Do you have a budget?

amother

↑ Chicory

Wed, Aug 28 2024, 2:48 pm

amother Rose wrote:

I've been married a bit over a year and we have a budget on a spreadsheet. I'd love to switch to an app that automates it but they're not the most accurate because they can categorize things wrongly... also all the ones I looked into cost $$$

It does stress me out a bit to have to manually do it but we're very on top of it because we want to buy a house. We save about 1/3 of our post tax income and we're not even making that much because we're both young and fresh in our careers. So saving takes discipline which is where the budget comes in.

Most months' groceries are $300-$500 because I buy mostly from the non Jewish stores aside from meat and cheese. (We also go away for shabbos a lot) We don't go out to eat most months, only for special occasions and we buy takeout 1-2 times a month. We don't normally shop in frum stores for clothes (unless s/t is on a severe discount) even though we live in town, which greatly brings down our clothing expenses.

I think my husband thinks I'm a little hardcore with it but I'm pretty proud of how much discipline we have.

I'm thinking to give us a bit more guilt free spending in the next few months because I think I'm stressing my husband out.. 🙃

I’m in the same stage as you
My husband also got very stressed out lol. I eased up a little bit and we got more chilled but we still save a lot and are very careful

amother

Moccasin

Wed, Aug 28 2024, 4:09 pm

I have a general budget for certain categories (rent, car, insurance, groceries, eating out, etc. I also started using rocket money after mint closed down. It categorizes some things in the wrong place, but you can fix it and create a rule so it’s updated for the future. It’s nice to see where my money is being spent even if I don’t always stay on budget

amother

↑ Rose

Wed, Aug 28 2024, 4:31 pm

amother Chicory wrote:

I’m in the same stage as you
My husband also got very stressed out lol. I eased up a little bit and we got more chilled but we still save a lot and are very careful

Glad to hear I'm not alone 😊

mig100

Wed, Aug 28 2024, 5:34 pm

amother Lily wrote:

No budget but we spend very minimal because we still owe money to people after a investor lost all our money Sad

We probably should make a budget but we are not sure if it would really make a difference in our spending or we would just know more in detail where the money gets spent

I'm sorry. That's awful