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TLG James posted:There isn't a way in Mint to actually account for one time expenses is there? Like buying a new car. Even if you set a goal, there doesn't seem to be a way to use that "goal money" so your budget doesn't turn red. I'm unsure how goals link to the budget, but you can either create a one time category in the budget for that month or you could create the category and the budget the amount you save each month and have that category rollover.
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Sep 23, 2013 02:00
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 16:29 |
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I think you could get a pretty good idea by looking at what a 2-3 year old car, that is similar to what you want, costs now and base the number on that.
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Feb 2, 2014 17:04
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Emergency fund should be for things are required immediately and aren't predictable. I think a good example is health as it has some routine expenses, medication, couple visits to the doctor every year, etc, which should all be budgeted for and then something like breaking your arm which is, for most people at least, completely unpredictable and expensive.
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Apr 26, 2014 15:22
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I wouldn't have any relation between when you get paid and your budget. You budget $X per month and then track your spending against that.
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May 1, 2014 20:14
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Cruseydr posted:His comparison is not car vs stocks, it's the following: This comparison still isn't accurate as in option b you have to pay 22k over 5 years. Either option b needs to pull the payments from the investment lowering returns or option a needs to account for the extra money that you would presumably invest. If we do the second option, option a earns $5.8k off investments, which may still make option b worth it, but the difference is around $3k, not $9k.
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Oct 6, 2014 19:27
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I don't think Mint does any sort of forward projection. Assuming you don't want to buy something I'd just use Mint and then quickly calculate the forward projection in a spreadsheet.
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Mar 28, 2015 19:39
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You can zoom in on the pie chart by clicking the sections.
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Apr 20, 2015 22:00
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Why does it matter that an expense is irregular if it's expected? Determine how much you want to spend on each thing over the course of the year and then budget that amount divided by 12 each month . How you keep track of the money doesn't really matter, both a spreadsheet and separate bank accounts seems overkill, but whatever works. If you need a new car within a year, why are you not budgeting for it? It's in the past, but the same question is applicable to the wedding. You basically mention it in the first paragraph, but your budget only accounts for fixed monthly expenses and budgeting only that won't work. Very few expenses are unexpected so you should look back at your spending over the past year or two and either budget for the irregular stuff or cut it.
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Sep 7, 2015 18:24
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drat Bananas posted:Not number specific, but formatting question. I'm curious about other budgetors' opinions on how specific to make their categories. I've been keeping a spreadsheet of my expenses for the past few months to just observe where money is going - no sweeping lifestyle changes are planned yet because things are comfy for now. But after trying to make my spreadsheet into monthly pie charts (I love chart-y visuals) it turns into just a bunch of noise because I have nearly 30 freaking lines under expenses, and 6 lines for income. I just like being super duper specific, I guess! Is there a downside to being too specific with budget categories? Do people tend to prefer one giant category for "discretionary" vs what I have been doing: personal care, shopping, outings, gaming, netflix, gifts, vacation, subscriptions.... those are all mostly discretionary by definition but I feel like they'd be a pretty hefty nondescript pie chart chunk if I combined them. Here is the sidebar part of my budget spreadsheet, and for reference my topbar headers are Jan-Dec, and then at the end is "total", "average", and (ideal/proposed) "budget" for each category. A misc or discretionary budget category that is not further broken out is a terrible idea if you are trying to reduce spending as it lets you spend on anything and shove it in that category. I'd make your budget as detailed as possible, but group similar items together under a higher category and for the monthly pie charts make them with the higher categories.
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Sep 16, 2015 06:51
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Irritated Goat posted:My only thing with Mint is there's no way to cut out some shared accounts I have that don't count towards my funds. I'm leaning towards Mint if I can get that fixed. Assigning categories is no big deal. Mint is an awful budgeting tool, but you can hide any account by going to Accounts -> Hide (top right) and select to either hide from Budget and Trends or Everywhere.
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Jan 9, 2016 23:21
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You just need to continue saving until you have enough to cover a full month ahead. YNAB is just a budgeting tool that would replace your spreadsheet.
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Jan 12, 2016 21:20
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Can you not get a cheaper apartment? You seem to be making it work, but spending over a third of your income on a 2 bedroom apartment when you live alone seems like a gigantic waste. Your combined category of groceries, fuel, and consumables doesn't really make sense. Not sure what you expect under the consumable category, but I would put fuel as a separate category under car. Not sure if it's intentional, but your conversion from both quarterly and monthly to fortnight aren't correct.
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Mar 6, 2016 17:10
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 16:29 |
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TraderStav posted:Good catch. A decent rule of thumb is ~$250/mo/pp for groceries. That could be high/low depending on your tastes, but a decent benchmark to look at. That would mean you're dining out at $1,000/mo (assuming $250 for groceries, problem with %s...) for you alone? That's crazy. I have a family of five and we routinely spend about $250-300/mo for ALL of us. Huge area to cut back right there. I'm guessing you're either letting a lot of groceries going to waste/rot or being excessive on your socializing. A percent is about $56 if we assume the middle of the range he gave. He's spending very little on groceries, a lot on lunches and eating out. Internet is expensive as well as the rest of the utilities.
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Sep 11, 2017 19:34
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