Help on setting up a family budget, and help on sticking to it.

[GoStumpy]

I was never able to save, until I learned properly how to spend... credit card bills are created by spending more $$$ than comes in, which is a compounding problem... next month you spend again, but now you have a credit card bill to pay in addition!

Operating on a budget with the mindset of "How much do I have in my grocery category?" NOT "How much is in my bank account?" is CRITICAL!

Until I separated all my expenditures into a working budget, like you I was never able to save a penny. If I saved $300 this month, it would be spent next month. With the budget in place, just because I have $300 left over in my bank account this month, does NOT mean I have an extra $300 to spend next month!

I can't stress enough how important a budget is to anyone trying to get out of debt or save more money...

I can go on forever about it, but at the end of the day YNAB (You Need A Budget) is the only thing that kept me budgeting... I tried Gail Vaz-Oxalade's system, gave up... tried Mint.com, gave up...

I highly suggest trying their free trial for 34 days and see if it's what you can use long-term. If it IS, then the price of a program will pay itself over hundred-fold, with interest! www.youneedynab.com is the discount link

I made so many bad choices in the past it makes me sick... I'm willing to be tens of thousands of dollars WASTED on A) frivilous things, and B) interest... I bet I paid $5000 in interest in the past 10 years. That $5000 could be a million dollars in 40 years invested!

Tons of things I own right now, like my computer, were bought on a credit card that is still not paid off.... so I literally have not paid for my computer even though I've owned it for almost two years...

Main point I want to make is, you need to put a stake in the ground, and decide "ENOUGH! I'm getting OUT of this mess, and STAYING OUT!" Only then will you have the drive & ambition to stick to the plan!

[Abby5]

It is so hard to stick to a budget I used $60/$100 of my next weeks food budget because of meat sales Now ds2 has a hole in the bottom of his size 8 men's shoes!!! I guess we will be eating what we have in fridge and cupboards next week

[bdurls]

GoStumpy you have really inspired me to figure out a budget and stick to it! We have credit cards that really need paying off. I'm going to check out that link you put up and make a plan! Thank you!

[blueeyetea]

What have you more seasoned folks done when creating a budget and how have you stuck to it?

For myself, it wasn't what I do now, but what I did. I went ahead and followed the 9 steps in the book Your Money or Your Life and it, literally, changed what I thought about money and how I spend it. It really makes you think about what is enough and makes you examine if your expenses are worth the effort you're putting in to pay them off.

Most of us get into problems with lack of money because we're not conscious about our spending habits. It's one areas that financial gurus aren't able to transmit very well either. Yeah, I know how much interest I'm paying on that credit card and what it's costing me in dollars, but frankly, it goes over my head. It just never clicked deep inside. And don't even get me started on saving advice. It's all the same advice that's been passed on and on, with no real solutions to dealing with what brought you to that stage.

Show me that my hourly wage is reduced by half due to expenses related to working (because I deserve it!) and that I have to work 66 hours to pay for that iPad, and suddently I'm paying attention. Making me look monthly at my expenses and seeing that I was spending a couple of hundred dollars a month on hobbies, and wondering how come I didn't have anything to show for it, made me ask tough questions of myself.

Until I knew these things about myself, my budgets failed, because it brought on the sense that I was being deprived. It was always about the lack in my life, as opposed to what I needed to be fulfilled. Eventually, about six months in, I had come to the conclusion that shopping and owning things wasn't as fulfilling in my life as I thought. From that point on, my spending went down drastically.

[GoStumpy]

I really have to read that book, I've heard of it so many times...

Until then I'm just relishing in paying down debt FINALLY ONCE AND FOR ALL, without the possibility of racking it back up after

Since the beginning of this year, I've saved $1000 for an emergency fund, and paid ~$2000 towards debt above & beyond my minimum payments... whilst still overspending in restaurants/booze.. :S Money has to come from somewhere though! No more spending more than I make... I input what I make, and that is ALL I have to work with... where it goes is up to me, and that's where the smart decisions are!

[macw1960]

I have made bad choices when it comes to saving and budgeting.. both of my parents are excellent at it and have taught me well but I have a lot of debt so I have no suggestions. Would you all agree that it would be best to pay off debt before saving? I find it extremely hard to save - aside from couponing - when I have Credit card bills, student loans to pay back. What have you more seasoned folks done when creating a budget and how have you stuck to it?

I make up my own budget.
If you have a line of credit with a low interest rate I would suggest if possible to move all your debt there.
Paying off debt before savings has always made sense to me.
Learn the difference between a want and a need.
Remove your CC from wallet and use cash or tape the words "PAY OFF DEBT" on your CC or debt card.
If you budget a certain amount for your variables weekly or monthly and you do not spend it then turn it in to debt repayment.
I just keep reminding myself how much I want to Be Debt Free but you do need to treat yourself to something every once in awhile or else you may find this more of a chore rather than something you really want to do.

[GoStumpy]

One thing I really needed to get over, was the desire for a line of credit to pay off my credit cards...

One line finally got it through my head.

"The interest rate is not the problem. The seven thousand dollars of debt is the problem!"

Once I really thought about that for a while, a lower interest rate could save me a couple hundred dollars through the course of paying it off, but it will actually COST me money if it means that I am not as vicious & focused on eliminating the debt...

If I was hard-at getting rid of my 18% $5k CC debt, but then I moved it to my 5% line of credit and all of a sudden wasn't so worried... I could actually end up paying more interest because it no longer seems like a debt emergency.

Make sense to anyone but me??

[tcorbs]

Some bank websites offer budgeting spreadsheets, check into that.