Budgeting

So I had hoped to have some fun garage sale finds or an awesome new recipe to share, but alas it was not to be. My iron stomach was defeated this weekend by the dreadful stomach flu plague. Yes, it had been since the 6th grade that I had vomited and yes, it was just as bad as I remembered. But enough about that unpleasantness. So instead of vintage bargain finds and new delicacies, today you will be subjected to the topic of budgeting. Big sigh (I know, I know, everyone's favorite topic). Not because I am an expert, and not because we are great at it, but because we are finding what works and what doesn't and because I need some help.


I have a love/hate relationship with Dave Ramsey. Love his principles, love his story, love his encouragement, and love his radio show (ok, I admit to becoming a little teary on Fridays when people call and share their stories and then exuberantly yell "WE'RE DEBT FREE!" So inspiring.) The hate part come in with the difficulty of making wise but not always fun choices. But as Dave always says, "The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan." And I think a big part of the plan is a budget.


We have worked out a monthly budget that works for us. Some tips that we have found for making it work are:

* We have categories for "Aaron's hobbies" and "Susie's hobbies." This is nice because it gives us some guilt free money to use as we want. It can roll over as needed, especially if one of us wants to save for something bigger.

* We move our monthly savings into our savings account at the BEGINNING of the month. Then it is gone...out of sight, out of use!

* At the end of the month we figure out if we have any money left over from the month then this gets moved to savings. Again, out of sight, out of use.

* We leave some wiggle room in our budget. We have a miscellaneous category and it gets used up every single month. You know, for those things that just happen and don't really fit in any particular category but always add up.

*We have a monthly budget meeting. This is when we transfer savings, adjust categories if needed, write tithe checks, etc. It is good for us to be on the same page and talk through stuff.


Now lest you should think we have it all together let me quickly put a stop to that!! We always, ALWAYS go over in at least a few categories of our budget- can we say eating out :) We would do well to follow Dave's advice and stick to the envelope system in this area. Ugh, but I really don't want to.


We started out using Quicken Online for our budget and then when they were taken over by Mint.com we just switched to Mint. I really do not like Mint.com. We have found it to be very user unfriendly and dumb (haha, as dumb as a computer program could be). Quicken used to "learn" from how we categorized transactions and then automatically apply that to future similar transactions. Mint doesn't do this and it drives us crazy.


So I need your help. Do you use a budgeting website or software that you recommend? Please pass it on! Also share any tips you have of what works well for you.

Note: I asked Aaron what picture I should use for this post and he readily modeled for me. No actual restaurant savings cards were harmed during this photo shoot.