Tracking money

MeatCurtainRod · 2016-05-03T15:28:01+00:00

ALWAYS have a budget for everything. At the very least, allocate funds for certain variable expenses and keep a recording of how much you spend in your phone or a book. If you stay under budget, awesome, but make sure to not go over what you set. Track for a few months your existing spending habits. Then tabulate the totals and realize where you can trim. Even your savings contribution is a part of your budget but slightly different. The general rule of thumb is at least 10% of your gross income into a savings account that builds itself money, and no ceiling as all your unused funds should go into savings.

Fixed expenses you don't need to worry about because you can't change them. These are bills like housing or rent. It is the variable expenses, such as food, clothing, gifts, fun, hobbies, etc. So for example, I make 95% of my meals at home. This means I have a small perdiem budget of last minute fast foods at $20 per week. I never exceed this, because I really don't need that cup of starbuck's coffee. Keep your grocery bills together and tabulate them at the end of the month. Groceries can be as little as $100 per month per person. I also have allocated a certain % per year for my hobbies. A lot of my hobbies (firearms, competitive shooting, reloading, hunting, etc) have consumables so they require a fixed budget. Using a phone's notepad works fine for this.

Never look at what you save, but what you spend. Buying that extra useless shirt at 50% off is still a useless shirt that cost you money.

Fielder57 · 2016-05-03T15:34:50+00:00

My easy way is to have every single bill I need to pay for the month come out in the first week of the month. All of them. So by the 5th of every month absolutely everything for the month is paid for, including a chunk into my savings account.

I then simply divide what is left in my account by 4 and bingo, The money i have to spend each week until pay day. Often this is far more money then i need and what ever i have left in the account goes into savings for emergencies. By by the end of the first week of the Month everything i need to pay to keep a roof over my head, my truck and car on the road and my bike in the garage is paid for.

RedditAdminsSuck_88 · 2016-05-03T18:41:16+00:00

I track every single cent I spend. I am on Excel every day with a budget.

On the 31st of every month I create a one month budget, 3 month budget, and 12 month budget.

Assign every dollar you make to something. Everything you don't assign goes to savings.

Don't eat out. Don't waste money on worthless shit. Don't do drugs. Don't spend money on alcohol, if you must drink, keep your expenses low. Keep at least $1,000 socked away for emergencies and do not touch it unless its an emergency. Do not take out any debt for any reason except mortgages. Do not use credit cards unless you will pay off the balance right away. Do not lease or finance cars, only buy used cars, with cash. If all your debt is paid off, sock away 3-6 months of living expenses into a savings account to supplement your $1,000 emergency fund.

Honestly just take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course. It's great. It may not be the best way to go about MAXIMIZING your wealth, but unless you are very financially savy, its for you. His course is good for 99% of the population.

Darkredsubmarine · 2016-05-03T19:28:59+00:00

I don't track anything. I also don't buy shit so don't feel the need.

If it's for my business, I can make a snap decision if I need it. Then I purchase decision is easy.

If it's for me, I usually ignore it because I can't be arsed to go into the store to buy it. I have enough of those things already, most of which I don't even use.

My only real expense (beyond fixed expenses like rent) is entertaining women - dates, drinks, food, shows. I'll make a decision on the restaurant or bar prior to going out though and know how much I'll be spending anyway.

Title	Tracking money
Author	iwannabered1
Upvotes	1
Comments	4
Date	May 3, 2016 3:14 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/4hnpsd/tracking_money/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/tracking-money.104906 https://theredarchive.com/post/104906

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