Household budgeting tips

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

I just finished downloading and installing a few household budgeting tools. We've just lost around $300 because we haven't been too careful with money lately.

According to our bank statements, we've overdrawn our bank account several times the past week although we've had over $800 to spend. Some transactions haven't gone through until days later, which is basically what screwed us over since we can check our balance over the phone, which said $800 one week and the next week we were down to -$80. Anyway, the bank charged us some fees, so we ended up losing about $100 extra and are down to $400 until we get paid again. Which won't be for another 2 weeks.

I don't understand how the bank can do that, but I guess I'm used to having my balance updated almost immediately. Back in Belgium, I could cross the street from the bank, get groceries and go back to print out statements and it'd have everything listed right away. Anyway, I guess the bank got some money out of it (AGAIN), and I'm working on a budget. What a wake-up call...

Oh and I just had my last cigarette. Can't afford to smoke, what a way to quit, eh?

[MichelleandCraig 1]

Hi Swirly..that stinks. Believe ME, I KNOW from the past when I wasn't so careful! Doing your bank reconciliation is a really good idea, but won't help you on a day to day basis. Keeping track of everything(checks, debit cards, atm withdrawals,etc) right away in a check register is essential..even if you and your hubby each have to have one(they will give you extra ones at the bank) and one of you has the primary one and the other just records what THEY spend and then you put it down in the main one at the end of the day(I know..I didn't write that very well!) But yes...US banks are like that. Sometimes it takes several days for something to clear*(as you KNOW..sorry!) and you're balance won't be accurate for most of the month..so make sure YOU keep a running total of what's actually in there. It stinks, and I wish it was like it is in so many other countries, but alas..have to deal with it.

As far as the budget, what Craig and I are just starting to do is write down EVERYTHING that's an absolute and figure it on the high end just to be safe. For example, you might know what your car payment is for sure, but groceries are dif. each week..figure on the high end how much you use...and what we are doing now is sorting it out into envelopes in a little file folder and if you get paid weekly, put in the envelope each week how much that bill is. For ex. your car is 200 put 50 in for that week, and if you get paid every two weeks put in 100. I sure hope!! you don't think I'm talking down to you here...I know it's pretty simple stuff...but if you cover all of the essentials(and that's really important..to brainstorm and make sure you cover everything.( of course with exceptions of things that just come up like repairs,etc) then you can figure out how much you have to spend on just whatever. You need to figure in entertainment(last, but it need to be in there!) and eating out, things like that too, or you won't stick to it. Even when I was a single mom I still did that because if you just make a budget with the bare minimums and still can barely cover THAT and no money for fun stuff ever it just gets TOO depressing and you'll never stick with it. Kinda like a diet!(again, speaking from experience!)

Ah...good luck with it..I sure know where you're comin' from! Mich & Craig

PS..when I say everything I mean don't forget the little things like gas money(which can be a big thing nowdays!! and things like 'general household expense' (dishsoap, laundry soap, shampoo, that kinda stuff). :)

Edited February 11, 2006 by MichelleandCraig

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Banks will charge you an arm and a leg for overdrafts. Everyone is b!itching about the check-advance business because they are, essentially, loan-sharks - which they are. But their fees are a pittance compared to overdraft fees any bank will charge you. And that goes largely unnoticed. Now, don't take this as an encouragement to visit one of those check advance places. A lot of folks that go there become regular customers down the road which is not good.

Not sure that I have any valuable input on budgeting. I have always gone with not spending money I don't have. Also, I keep track of my account balance wih Money Express on my PC rather than relying on online balances, ATM's, etc. All that is easy, though, when you have money in the bank.

Anywho, congrats on the decision to put them cigarettes down. That'll save you some cash for sure. And it'll make you feel better in a relatively short amount of time. Just stick with it. It can be done. I did it last August.

Good Luck!

As far as the budget, what Craig and I are just starting to do is write down EVERYTHING that's an absolute and figure it on the high end just to be safe. For example, you might know what your car payment is for sure, but groceries are dif. each week..figure on the high end how much you use...and what we are doing now is sorting it out into envelopes in a little file folder and if you get paid weekly, put in the envelope each week how much that bill is.

I've heard people talk about the envelope system and that it works pretty well.

Edited February 11, 2006 by ET-US2004

[ktun 0]

Hi, we've had experience with the bank ATM not updating things for a few days. It sucks and has cost us those $30 fees for every transaction that is over!! Our solution has been to sign up to the online banking. It has proved a real money saver for us as the transactions are updated almost immediately, and we can check it anytime we want, day or night. We can also pay our bills online and transfer money between Checking and Savings account.

We have to live on a very tight budget as I cant work yet. The way we get by is to spend only what we really need to. It's amazing what you dont really need when you look at what you spend every week. We dont have cable TV, we dont have cell phones. At the supermarket we dont buy brand name goods. ie. We get the 88 cent shampoo, the $1 dish soap etc. It may not be quite as good, but at the moment we cant afford to spend extra on things like that. Tear up old or stained clothes and use them for cleaning. As far as food goes we try to stretch it out. For example chicken breasts are a whole lot more expensive than a whole chicken. So we get the whole chicken, roast it and then we can use the left overs to make different meals for the next day, or freeze to use later. I've found that you can make good filling meals with just rice, a can of soup or baked beans and sweetcorn, stuff like that. Okay, so it's not the most exciting meal in the world, but it fills you up. If you go out to eat, order something big and take half home, that way you get two meals.

This may sound extreme and no it is not fun by any means. But we vowed when we got married to try to live within our means, even if that means living without certain things. We did have all those things like cell phones, cable etc before, and we missed them to start with, but we're used to it now, doesnt bother us.

All I can say is that it works for us, for now while money is tight, when I have my EAD and start to work I'm sure we'll have our luxuries back.

P.S. This is a really simple and helpful hint. NEVER go food shopping when you're hungry. You'll end up buying much more than you need. My hubby's diabetic and gets extreme thirst with it sometimes. We went shopping one time while he was having a bad time with it and he was literally grabbing so many drinks, juice, pop etc off the shelves people must have thought we were mad.

[Jasman0717 9]

Good luck with the smoking issue!

[KarenCee 3]

I learned that if I put a deposit into my bank, through the ATM, before 8pm it gets posted immediately. NOT that I'm gonna rush right out and spend spend spend...but at least when I get back home and check my balance online, the deposit shows up. It is hard to budget...believe me, I've been there...even more as a single mom. But it is possible. Do you have a budget set up? There are tons of programs out there, computer programs that will pretty much do all the figuring for you. Good luck.

[Chicky 0]

I have a budget and I do like Michelle did, i budget a little high. Like this month I budgeted 35.00 for my light bill and it was only 26.74 I have all that laid out, and when I get paid, once I add my deposit into my register I automatically deduct every bill I am going to pay with that check even though it might not be due till the end of the month. My budget is weird, I save money on my first check to pay things that are due at the end of the month. It makes my checks about even in amount though so that's why I do it. Anyway, that way I don't count that money as being there in my register and I go by that when it comes time to buy anything else. Whatever is left over is what I know I have for groceries, gas and the like. Its hard as I am a single parent until hubby gets here (been a single parent since my son was 1 years old, my ex is a deadbeat) but I manage it. My big spending habit is eating out as i can't cook LOL That's a habit I need to break though. I also need to quit smoking, going to when hubby gets here.

Anyway my tips are to know about what your bills are and budget a little high, subtract the bills you need to pay immediately out of your check book even if they aren't due for a bit, or use the envelope system like Michelle suggested. And the big ONE, like with my light bill I subtracted 35.00 out of my checkbook, and I'm only paying 26.74. I'm not going to change it, I'm going to leave it, those little things like that give you extra cushion in your account, and you don't really miss it as according to your check book, its money that is already gone

Edited February 11, 2006 by Chicky

[I'm Gone 60]

Ditch the cigarettes. If you smoke a pack a day, you are saving $2 or $3 a day or $60 or $90 a month.

If you are looking for other ways to save money I would say to just buy things that you don't necessarily need only when on sale and when the things you use everyday, i.e. toliet paper are on sale load up. Use the food coupons out of the Sunday paper.

One thing I have been doing is buying food coupons off Ebay and then loading up when a store runs a sale. For example I bought off Ebay for $0.99 10 coupons for $1.50 off on Nescafe instant coffee. Walgreens has it on sale this week for $4.99 for 7oz. At $3.50 it's cheaper than Costco or Wal-Mart. I'll probably never need to buy coffee again. LOL

[almaty 19]

I just finished downloading and installing a few household budgeting tools. We've just lost around $300 because we haven't been too careful with money lately.

According to our bank statements, we've overdrawn our bank account several times the past week although we've had over $800 to spend. Some transactions haven't gone through until days later, which is basically what screwed us over since we can check our balance over the phone, which said $800 one week and the next week we were down to -$80. Anyway, the bank charged us some fees, so we ended up losing about $100 extra and are down to $400 until we get paid again. Which won't be for another 2 weeks.

I don't understand how the bank can do that, but I guess I'm used to having my balance updated almost immediately. Back in Belgium, I could cross the street from the bank, get groceries and go back to print out statements and it'd have everything listed right away. Anyway, I guess the bank got some money out of it (AGAIN), and I'm working on a budget. What a wake-up call...

Oh and I just had my last cigarette. Can't afford to smoke, what a way to quit, eh?

swirly girl..good luck with the smoking and fiances..here some mojo

[pj1959us 0]

Hi, we've had experience with the bank ATM not updating things for a few days. It sucks and has cost us those $30 fees for every transaction that is over!! Our solution has been to sign up to the online banking. It has proved a real money saver for us as the transactions are updated almost immediately, and we can check it anytime we want, day or night. We can also pay our bills online and transfer money between Checking and Savings account.

Online banking is great and is helpful (especially to know when a deposit is 'officially available' as funds), but you can't count on that 100% of being up-to-the-minute accurate for deductions. I still have had charges take a couple of days to show up, depending on the store/company and if used as a debit or credit, so the safest manner is to always update your register so that you know exactly what is available to you.

[Kajikit 65]

American banks are WEIRD... but mostly they're money-grubbers. I was shocked to deposit seven hundred dollars into my account to pay for stuff on ebay, then I came home and started paying and I ran out of money - when I asked about it they said 'oh, deposits aren't credited till the next working day, even if they're cash handed over the counter to a teller'... argh!

Checkbooks are wierd too... (grump gump)

[ctjwa 0]

Don't worry about any of that reconcilliation stuff. It's an extreme hassle, and very prone to mistakes. My advice is to never use your savings account as a debit/credit card at stores. Get yourself a real credit card, and just pay it off all in full every month. That way there are no overage fees for going negative, and you actually earn 1-3% back on all your purchases depending on what kind of card you get.

You still have to plan out your budget, so it's not a golden ticket to go on a spending spree, but if you can use the card responsibly then it will remove any chance of being charged an overdraft fee.

Keep in mind, it's usually not the bank's fault. One day for deposits and 3 days for outside checks to clear is standard. If you get direct deposit from your work, that is automatic (if you get paid on friday, it is in your account at 12:01 thursday night). The problem lies in the stores you shop at. When they swipe your card at the point of sale all it does is check that you are allowed to spend a certain amount. The store only sends charges in to the credit card company once a day at max, usually more like once every 3 days. I've known some resteraunts that only send in charges once a week, so it can often times be quite a bit delayed.

Get the real credit card, and don't worry so much.

[MichelleandCraig 1]

Don't worry about any of that reconcilliation stuff. It's an extreme hassle, and very prone to mistakes. My advice is to never use your savings account as a debit/credit card at stores. Get yourself a real credit card, and just pay it off all in full every month. That way there are no overage fees for going negative, and you actually earn 1-3% back on all your purchases depending on what kind of card you get.

You still have to plan out your budget, so it's not a golden ticket to go on a spending spree, but if you can use the card responsibly then it will remove any chance of being charged an overdraft fee.

Keep in mind, it's usually not the bank's fault. One day for deposits and 3 days for outside checks to clear is standard. If you get direct deposit from your work, that is automatic (if you get paid on friday, it is in your account at 12:01 thursday night). The problem lies in the stores you shop at. When they swipe your card at the point of sale all it does is check that you are allowed to spend a certain amount. The store only sends charges in to the credit card company once a day at max, usually more like once every 3 days. I've known some resteraunts that only send in charges once a week, so it can often times be quite a bit delayed.

Get the real credit card, and don't worry so much.

Well, I have to disagree on some of this...but that's our perrogative...to agree or not right? Everyone does it differently.

As far as the credit card goes...that's a great idea if you have good credit AND you know you have the willpower not to overspend and WILL be able to pay it off in full each month. Both of those are a problem for some people. Concerning the latter, I have that under control now but I wasn't so great in my younger days. Concerning the former, I don't have good enough credit to GET a credit card at the moment because of it. I'm working on my credit now, but those things take time...and for a lot of people here, they aren't eligible to get a credit card due to no credit. My mom and dad have excellent credit and they do just as you said..they have a card where they earn points for everything so they put everything on it and pay it off in full each month too..works great for them and plenty of other people, but it's not even an option for us..and again...plenty of other people.

On the bank reconciliation...I'm an Accounting student, but I knew this from way back in high school accounting...it's a good idea. Most people don't do it, but for those who do,it's a good idea. The bank balance is almost always correct..the only things you have to look for are outstanding checks(which you've written but haven't cleared the bank yet) and Deposits in Transit(deposits at the end ofthe month that you may have made and didn't get posted before the statement was generated) If you add those deposits and subtract the checks still out, you will come up with your correct balance. Errors on your check register are FAR more likely and do happen a lot...people forget to record things entirely, transpose numbers,etc(a check for 158 written as 185 on your register in a hurry,etc) and it can take a really long time to sort all that out if you have a business,etc(which is why you get an accountant..ha! ) but if you're just doing your own it might take you 10 or 15 minutes..not even a big deal. I know most people don't do it, but if you do it's a good thing.

My two cents again. :) M.

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

Thanks for all the advice, guys and gals.

I'm just going to keep track of everything from now on, we've lived on alot less than this before (Before I had a job and David was promoted) and I'm sure we'll be fine.

Back to happier postings

[Fandango 1,439]

To save money once, I went to Costco & bought a 5-gallon jar of spicy mustard. Dunno why, but it was cheap!

Anyways, supposedly mustard doesn't have an expiry date, so it started having birthdays then as a matter of principle, when I left my ex years later, I took my mustard with me.

So be careful of the sale things!!!! And good luck! I heard the envelope system works a treat as well...I do it with spending money...& it works just fine for me

Edited February 12, 2006 by LisaD