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Thank you for the incredibly well written, thought out post. The only thing I would emphasize is that this is something that you need to do every month, but it gets way easier as you do it. Every month will be different. Each month brings its own opportunities and challenges. It's a good idea to perhaps do a quick overview of the year, but with the different software options, it's possible to get bogged down trying to analyze and create the perfect, average month that will see you through. For instance you might budget $500 in various giving in December, but nothing in March. March might be one of those magic months when you get the extra paycheck, so that will look different than April. In June your sister is getting married. You need to plan out every month, how you are going to cover things and what your goals are. Like PhantomOfTheCopier said, keep track how you are doing and analyze analzye. Your budget needs to be realistic. You can't decide you are going to pay off $1000 in debt and invest another $1000 if the only way to do it to budget $100 for food and pretend you won't spend anything on leisure. If certain categories always go over, you either lack discipline or you were not realistic about it and you need to budget more. Also if the same emergency keeps happening over and over, then it isn't an emergency and it should instead be a budget item.
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May 14, 2013 05:26
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:27 |
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Dantu posted:This is probably a very basic accounting question, but here it goes. I'm using an Excel spreadsheet to track my budget. I've started using two of my credit cards to churn points in certain categories. I was paying the cards off almost weekly through my bank but it was making me confused about where to track the money. Am I better off just paying the credit cards on the due date, for whatever the statement balance is and tracking the purchases under the category as I spend? Seems like if I do it right, my gas + groceries for one month should equal my Amex bill the next month? I’m not answering the question you are asking, but be careful. Study after study shows that when people have reward cards and they earning points they spend more. Everyone always says they are the exception to this rule, but credit card companies are not dumb and if customers with reward cards were not over time profitable, they would not offer points. I don’t care how often you make the payment, but I agree that no matter when or how often you pay, the money is spent when you buy the stuff and that is when you should be monitoring the spending and what you should be tracking.
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Jul 29, 2013 17:22
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