Knyteguy's Finances: More harebrained schemes than a sitcom dad

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Knyteguy's Finances: More harebrained schemes than a sitcom dad

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Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Slow Motion posted:

Gonna post photos of the food I cook for myself here to motivate you Knyte. WOOOOooo spartan August.

I can never tell if you're being sincere Slo Mo, but if you are just remember that talk is cheap. I hope you are being sincere though.

On that note however I think it would be fun to have a frugal cookoff some time.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:02

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# ? May 9, 2024 06:01

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Knyteguy posted:

We have an additional $5,400 in income (again conservative) coming in this month so we should still be on track to meeting our larger goal at hand, which is saving $3,800 this month (August).

Is this number taking into consideration the fact that you don't have to pay rent for the month? So you're "saving" more in August by "missing" in July?

EDIT: It also appears that you're doing the same thing with groceries. Spend more in July so you can be under budget in August. This may be incidental, but be careful that you're not playing mental gymnastics.

Bugamol fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Jul 30, 2014

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:07

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Bugamol posted:

Is this number taking into consideration the fact that you don't have to pay rent for the month? So you're "saving" more in August by "missing" in July?

EDIT: It also appears that you're doing the same thing with groceries. Spend more in July so you can be under budget in August. This may be incidental, but be careful that you're not playing mental gymnastics.

It's incidental - we're counting it against our budget. So we have $130.00 left in groceries according to our budget in August. I'm not trying to fool anyone, including myself.

Rent was really paid for in July though. I consulted the YNAB thread for the best way to do it. We technically paid rent twice since we couldn't move in on the first of the month. Our expenses in September will go up aptly, and our income will go down because my wife will only be paid twice like normal. August is probably one of the best opportunities we'll get to save for awhile.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:27

n8r: Jul 3, 2003; I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar

This sounds simple and easy to understand, carry on.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:34

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Knyteguy posted:

It's incidental - we're counting it against our budget. So we have $130.00 left in groceries according to our budget in August. I'm not trying to fool anyone, including myself.

Rent was really paid for in July though. I consulted the YNAB thread for the best way to do it. We technically paid rent twice since we couldn't move in on the first of the month. Our expenses in September will go up aptly, and our income will go down because my wife will only be paid twice like normal. August is probably one of the best opportunities we'll get to save for awhile.

The fact that you have a gaming computer on your budget scares me. Please don't use the opportunity that you have a higher cash flow in August to buy a gaming computer.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:34

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Also I don't use YNAB, but why is the repayment to your personal debt negative for the month? Does this mean you borrowed more money?

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:38

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

I would roll those items over month to month myself, being you're paying yourself back for them in August.

Bugamol posted:

Also I don't use YNAB, but why is the repayment to your personal debt negative for the month? Does this mean you borrowed more money?

I think it's a write off of debt being the end balance is 0. If you look at Misc, that means he made money (return of hand truck maybe?) in the category. I do this for "eBay sales" as I book my selling fees and shipping costs there, and then offset it with the PayPal transfer. If I made 100, and had 20 in fees/shipping, I will book 80 Available for <current month> and 20 eBay Sales. Sometimes I don't transfer money out of PayPal before the end of the month and so I'll carry over a negative balance, and then offset it the next month with a negative budget amount.

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jul 30, 2014

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:39

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not a huge fan of YNAB personally. It works for people that can make it work (ie saving up a month's worth of expenses). However I feel like it gives really poor line of sight to getting to that goal. It's almost as if the program needs two functions.

Step 1: Budget / Goals to reach 1 months savings
Step 2: Convert to traditional YNAB

EDIT: The program may facilitate this in some way, but I see people floundering often times. I like a traditional budget personally. IE Category, Budget, Spend, Variance. Simple excel worksheet does the trick.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 20:53

Inverse Icarus: Dec 4, 2003; I run SyncRPG, and produce original, digital content for the Pathfinder RPG, designed from the ground up to be played online.

Knyteguy posted:

$15.00 towards the baby fund.

I'm only half-following the thread, but this jumped out at me. I know it's only a partial budget or whatever you said, but I'm very curious what you have saved up in this "baby fund," how much you plan to add to it every week/month/whatever, and how much you plan to have available when the baby is born.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 21:03

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Bugamol posted:

The fact that you have a gaming computer on your budget scares me. Please don't use the opportunity that you have a higher cash flow in August to buy a gaming computer.

I don't think my computer has many years left, but I've put that on hold for now. Really I only need a new mobo/processor/case since I tend to do incremental upgrades. However this is probably a year+ down the road. I think it's important to note that my computer can be pretty pivotal to my career; it's not just for Facebook stuff.

Bugamol posted:

Also I don't use YNAB, but why is the repayment to your personal debt negative for the month? Does this mean you borrowed more money?

No we didn't borrow anything. Assuming you're talking about my wife's grandma it is because we were planning to give her extra money ASAP, but we pulled the money we had saved in June for that and used it for different purposes (it went to our emergency fund instead). They have a payment plan already anyway so I think if we stick to that there won't be any hard feelings.

SiGmA_X posted:

I would roll those items over month to month myself, being you're paying yourself back for them in August.
I think it's a write off of debt being the end balance is 0. If you look at Misc, that means he made money (return of hand truck maybe?) in the category. I do this for "eBay sales" as I book my selling fees and shipping costs there, and then offset it with the PayPal transfer. If I made 100, and had 20 in fees/shipping, I will book 80 Available for <current month> and 20 eBay Sales. Sometimes I don't transfer money out of PayPal before the end of the month and so I'll carry over a negative balance, and then offset it the next month with a negative budget amount.

OK maybe we'll roll them over for clarification once everything clears and we're reconciled with the with bank. We also do that sometimes with Paypal business stuff (this month will be one of them assuming my client pays their invoices).

Bugamol posted:

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not a huge fan of YNAB personally. It works for people that can make it work (ie saving up a month's worth of expenses). However I feel like it gives really poor line of sight to getting to that goal. It's almost as if the program needs two functions.

Step 1: Budget / Goals to reach 1 months savings
Step 2: Convert to traditional YNAB

EDIT: The program may facilitate this in some way, but I see people floundering often times. I like a traditional budget personally. IE Category, Budget, Spend, Variance. Simple excel worksheet does the trick.

YNAB I think excels at keeping at least us informed with exactly how much money we have. We used to overdraft often, but we haven't done that since we've started using it.

I think we're going to follow Sigma's plan and start to use both YNAB and Excel. I.e: we'll forecast with Excel and budget with YNAB. I'll also just continue to post a monthly budget here so we know what our expected limits are while we build up 1 months expenses (that helped in July). Really though we should be close to that come Sept.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 21:04

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Inverse Icarus posted:

I'm only half-following the thread, but this jumped out at me. I know it's only a partial budget or whatever you said, but I'm very curious what you have saved up in this "baby fund," how much you plan to add to it every week/month/whatever, and how much you plan to have available when the baby is born.

We don't really have a hard goal for this yet, but I'm thinking $5,000 will be more than enough (not including medical fees which is our HSA account). I'm pretty much just focused on getting our emergency fund setup right now, and we can re-purpose some of that for the baby if necessary. Almost all of our furniture is already taken care of by relatives & friends (crib, nursing chair, car seat). One of the benefits of having a baby later than most everyone else I guess.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 21:08

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

I would highly recommend setting up some sort of budget in excel, or better utilize YNAB. It seems that you're almost using YNAB as a way to track spending rather than actually budgeting, but again I'm no expert at that program.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 21:49

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Bugamol posted:

I would highly recommend setting up some sort of budget in excel, or better utilize YNAB. It seems that you're almost using YNAB as a way to track spending rather than actually budgeting, but again I'm no expert at that program.

At the moment we probably use it more like Mint, yea. It works well for this though because our credit union won't connect with Mint. YNAB is slow to get going, but eventually I do want to use it for budgeting purposes as well; we just need the capital first.

I'll take your advice and try to get a quick spreadsheet budget going after I'm finished with work for the day. It will probably be me just entering whole values from YNAB instead, and I'm going to generalize the categories instead of getting specific like we do with YNAB too. Maybe I'll try to make some graphs too :coolfish:

I'll take the opportunity to recategorize YNAB finally as well. Wife is working until 10:30pm at the earliest so I'll have some free time tonight.

Edit nevermind got lazy. This weekend I'll find some time instead.

Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 30, 2014 22:02

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

You can export your budget from YNAB. It's a good starting point for sure. I did a text-to-columns to have multiple levels so I could make a nice pivot table summarizing our expenses. It has a long way to go IMO but I'm getting it to a better point constantly. And still reconciling YNAB, too.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 01:26

Problem!: Jan 1, 2007; I am the queen of France.

If we're sharing slow cooker recipes, a pot roast, one can of tomato soup and one can of cream of celery soup is cheap and drat tasty.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 01:45

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

OK I put the Excel stuff on hold for the moment since I forgot I need to install Excel on my desktop at home. I'll make something neat this weekend (I like Slo Mo's graphs).

I also just re-remembered through reading the YNAB thread that I can roll values over to affect the budget this month instead of just taking away income, so I did that. I didn't realize that's what you meant Sigma; I thought you meant change the date on all the relevant transactions. I think in this particular scenario that is OK. The Aug budget looks a little more like a budget now.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 17:50

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Knyteguy posted:

OK I put the Excel stuff on hold for the moment since I forgot I need to install Excel on my desktop at home. I'll make something neat this weekend (I like Slo Mo's graphs).

I also just re-remembered through reading the YNAB thread that I can roll values over to affect the budget this month instead of just taking away income, so I did that. I didn't realize that's what you meant Sigma; I thought you meant change the date on all the relevant transactions. I think in this particular scenario that is OK. The Aug budget looks a little more like a budget now.

If you answer some various questions for me I can set you up an excel template that you can import your bank statements into. You'd need to give me a sample of your bank statement download so I can align the columns (you can change the numbers or whatever).

I'd need to know:
How often you get paid and what amounts (bi weekly, weekly, monthly, etc) for all incomes.
Your current reoccuring (ie bills) spend budget by category
Your current non-reoccuring (ie groceries, entertainment) spend budget by category
Your current reoccuring savings budget by category
How many accounts you have and their balances (ie savings, checking) (so the spreadsheet will update your balances accordingly)
Your current debts, balances, and interest rates (so the spreadsheet will calculate a rolling balance based on your payments)
What version of excel you use (so I don't use formulas you don't have access to)

EDIT: Clarified a few requirements

EDIT 2: Alternatively if you give me a download of your last 3-6 months bank statement (assuming you only have one bank) I can make my best guesses on what you should be doing.

Bugamol fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 18:40

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Bugamol posted:

If you answer some various questions for me I can set you up an excel template that you can import your bank statements into. You'd need to give me a sample of your bank statement download so I can align the columns (you can change the numbers or whatever).

I'd need to know:
How often you get paid and what amounts (bi weekly, weekly, monthly, etc) for all incomes.
Your current reoccuring (ie bills) spend budget by category
Your current non-reoccuring (ie groceries, entertainment) spend budget by category
Your current reoccuring savings budget by category
How many accounts you have and their balances (ie savings, checking) (so the spreadsheet will update your balances accordingly)
Your current debts, balances, and interest rates (so the spreadsheet will calculate a rolling balance based on your payments)
What version of excel you use (so I don't use formulas you don't have access to)

EDIT: Clarified a few requirements

EDIT 2: Alternatively if you give me a download of your last 3-6 months bank statement (assuming you only have one bank) I can make my best guesses on what you should be doing.

I would love a copy of this. It can all be blank, I can setup the macros and formatting, I just would like to see what you're thinking of.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 20:28

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

SiGmA_X posted:

I would love a copy of this. It can all be blank, I can setup the macros and formatting, I just would like to see what you're thinking of.

My work blocks pretty much every site I could upload to, but I'll upload a blank template when I get home. It requires very basic manipulation to get working (ie adding/deleting lines with a few minor tweaks), so if you have a strong Excel background it should be pretty easy to use.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 21:14

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Below is an image of the budget with some generic/template items. I have another tab for debt balances which has the interest rate / fees (if applicable) which is why the debt balances are negative (I didn't set it up to have a payment go against it). The same items in debt balances would be under bills and they would cross update. There's a final tab which stores all of the transactional data which I either hand input if I'm trying to get to ending/current account balances, or updated via a download .csv

Bugamol fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 22:43

Aagar: Mar 30, 2006; E/N Gestapo
I am talking to a mod right now about getting you probated/banned/gassed

Bugamol posted:

Below is an image of the budget with some generic/template items. I have another tab for debt balances which has the interest rate / fees (if applicable) which is why the debt balances are negative (I didn't set it up to have a payment go against it). The same items in debt balances would be under bills and they would cross update. There's a final tab which stores all of the transactional data which I either hand input if I'm trying to get to ending/current account balances, or updated via a download .csv

I don't know about anyone else, but that is a hell of a lot easier for me to read. Well done, Bugamol.

Knyte - please take Bugamol up on his generous offer.

Edit: I would like a copy as well if your sending the file.

Aagar fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 23:23

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Aagar posted:

I don't know about anyone else, but that is a hell of a lot easier for me to read. Well done, Bugamol.

Knyte - please take Bugamol up on his generous offer.

I like that a lot too.

Bugamol posted:

Below is an image of the budget with some generic/template items. I have another tab for debt balances which has the interest rate / fees (if applicable) which is why the debt balances are negative (I didn't set it up to have a payment go against it). The same items in debt balances would be under bills and they would cross update. There's a final tab which stores all of the transactional data which I either hand input if I'm trying to get to ending/current account balances, or updated via a download .csv

Fantastic work! I would love a copy when you get home

# ? Jul 31, 2014 23:28

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

I'll upload the template somewhere when I get home. If anyone wants me to set theirs up just send me a PM with the details I asked Knyteguy (or send me bank statements and I'll do it for).

EDIT: I do realize one of my formulas is broken in the screenshot. It's because I somewhat broke it while templatizing it and hadn't done a full redundancy check review on it.

EDIT: Got caught up with poo poo at home so didn't upload this. I'll figure out a work around tomorrow morning at work to get it uploaded. I didn't forget.

Bugamol fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Aug 1, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 23:55

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Hey Bugamol on my phone and we are finishing up cleaning the old place since tomorrow is the first. I would totally appreciate the budget but I will answer the questions. I don't want you to have to slog through the bank statements. I will answer those as soon as I can. Cheers!

# ? Aug 1, 2014 04:23

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

I can't upload anywhere at work. I made some revision to the template. I may have understated how much Excel you need to know in order to get it working from scratch, but I did some additional legwork to try and make it easier. I'm more than willing to set people up with their own customized template at which point you would only need to fill in transactions (unless you wanted to make major changes).

If you PM me your e-mail (or put it here in a reply) I can send you the basic template. To get it working you essentially need to fill in your bills, expenses, income, balances, and tie in an identifier. For any debts you also need to fill out the debt tracker page with interest rates and any annual fees. When logging a transaction you have to fill in two columns. The first is the spend identifier IE "RENT" and the second is which account in came out of "CHECK1" etc.. I've put in some dummy transactions to hopefully help people logic through it, and below are a few screenshots with examples.

Budget with unhidden columns:

I normally hide the identifier column and + / - columns under balances

Transaction input:

For something like savings it's a "negative" to check1, but will get picked up as a "positive" to save1.

I'm also willing to answer any questions / help people along if they want to use it.

EDIT: For anyone wanting to know how much Excel you would need to "easily" navigate it below is a sample formula:

=SUMIFS('trans upload'!$E:$E,'trans upload'!$G:$G,J12,'trans upload'!$A:$A,">="&EOMONTH('monthly budget'!I2,-1)+1,'trans upload'!$A:$A,"<="&EOMONTH('monthly budget'!I2,0))+(K12*(SUMIFS('debt tracker'!$D:$D,'debt tracker'!$B:$B,J12)/12))+(SUMIFS('debt tracker'!$E:$E,'debt tracker'!$B:$B,J12)/12)

Bugamol fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Aug 1, 2014

# ? Aug 1, 2014 16:14

Happiness Commando: Feb 1, 2002; $$ joy at gunpoint $$

Bugamol's template is available here: http://www8.zippyshare.com/v/91979262/file.html

# ? Aug 1, 2014 19:41

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

To add more months to the template just copy and paste BN:CC into CD and then the equivalent cell references going forward. It will update all the formulas automatically.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 19:49

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

So Bugamol I'm not really Excel savvy, but I've used it in the past (including a few macros and stuff). Where/what cell exactly would I paste that macro into to allow easy navigation? I think I can manage from there if I mess around with it.

Thanks for all the work you put into this. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who will get some use out of it.

I don't know the amount of market competition, but have you thought about throwing it up on eBay or something? Might be able to snag $5.00-$10.00 a sale with the screenshots you posted and maybe a little FAQ or guide.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 20:05

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

I've thought about it, but charging people to help them get out debt isn't really in my interest. Other than "MORE MONEY IS ALWAYS GOOD". I don't really need the money either. And if I don't charge no one can get mad at me if I just ignore them because I'm busy with other things.

EDIT: The only thing you should need to do to get this working for August 1st is to clear out any transactions I've got for testing on the transaction tab. Then simply remove any categories you're not using (delete cells, shift cells up, should work, don't delete the entire row). Alternatively just fill it in for August and debt tracker, send it back to me, I'll clean it up and send it back to you.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 20:19

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Bugamol posted:

I've thought about it, but charging people to help them get out debt isn't really in my interest. Other than "MORE MONEY IS ALWAYS GOOD". I don't really need the money either. And if I don't charge no one can get mad at me if I just ignore them because I'm busy with other things.

EDIT: The only thing you should need to do to get this working for August 1st is to clear out any transactions I've got for testing on the transaction tab. Then simply remove any categories you're not using (delete cells, shift cells up, should work, don't delete the entire row). Alternatively just fill it in for August and debt tracker, send it back to me, I'll clean it up and send it back to you.

OK I may need your help cleaning it up if you see something that doesn't look right here. Again thanks a lot for sharing. The forecasting information is nice because YNAB doesn't offer that.

So here is the new budget. I upped the discretionary spending to what I think will be more realistic.

If all ends up according to plan we will have a little over $4,500.00 and I can watch my football programs without being banned :dance:

# ? Aug 2, 2014 03:28

Aagar: Mar 30, 2006; E/N Gestapo
I am talking to a mod right now about getting you probated/banned/gassed

Knyteguy posted:

OK I may need your help cleaning it up if you see something that doesn't look right here. Again thanks a lot for sharing. The forecasting information is nice because YNAB doesn't offer that.

So here is the new budget. I upped the discretionary spending to what I think will be more realistic.

If all ends up according to plan we will have a little over $4,500.00 and I can watch my football programs without being banned

Man, is it easy to follow. You might want to remove your real names, though.

A few thoughts:

1. Your combined "Grocery" and "Household" was $650 for June, and $750 for July (higher I'm guessing because of the move). You have cut this to a total of $270, which could be too drastic (see commentary below).

2. Add rent (see commentary below).

3. In July you paid $50 for internet, but in Aug. only budgeted $33. Is it cheaper after the move?

4. IMO you need to add the categories that aren't necessarily part of your month-to-month so that you are earmarking that money even if you aren't spending it every month. Examples: car repair, vacation, baby, etc.

Commentary: All of my suggestions ultimately have to do with the advice that has come throughout the thread that a budget is about living within your means rather than a means of tracking and planning spending. This scene played out in the Cornholio thread as well (I am reading it now - page 160/201 - and would highly recommend you do the same) - it confused everyone for months how he was "budgeting" (he rarely posted any numbers) until someone asked if he was just anticipating next month's expenses and then writing up a new budget.

I'm not saying that the tracking/planning approach can't work, but it just seems like a lot of work compared to one that takes everything into account from the outset. Why I mentioned adding rent, over-budgeting rather than under-budgeting, including expenses not paid month-to-month - it all comes down to a combination of a more realistic view of you finances, but also a more positive psychological impact. I'll explain the latter because it sounds like new-age babble.

Take two scenarios:

1. Your budget: At the end of August you spend $300 on groceries, $100 on household goods, $50 on internet, $100 on clothing, and $300 on blow and entertainment (all else comes out even to expectations). You will be over your spending by a total of $250, and might feel bummed that you went over budget.

2. The alternative: By including rent ($700), better estimating Grocery/Household ($400), and overestimating internet ($50), your sheet will be in the black overall (because you paid $0 for rent), and your overspending over all categories will be much less ($100 between clothing and entertainment/blow).

The long-term benefit is obvious - if you have repairs, baby, etc. categories with good estimations, you will avoid the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of "unexpected" expenses. Again, two scenarios:

1. Your budget: In November 2014 you car runs through a police blockade where they lay down that spiked cable, blowing all of your tires and costing $800. You take this out of your savings and are upset that you didn't save as much this month because of bad luck.

2. The alternative: In your budget you always had $200/mo earmarked for car maintenance/repairs. So you spend the $800 knowing that you were going to spend this money all along, and while not happy you don't feel like you're getting hosed.

Anyway, those are my 5:00 AM Saturday morning thoughts. I know the secondary goal is to beat SloMo, so you want the numbers as lean as possible, but it's the actual that counts in the end. Also he's probably going to turn up in a gutter in Reno after a Red Bull binge wondering why he's half naked and $8K in the hole for the month.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 10:33

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

I don't budget the way the above poster does, but I 100% see the pros of doing it that way. I budget my entire year in January and budget months for when I know certain expenses are coming up. I then just budget a generic amount every month for "emergency expense" which is separate from my "emergency fund".

EDIT: I think the above poster subscribes to the $120 for registration due in December so budget $10 a month. I would just put the $120 in my December budget.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 17:54

spwrozek: Sep 4, 2006; Sail when it's windy

The reason people suggest the other way is of you are on a tight budget you will not have the funds of you don't save. People who spend all the money they make for example. And then you are back in the pay day loan cycle or going without insurance.

# ? Aug 2, 2014 18:53

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Aagar posted:

Man, is it easy to follow. You might want to remove your real names, though.

A few thoughts:

1. Your combined "Grocery" and "Household" was $650 for June, and $750 for July (higher I'm guessing because of the move). You have cut this to a total of $270, which could be too drastic (see commentary below).

2. Add rent (see commentary below).

3. In July you paid $50 for internet, but in Aug. only budgeted $33. Is it cheaper after the move?

4. IMO you need to add the categories that aren't necessarily part of your month-to-month so that you are earmarking that money even if you aren't spending it every month. Examples: car repair, vacation, baby, etc.

Commentary: All of my suggestions ultimately have to do with the advice that has come throughout the thread that a budget is about living within your means rather than a means of tracking and planning spending. This scene played out in the Cornholio thread as well (I am reading it now - page 160/201 - and would highly recommend you do the same) - it confused everyone for months how he was "budgeting" (he rarely posted any numbers) until someone asked if he was just anticipating next month's expenses and then writing up a new budget.

I'm not saying that the tracking/planning approach can't work, but it just seems like a lot of work compared to one that takes everything into account from the outset. Why I mentioned adding rent, over-budgeting rather than under-budgeting, including expenses not paid month-to-month - it all comes down to a combination of a more realistic view of you finances, but also a more positive psychological impact. I'll explain the latter because it sounds like new-age babble.

Take two scenarios:

1. Your budget: At the end of August you spend $300 on groceries, $100 on household goods, $50 on internet, $100 on clothing, and $300 on blow and entertainment (all else comes out even to expectations). You will be over your spending by a total of $250, and might feel bummed that you went over budget.

2. The alternative: By including rent ($700), better estimating Grocery/Household ($400), and overestimating internet ($50), your sheet will be in the black overall (because you paid $0 for rent), and your overspending over all categories will be much less ($100 between clothing and entertainment/blow).

The long-term benefit is obvious - if you have repairs, baby, etc. categories with good estimations, you will avoid the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of "unexpected" expenses. Again, two scenarios:

1. Your budget: In November 2014 you car runs through a police blockade where they lay down that spiked cable, blowing all of your tires and costing $800. You take this out of your savings and are upset that you didn't save as much this month because of bad luck.

2. The alternative: In your budget you always had $200/mo earmarked for car maintenance/repairs. So you spend the $800 knowing that you were going to spend this money all along, and while not happy you don't feel like you're getting hosed.

Anyway, those are my 5:00 AM Saturday morning thoughts. I know the secondary goal is to beat SloMo, so you want the numbers as lean as possible, but it's the actual that counts in the end. Also he's probably going to turn up in a gutter in Reno after a Red Bull binge wondering why he's half naked and $8K in the hole for the month.

OK the rent and groceries are already accounted for the budget just doesn't reflect that. I would have to adjust the income and make everything inaccurate to do so. The number there is what we have left to supplement through the month. If we upped our groceries we would be spending $600.00 which won't happen I don't think. Same with rent since we paid for that in July.

Internet there is actually a router I wanted to pick up (will pay for itself in a about 10 months). The new bill should be I think $27.99 but I don't have our first bill yet.

I'll try to get through the Cornholio thread. I still need to read that one, Zaurg's, and Tuyop's. I'm only really caught up on SloMo and a couple other guys that stopped posting their threads.

I'm going to stick with YNAB and Bugamol's spreadsheet for the moment to see which works best for us (and it might be just practical enough to continue to do both since I like what both offers), but next month's budget will look more like a normal budget with the spreadsheet. It's just the way stuff worked out and I don't want to go through all the trouble to fix it when I know what the real numbers are (rent: $1,1xx groceries: $400).

I do know that with the spreadsheet I like being able to be like oh cool I have $75.00 in blow money so I can buy this $3 beer, where in YNAB I can't really budget for the whole month and then it feels like I'm trapped since other things took priority and I don't want to unbudget from emergency/savings.

You guys are right that I need to categorize more, so I'll use this month as a test. I'm not sure if I want to budget big expenses every month like YNAB or just take it out of savings when needed like Bugamol mentioned.

Bugamol on your spreadsheet do I bother with savings goals? Or is it all considered money in the bank and it gets used as needed for stuff like big expenses?

# ? Aug 2, 2014 21:33

Aagar: Mar 30, 2006; E/N Gestapo
I am talking to a mod right now about getting you probated/banned/gassed

Bugamol posted:

I don't budget the way the above poster does...

Please, call me Aagar. "Above poster" sounds so formal. I know I've just started posting in BFC, but still.

Also I completely understand and appreciate your system as well - my advice (as spwrozek pointed out) is more for people new to a budget and/or living paycheck to paycheck. I want to have my budget more like yours, but since I've never had one I want to test drive the month-to-month to see how feasible it is/where we need to reign in spending. After that I think it will be much easier to budget over a year and not care about month-to-month fluxutation as long as the yearly bottom line is acheived.

Knyteguy posted:

I'll try to get through the Cornholio thread. I still need to read that one, Zaurg's, and Tuyop's. I'm only really caught up on SloMo and a couple other guys that stopped posting their threads.

In my mind Cornholio is the best, because you can actually track when he finally understands the advice given and how his action on that advice affects his bottom line. I assume Tuyop is the same (that's my next project), while Zaurg and Slow Motion are mere cautionary tales (though maybe there is some ultimate redemption for SloMo, but it has yet to be proven).

quote:

You guys are right that I need to categorize more, so I'll use this month as a test. I'm not sure if I want to budget big expenses every month like YNAB or just take it out of savings when needed like Bugamol mentioned.

I believe that is the right attitude - try it as a test and see if it's right for you. As long as you're flexible and can change your system as necessary or switch to something different if the existing system is a failure, you are ultimately moving towards having more freedom financially, which is all that really matters.

# ? Aug 3, 2014 01:11

n8r: Jul 3, 2003; I helped Lowtax become a cyborg and all I got was this lousy avatar

Knyteguy posted:

Internet there is actually a router I wanted to pick up (will pay for itself in a about 10 months). The new bill should be I think $27.99 but I don't have our first bill yet.

How does a router pay for itself?

# ? Aug 3, 2014 04:58

Kiwi Ghost Chips: Feb 19, 2011; Start using the best desktop environment now!
Choose KDE!

His ISP probably charges a rental fee.

# ? Aug 3, 2014 05:03

Knyteguy: Jul 6, 2005; YES to love
NO to shirts; Toilet Rascal

Aagar thanks. I read Cornholio's thread up to a certain point; I will find some time to finish it.

n8r posted:

How does a router pay for itself?

Our internet company charges $5.00/mo to rent a wireless router, and there was also a $40.00 service fee just to set that up. I actually just exchanged the one we purchased for a better one (old was really terrible) so yea it will take about 10 months but then it's done and we're net positive.

# ? Aug 3, 2014 05:06

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

Our internet company charges $5.00/mo to rent a wireless router, and there was also a $40.00 service fee just to set that up. I actually just exchanged the one we purchased for a better one (old was really terrible) so yea it will take about 10 months but then it's done and we're net positive.

Rip! Much like leasing anything except housing (kinda sorta, depending on your financial picture and all for the housing one) its never the better option. My modem has been paying me for the last 5 months! I hope it doesn't die anytime soon, but the warranty covers it for another 10 months, and I broke even at 9mo, so if it does die, meh! Its also faster than the Comcast-supplied modems, from what I've seen... And its MINE! And cheaper!

# ? Aug 3, 2014 07:41

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# ? May 9, 2024 06:01

Bugamol: Aug 2, 2006

Knyteguy posted:

Bugamol on your spreadsheet do I bother with savings goals? Or is it all considered money in the bank and it gets used as needed for stuff like big expenses?

I don't. I track my savings goals differently, but for you it might be a good idea to just add some dummy "buffer accounts" under Checking / Savings etc that aren't real account, but allow you to accumulate dollars. I can set it up for you if you need it. As other people have mentioned, outstanding any major foresight into future expenses the majority of your spending buckets shouldn't change month to month. I personally don't "roll over" my excess as some do, but again if you think that would be helpful I can set the spreadsheet up to carry over your blow category totals month to month.

# ? Aug 4, 2014 15:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Knyteguy's Finances: More harebrained schemes than a sitcom dad

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