cheque for £250 because we've spent 25K on our credit card over the year.

The key is to pay the credit card off in full each month but we use it as a debit card to pay for everything and keep the amount we need to pay it off each month in our joint account.

(btw i know it sounds like we're crazy spenders having spent 25K this year but we paid for our wedding, honeymoon etc on it and family gave us cash towards that and we also pay £900 per month on childcare so it easily adds up)

 

[lilyV]

one thing we have done this year is to use a cashback credit card (which i assume they offer in canada too!)

we basically get 1% back on everything we spend in a cheque once per year (in jan wahoo) so this month we'll get a cheque for £250 because we've spent 25K on our credit card over the year.

The key is to pay the credit card off in full each month but we use it as a debit card to pay for everything and keep the amount we need to pay it off each month in our joint account.

(btw i know it sounds like we're crazy spenders having spent 25K this year but we paid for our wedding, honeymoon etc on it and family gave us cash towards that and we also pay £900 per month on childcare so it easily adds up)

Here in Canada they call them Dividend cards. All in all, there's better reward programs than the 1 or 2% back. I'm with another one that gives points. They mail me $50 cheques every couple of months

 

[younglove]

one thing we have done this year is to use a cashback credit card (which i assume they offer in canada too!)

we basically get 1% back on everything we spend in a cheque once per year (in jan wahoo) so this month we'll get a cheque for £250 because we've spent 25K on our credit card over the year.

The key is to pay the credit card off in full each month but we use it as a debit card to pay for everything and keep the amount we need to pay it off each month in our joint account.

(btw i know it sounds like we're crazy spenders having spent 25K this year but we paid for our wedding, honeymoon etc on it and family gave us cash towards that and we also pay £900 per month on childcare so it easily adds up)

Here in Canada they call them Dividend cards. All in all, there's better reward programs than the 1 or 2% back. I'm with another one that gives points. They mail me $50 cheques every couple of months

Which institution are you with? I'm also from Canada and have a 1% cashback card (with 2% at grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations. I'd probably switch if I knew there was a better option available!

Thanks!

 

[lilyV]

one thing we have done this year is to use a cashback credit card (which i assume they offer in canada too!)

we basically get 1% back on everything we spend in a cheque once per year (in jan wahoo) so this month we'll get a cheque for £250 because we've spent 25K on our credit card over the year.

The key is to pay the credit card off in full each month but we use it as a debit card to pay for everything and keep the amount we need to pay it off each month in our joint account.

(btw i know it sounds like we're crazy spenders having spent 25K this year but we paid for our wedding, honeymoon etc on it and family gave us cash towards that and we also pay £900 per month on childcare so it easily adds up)

Here in Canada they call them Dividend cards. All in all, there's better reward programs than the 1 or 2% back. I'm with another one that gives points. They mail me $50 cheques every couple of months

Which institution are you with? I'm also from Canada and have a 1% cashback card (with 2% at grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations. I'd probably switch if I knew there was a better option available!

Thanks!

it's the MBNA Smart Cash!

https://www.mbna.ca/shopping_cardList.html

TD bought it like a month ago but I think it's still called that. We use our CC like a debit and pay it off in full each month. Hope this works for you, it's a dream

 

[JASMAK]

Oh interesting, will have to look into that too. Thanks for the info!