Do you keep a budget? Do you stick to it?

[clifffaith]

We (meaning me) have tracked our spending for at least 12 years. I think the process went back some years further than that, but at some point we had a computer meltdown. We call it our "budget", but it really is just a list of categories of money coming in (SS, eBay sales, etc) and money going out (mortgage, timeshare maintenance fees, meals out, "calamities", etc). I "enjoy" seeing that we spent $4500 on groceries last year, but that it will be closer to $5000 by the time we get to the end of this year. Just interesting info to have.

Cliff has suddenly decided "We shall have a budget and we WILL stick to it". Well, dear, here is 12 years of documentation, figure out what we should allow for picking up a pizza once a month, and whether or not we can afford $80 for your eye vitamins every other month. That has garnered me the label of being "unhelpful". The only thing we've ever been spendthrifty about is home or garden improvements, and I do like my knickknacks, but knowing we are leaving this house has created a natural damper on doing things for our enjoyment vs required upkeep or things that would make the house sell quicker. So I guess I'm supposed to now say "nope, we have to wait until Lean Cuisine is $1.99 not $2.50, so today it's a can of soup for you, next!"

 

[AnnaS]

I used to "sort of have" a budget for many, many years. Actually ever since I started working p/t and in school. My dad used to tell me he wanted to see my bank account every month.

Hubby and I paid for our wedding, our home, raised three kids, Catholic School all the way, college, helped with cars, hubby got sick, etc. etc.

We are recently empty nesters and are definitely a lot more comfortable and don't worry about a budget for various reasons. We helped each of our three kids with their home purchase and paid for daughter's wedding. I am still frugal though even though I don't need to be. It's just who I am.

I am the frugal one and have always been a saver and we live well, well below our means. I always think and put the "kids" first. I know we are at a point that I am ready to splurge and enjoy a bit more. Every day I say, I want us to enjoy ourselves while we can still walk and are in fairly good health. Hubby worked his butt off when he worked - for many years having two jobs and me working p/t for many years. Our parents were generous, my lifestyle and savings has brought us to where we are today.

Having said that, I still like to see what comes in yearly and what we spend when I am a bit bored. It gives me an idea on how much money we can play with/enjoy/help the kids with.

I still look for sales, bargains and coupons - that will never change - no matter how comfortable I am.

Everything is in moderation.

 

[isisdave]

I started out married life writing down every nickle, in a way I'd seen my young-during-the-Depression parents do it. I still have some of those ledger books, and it's funny to see what a haircut or tires cost in 1971.

Once income exceeded likely outgo, I eased off on that level of detail. But to prepare for retirement, I did several of the FIRE calculators, and built my own spreadsheet, which combined to reassure me that we'd be OK.

When we DID retire 4 years ago, I still squeezed that buffalo (the one on the nickel, for those of you a lot younger) hard for three years, before the attitude changed a little more toward "you can't take it with you." We still do AARP discounts, Kohl's sales, rewards and airline miles, and all that tightwad stuff. I think the key is to be frugal with stuff you buy all the time, and a little looser with the occasional and recreational stuff.

The kid, now 27, hasn't ever been interested in budgeting, but he HAS recently begun to plan out his next few months' income and outgo. There's hope.

 

[bogey21]

Mine is a budget without particulars. I pay my Credit Card balance down be $0 the day after I receive its Monthly Statement. I target a set amount I want my Bank Balance to be the day after my Pension Payment is posted. If the balance is lower than my target, I cut back. If it is higher, I allow myself to use the excess. Some of you know I have a couple of race horses. I manage their expenses by transferring enough money from the Pension COLA payment that I receive every January 1st into a separate account to cover 75% of a year's anticipated expenses. I use the rest of my COLA to help out my kids and ex-wife. My monthly Social Security payment goes into this account to provide me a cushion...

George

 

[Talent312]

Like many peep, I suspect. Our "budget" is more a cash-flow projection.
I project income + expenses for the current month and next 2 months.
Primarily to see if our bills are covered or if we'll need a cash infusion.
.
.

 

[pittle]

We have pretty much always had 3 checking accounts - his, hers, joint (household bills) and have added vacation. Until a few years ago, the Vacation was included in the Joint one. We opened a CapOne account to use when on vacation and now use it for all vacation expenses. So now we have 4 accounts.

• We put our IRA money into the joint one and it pays the house, utilities, medical, auto, and house insurance, taxes and gifts. This one is the main actual budget account. We do have some extra savings slotted in this account for things like vehicle maintenance & repairs. I call those my Zero Balance.
  
• Mine (hers) does the charitable contributions, groceries, and credit card payments. My SS deposit funds this one. (Plus a specific amount from Hubs.)
  
• Hubs (his) pays life insurance and sends me a about half of whatever the credit card payments are and sends money to our vacation fund. His SS goes into this account.
  
• vacation - Generally each month we transfer money left in the his/hers accounts to this account. Hubs also has a part-time job 2 days a week and he puts that money into the vacation account.

We each have the same amount of discretionary money each month in the his/hers account that we do not have to account for.

 

[VacationForever]

I have an Excel spreadsheet that has monthly and annual anticipated expenses with big bucket items like Home (HOA, Property Tax, Insurance, Utilities), Car (Insurance, DMV, replacement every X years), Medical, Golf membership + golf while on vacation, Timeshare and all travel, Food and Household stuff which also includes eating out (we eat out every day for lunch and a couple of dinners a week). I then have a bucket with a 15% for over spending / unexpected stuff at the bottom.

The total is the ballpark which I am looking at. I have another spreadsheet for income and needed withdrawal from savings to fund expenses.

Both expenses and income spreadsheet run for the next 20 years or so.

We always seem to overspend even after budgeting a 15% buffer. There is always something (New car, rejoining country club, bought new golf cart, bought new golf clubs...) and both last year and this year we overspent by about $30K a year. Heck, I can only try!

 

[stmartinfan]

We don't keep a detailed budget. We've always been smart shoppers, careful to get good values and not live beyond what we can pay for each month, except for a mortgage and car payment. Once we got beyond the subsistence level of our first few years of marriage, we started saving the maximum in company 401ks and other options we had, which continued to force us to manage what was left carefully. Our one indulgence was travel, but we still did it within what money was available. I was just thinking we should do a little tracking of expenses now that we’re in our official retirement stage, just to see where we stand.

 

[silentg]

My husband writes the checks. I balance bank accounts. We are thrifty not cheap, award ourselves with nice vacations and are enjoying retirement together. Timeshares are so fun!
Silentg

 

[jimf41]

I don't actually budget. I have a SS that covers all my income and recurring expenses. I project out about 10 years or so so I know when large expenses are going to funded and where I'm going to get the money for them. In JAN-FEB-MAR of each year I have to pay first half property tax, MFs, pay off Christmas bills charged to a credit card, and plan on vacation expenses as we travel to the Caribbean for an extended period.

With the recurring expenses these add up to more than my income during that period so I have to plan carefully to spread them out with minimal interest charges on borrowed money or adding a little more to my RMD. I've been doing this since we were married in 1968 so the SS has evolved from a yellow legal pad with a Bomar Brain to the current excel SS. I'm not one to subscribe to the " debt free" concept. That is a state I never want to reach. If someone is going to give you money and charge 2% interest why spend your oun when my money can make much more than that in investments.

As a bonus you get to enjoy whatever it is you wanted right now instead of waiting years to save up the money to pay for it.

 

[artringwald]

I use Quicken to categorize everything. We pay for most things with credit cards, and Quicken automatically downloads transactions daily and attempts to assign the category based on the payee. At the end of each year we sit down and look at the summary reports. It lets us see where our money went, and if there was more going out than coming in. It also shows us how much investments have grown. I'd be lost without Quicken. It's a huge time saver.

 

[WinniWoman]

Funny you should bring this up now. Have always had a budget- or spending plan if you will. Had it on EXCEL sheet- laying out all the expenses every month- right down to postage stamps. If the expense was annual would just divide by twelve and that money would go into designated savings accounts for specific items. Any excess money would go into a vacation fund, a home improvement fund and a new car fund. Kept a buffer of a couple of hundred bucks in case of overages.

It was pretty much set it and forget it since we are frugal to begin with, so we didn't worry about it.

Now- being in this rental house- I had done another budget and even though some small monthly expenses have been eliminated not owning a house, we are really tight because the rent is so outrageous.

So this led me this past weekend to do a NEW HOUSE budget- one including the expenses of this lease we are stuck with through May- and to do one pure one for the new house for when we are free of the lease. Imperative since this is my husband's last week of work and the paychecks stop in the new year- no SS (until age 70 for the 2 of us) and no pension payments- and the addition of health insurance for the two of us. Living strictly off savings account "cash" at least to start us off in 2020. UGH!

Meeting with FA in January so I want to make sure we have the correct numbers. It is simply unbelievable how expensive everything adds up to and we barely do anything- and I am not kidding when I say that. If we eat out it is just when we are at our timeshares- maybe 2 or 3 times. And we will be forced to for XMAS since we will be up in NH to see our son. But that is about it. I allow for a few Chinese takeouts when we are desperate. We go to the movies maybe once per year. We are always home. We have no social life. We don't have grandchildren we need to spoil. We don't buy clothes or jewelry. No expensive hobbies- or really any hobbies at all. My husband does like the shooting range but he makes his own bullets and repairs his own equipment. This year- with everything going on this year he has not even done that. Once we move he will join a sportsman's club there.

Not sure where I am going to fit in money for my MS MT Washington seasons passes or going to local live theater and the cultural arts center occasionally. Plus any activities the community might have. Might have to get a per diem job as a tourist guide at Castle in The Clouds. Maybe hubby might have to work at Lowes part time. Divesting of our Smuggs timeshare might help also.

And- right off the bat I figure in addition to the budget, we need $25,000 - $35,000+ or maybe a lot more to get the new house to where it needs to be after we move in!

The money we need just to live is crazy and they are all mostly fixed expenses. I don't get how it is supposed to last for many years to come. Very scary.

I know one thing- the 4% withdrawal rule would never work on our case- no way would it cover our monthly expenses. Good thing our FA does not like that rule. Hope he's right.

PS I do keep track of our accounts on an Excel sheet also. But it is just a running tab of balances. I dread when we start seeing those balances go down or erased completely.

 

[bnoble]

As a grad student, I wrote down everything to the penny and tracked carefully. That helped me focus splurges on things I really would enjoy, rather than things that sounded like a good idea at the time. We continued that into our early married life, when loan payments for my wife's professional degree were roughly equal to our mortgage.

Eventually, though, our means began to exceed our wants---and the wants are modest. We don't live in a fancy house, we tend to drive cars into the ground, I enjoy cooking so there isn't a lot of eating out, and while we do take frequent vacations often we've typically done so in a way that was quite affordable (thanks, timeshares!). We have only a handful of gadgets, and they tend to be one generation behind the "latest." We made sure we funded accounts for retirement and the kids' 529s, but after that didn't really pay attention.

My eldest graduates from college this year, and she will have some cash left over in her 529 to help supplement the Ph.D. program she'll be entering next year, and the youngest should have some left too when he does the same. Both kids are expecting to enter fields where they should be able to teach during grad school, and that will cover tuition and enough to live on, but not much else. We don't plan to do much for them during that time, in part so that they get that same experience of having to live within a tight budget.

 

[joestein]

I like to say that we do a reverse budget. We don't really keep track of our expenses, but we keep track of how much we save. Our savings and 529 plans are all on automatic. As we paid off our mortgage, I added it our monthly savings. In addition, as we get raises, we increase the savings to reflect the additional monthly income. Sometimes we have extra money in our checking, but by the end of the year, it pretty much gets wiped out by our vacations. Plus in the fall, we start to surpass FICA and the extra money pays for the holidays.

However, we do try to live under our means. It is amazing how much we spend to live. Cable, Telephone and Internet is over $250 a month. Cell Phones cost over $300(5 lines) and I am not even paying for new phones on some of my lines. Landscaping, utilities, insurance, etc. It just never ends. Not to mention that living in NJ, you can easily pay over $100/month in tolls, not including commutes (Tolls on the NJ turnpike for my wife's commutes are $10.30/day).

Joe

 

[Sugarcubesea]

I have intensified my budget the last 5 years as I'm getting closer to retirement. I'm trying to find ways to save more today so that I have more for retirement. I'm trying hard to save more. This year, I had a ton of my savings go to fixing up the home to get it ready to sell... These are updates that really should have been done years ago but with the kids in college and me trying to help them all a bit I let the home repairs slide a bit...

I will be happy this time next year when my home of 28 years is sold and we have downsized to a condo. My expenses will be less and I will be able to save more...

I try very hard to stick to my budget line items and for the most part I do great...

 

[AnnaS]

How long in 2020 will you both be without pension/SS? That stinks. Tight budget until then. I know what it's like to live off ones savings - did it for almost a year when hubby got sick.

We don't smoke, not really drinkers, no gambling, no movies - we fall asleep before it starts and hate the 30 minute previews - a little social life, some babysitting and we take extra vacations now.

No sleep here - this is why I have been yapping so much lately - I am going to have to give in and go for sleep apnea test soon.......

 

[Talent312]

I have an Excel spreadsheet that has monthly and annual anticipated expenses with big bucket items... I have another spreadsheet for income and needed withdrawal from savings to fund expenses.... Both expenses and income spreadsheet run for the next 20 years or so.

I only try to predict spending 3 months out.
But I handle major expenses differently...

We have a sinking-fund (savings acct) for annual and major expenses.
That spreadsheet shows what+when, and a running balance for 15 mos.

I also track recurring CC charges, the balance of 7 CC's + a car loan.
.

 

[WinniWoman]

I should clarify that my husband’s pension was cut off at the knees years ago so not enough to live on- so he is taking a lump sum, which we call a “ limp” sum. I have a $29 per month pension I will get when I turn 65. Lol!

FA does not want us to take SS until age 70 due to tax torpedo that hits when people are required to take RMDs. So he actually wants us to draw down our money! We have quite a ways to go to age 70. I am 63 and hubby is 65.

The whole thing makes me sick.

 

[klpca]

I usually budget pretty obsessively on a monthly basis until late summer when I almost always get lazy. But we are very good savers, have a separate account for big expenses that is funded by automatic withdrawals, and aren't big spenders for the most part so I really don't worry too much. We've been house poor in the past, and growing up my family *was* poor, so I am confident that if necessary we could live on very little. I wouldn't want to, but it could be done.

Our only real worry going forward is the cost of health insurance until we reach medicare age. My husband will probably retire at 63.5 so that Cobra will cover that gap period but it isn't cheap, of course. And then I will still have a gap after that for another 3 or so years. So we have decided to treat our 401k contributions and our other savings in our final work years as being "earmarked" for the cost of our health insurance.

 

[presley]

I started a budget a few years ago when we decided to get out of debt using Dave Ramsey's approach. I still use the old YNAB platform, which is no longer supported, but it works for me. I categorize every dollar that comes in and goes out. Not a big deal if I overspend in an area, as I will just lower the projected spending in other areas to make up for it.

My husband continues to spend money without paying attention to the budget, but it is a lot less reckless than it used to be. I ending up starting a category called "pretty much on food" which is what he always says when I ask where the money went. That has kept me from blowing a fuse and he doesn't have to feel like he's on a constant leash.

 

[Icc5]

We got married later in life (wife's 2nd marriage), my first. We already each had a house and I was financially stable. I am and always invested,saved, and kept a sort of budget in my head. I can tell you what we have in the bank,stock market,on credit card (never have paid a dime of interest on a credit card), and our net worth all on the top of my head without even putting any thought into it. It just comes naturally to me. My wife will spend what she has without overspending. If you put 5,000 in her account she will find something to spend it on but won't spend a cent more. She uses envelopes to do her budget and divides up the money she plans on spending before she does it.
It all seems to work for us as we've raised two kids and they've been on 2-3 cruises with us, we've taken both to Hawaii 4-5 times,been able to give them $15,000 each the last several years, we also go on timeshare stays 6-8 weeks a year and each year we are better off then the year before. This is all done with both of us retiring early (me at 62 and her at 60).
Bart

 

[GrayFal]

I should clarify that my husband’s pension was cut off at the knees years ago so not enough to live on- so he is taking a lump sum, which we call a “ limp” sum. I have a $29 per month pension I will get when I turn 65. Lol!

FA does not want us to take SS until age 70 due to tax torpedo that hits when people are required to take RMDs. So he actually wants us to draw down our money! We have quite a ways to go to age 70. I am 63 and hubby is 65.

The whole thing makes me sick.

I was a Hospice Nurse for 20 years. I wish you and your husband good health. Can’t tell you how many people don’t make it to 65. With the way you present your current financial situation , reconsider holding off on SS payments. And then laugh about it at 70.

 

[turkel]

I am a saver not a spender. But I have never had a budget. I inherently know what I can spend a month and always pay off my CC each month.

My husband also never budgets. He saves too but says he works hard for his money and spends what he wants.

Fast forward to next year when we retire and our sole income will be his pension. Hubby wants to slam on the breaks ( solely in my direction) for the first few months to see how we do. It’s led to some interesting discussions. ( since from my perspective he far out spends me and I won’t have access to my 401k and tiny pension for many years ). His pension is in rock star territory as far as I am concerned and can’t imagine how we would overspend. Sigh, only time will tell how well we will navigate our new commingled financial state. It’s certainly led to some oh sh*t moments on my part.

I may yet turn into a budget hawk.

 

[rapmarks]

We have always been thrifty, so don’t really budget. I buy very little that isn’t on sale, including groceries.
My daughter is coming down Saturday, with us it will be ten people. She has booked several rooms at Hyatt coconut resort. I do not want to know what that cost. All meals out for ten people for five days will get me upset at the cost since I live within five miles. Then she heads to Orlando where she paid someone $1700 for a week at Bonnet Creek. Then Disney tickets. Why is it bothering me, she wont be able to pay me rent for awhile.

 

[turkel]

I was a Hospice Nurse for 20 years. I wish you and your husband good health. Can’t tell you how many people don’t make it to 65. With the way you present your current financial situation , reconsider holding off on SS payments. And then laugh about it at 70.

Sorry off topic. As a nurse who doesn’t due dead I just want to say Grayfal there is a special place in heaven for you!!

And as a daughter who lost her father at 58 I 100% agree on not waiting to take SS.