Budgeting tips!

[Rosencrantz]

Decided I want to be able to visit my long distance friends and pay taxes and not die poor, so I've started getting more serious about my money these past months and was wondering if people had tips!

Things I've done:

Got budget apps for my ipod so I have to record each transaction and be able to see how much I'm allowed to spend each month. (Recently upgraded so YNAB aka You Need A Budget which lets me set amounts by category like such and such for groceries, savings, bills, emergencies, etc)

Removed my credit card from itunes where I get my movie and comics and let myself have a monthly budget of a gift card (trying to figure out how to do this with amazon!)

Wrote down all my big expense dates like taxes and car insurance.

It's working pretty well, but anyone have other tips?

[elvenwine26]

I try to leave my debit card at home and only take it out once a week when I go to the store and get gas for my car.  Leaving it home tends to work best for me. 

[NovelNerd]

I actually started doing some more budget stuff before Christmas...but mine is that I cannot buy stuff, so I don't.

[MikeysGrrrl]

I'm all about budgeting, I do up a 3 month budget, aside from rent, cell, cable, food, I also include categories for ponies and other interests so I don't have to worry about going over.

When I'm doing shopping, I make sure I bring any coupons for items that are needed so I can save just that little bit extra.

Since neither of us drive and we rely on taxi's for transportation, we've cut back on major shopping trips to 2x a month, anything small we can grab from a variety of places around us.

Oh and because we like to buy scratch tickets once in a while, instead of cashing in the winnings for more tickets or cash at that time, we set them aside and we'll cash them close to Christmas or whatever we want some extra money for.

I know these aren't technically budget tips, but they are little ways that we save money here and there.

[kaoskat]

Be sure to leave a small amount of your budget as "extra". It comes in very useful when you discover you need something you couldn't shove into the budget and at the end of the pay period, if it's still there you can shove it into savings.

[tinyblondie]

I make a wishlist of general things I am wanting then if I find them in store I take time to consider things such as 'is the quality of the item worth the money' and (if it is clothing) 'will this go with things already in my wardrobe'. It has honestly saved me so much money and allowed me to put the money I have saved towards bigger, better quality items that I really want while still managing to save my my holiday this summer.

Another thing I do is find out a shops return policy, the amount of times Ive bought something from a shop thinking I really wanted it only to regret it almost immediately is ridiculous. As soon as this happens I return the item and put the money in my savings account.

Also, dont get suckered in by cheap/bargain/discounted items. Shops like Primark/Penneys in the UK sell super cheap clothing, accessories and even homeware and beauty products. You may think you're getting a good deal but because things are so cheap its easy to get loads of stuff that cost more than you want to spend. I was so close to buying all the new MLP stuff from Primark last week as they were all around the £5 mark which sounded great to me. But when I added up the total I realized I was going to be spending around £30! The things didn't fit me properly and I never wear T-Shirts anyway so I ultimately decided to put the things back and save the money for my wishlist items.

I hope this helps, its certainly helped me. Ive saved around £50 this month by not buying excessive cheap things. It really made me think about my spending and how much I could save if I cut down even more.

Good Luck!

[Rosencrantz]

Kaos and Tiny: ah! Great ideas.

I do sometimes get suckered in by 'it's so little!' without realizing it all adds up.

[Thunderwing]

Try to avoid the little things as much as possible - like eating out at McD's, or coffee from the coffee shop. A daily coffee at the coffee shop ads up to a lot by the end of the year!  See if there are things you can live without - call answering, satellite tv? 

[Honeycomb]

I remember someone here once posted about a budgeting plan using fictive "jars" for the different spendings. That sounded like a fantastic idea, I wish I could remember the name ...

[Corona]

I remember someone here once posted about a budgeting plan using fictive "jars" for the different spendings. That sounded like a fantastic idea, I wish I could remember the name ...

That would be Gail Vaz-Oxlade's budgeting plan. I'm using her worksheets while I work on budgets to get my first apartment.

[Honeycomb]

Awesome!! Thanks for the link, Corona!!! Going to save it now!