How to Create a Budget

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > How to Create a Budget

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

Ok guys. It's :redass:

time for me. I want to get my family out of paycheck to paycheck bullshit. Right now, I use YNAB. It's great software but I don't ever have any past data because I end up forgetting some purchase somewhere, throw everything off and start fresh often. I've used Mint in the past and it was OK but didn't really use it to its full potential. I just have no idea how to start figuring out where my money goes and keep it that way so I can make a drat dent.

I realize the point of YNAB is to stop you from just going :homebrew:

with your money but gently caress, it hasn't stopped me. I need recommendations on software more than anything.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2016 20:48

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 22:48

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

Blinky2099 posted:

- YNAB and force yourself to write down every purchase on your phone, wherever you are, no matter what. I'd imagine this is a habit that you can get into within ~a month if you stay consistent. Even if you don't, just cross-check your YNAB with credit card and ATM logs and fill in the blanks.

- Mint, and force yourself to properly label each purchase during whatever interval is convenient for you (weekly, monthly.) I manually went through at the end of 2015 to try to assign correct labels to an entire years worth of purchases and it was time consuming and fairly inaccurate since it's difficult to remember what certain charges were actually for. I've scheduled a monthly "mint review" day to make sure things are labeled properly. This still doesn't fix cash purchases, but I just blanket assign all ATM cash withdrawals as entertainment/food/whatever unless I can remember to add them.

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.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2016 22:58

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

That's not really the point of YNAB, but this does lead to some questions that might help address your underlying needs. Why, do you believe, YNAB is failing for your needs? Is it only because you miss one entry, or are there other issues? You indicate having used Mint, but having no issues with it, but for some undisclosed reason you decided to drop Mint and switch to YNAB; why did you do that? What was missing from Mint?

Why do you feel that software is the solution to your issues here? What is it that you want the software to do for you, and why did you believe that either Mint or YNAB could have done it?

Repeatedly starting afresh is definitely some manner of an Eeyore Syndrome ("I knew it wouldn't work"); when it comes to money, there will always be the unexpected. One goal of proper budgeting is to reduce the overall scope of the unexpected transactions. Instead of having an entire paycheck with no idea where it's going to go, the goal is to reduce the unknowns to successively smaller categories until you have mostly stable expenses covered by mostly stable income. Being left with an "allowance" category means that you can reduce the random, minor purchases to a small, controlled category.

Based on your mis-entry comment, were I forced to guess, I would suspect that you're over-engineering your tracking. Asking for software to help with your finances might seem reasonable, but these applications could make the situation worse until the more fundamental concerns are addressed. It might well be advisable to drop all the electronic gadgets and application fads and return to basic receipts; once you get a handle on your major categories for transactions, you'll be in a better position to consider improvements to tracking and reporting. To get started, there are basic budget ledgers / budget books available at office supply stores and online that already contain major expense categories.

I'm saddened that many of the repondents are continuing their "YNAB!!! :seigheil" despite you specifically indicating that it's not working. Sheesh guys, you could put in a little bit more effort.

At the time I switched, Mint wasn't as full featured and didn't really stop me from just spending because I didn't think about it. Now, there's more with the budgeting side. My issue with YNAB is always "my budget gets out of balance". This happens to points where it is nearly impossible for me to figure out where I missed an entry, even after doing line by line with my bank account. I feel as though correcting it with a reconcile amount is almost defeating the purpose as much as starting over does. I like the structure of YNAB but I do agree that restarting over and over does nothing for my long term information.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2016 19:30

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

gariig posted:

I still feel you are dancing around what your problem is. What is your experience using YNAB or Mint and why is it not working? Maybe Dave Ramsey is appropriate here. Dave's advice is to go all cash/debit transactions so you can't float any of your expenses.

This isn't a 100% possible due to the way some bills work. My car insurance was due yesterday as an example. It still isn't out today. It probably won't be out for another 2-3 days. I don't really float anything. If I can add it\remember to add it, I will and consider it spent.

Mint may work better now but when I left, it was just barely starting the whole budgeting section. I'm not saying it wouldn't work now. I'm basing on previous experience.

YNAB works but almost feels like information overload and it's very easy for me to miss a transaction. My bank only allows me to go back 30 days online so if my discrepancy is beyond that, I'm taking time out of work to go to the bank for a hunt. There are things I love about YNAB like scheduled transactions. I just don't feel 100% sure it's what I need.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2016 20:18

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

epenthesis posted:

A 30-day limit shouldn't matter if you're reconciling monthly (or more often, as you should be doing to avoid missing transactions).

I'm not sure you can blame a system for failing you when you don't appear to be putting in any particular effort to keep it current. If you're not current with your budget, you're not going to make good spending decisions whatever tool you use.

I do put effort into keeping it up. Am I always on top of it? No but the fact I'm trying to figure out what works for me would mean I'm trying to rectify that.

Mass imports are kind of weird for some reason. They import as vendor numbers and I have to match it up. They show right on the site too.

With that said, even when I match it all up, I'm sometimes off and have no idea why.

I'm trying both right now to see what feels like I'm going to get the best information from. I'm pretty solid on not restarting YNAB if it gets out of sync with my bank. So right now, it's got a good chance as Mint doesn't update immediately and knowing that helps on some occasions.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2016 01:26

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

Lutha Mahtin posted:

i signed up for mint, imported my accounts, re-classified everything

realized i probably qualify for some kind of poverty program, and somehow i look both incredibly frugal and incredibly wasteful

e:

hahaaaaaa nope on any low income programs

I just need something for "I have a poo poo load of medical bills because healthcare is busted in this country". :911:

I'd be making headway if it wasn't for that.

# ¿ May 10, 2016 20:17

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

Let's say I have $600 to budget. $300 goes to bills. $100 goes to Groceries. I have categories for Clothing and Spending Money and Household Goods. Would you distribute equally or use a different method? All 3 of those are pretty variable from month to month so there's not a lot of hard data on those. :confused:

# ¿ May 31, 2016 21:49

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

How much do you plan to spend on each per year?

I honestly couldn't say. I've never planned for clothes or stuff I need around the house. I get it as it becomes necessary.

Would it be better to assign it to spending money and move it if I do need something until I've got a relative average?

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 12:55

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

I claim it would be significantly better to create an annual budget for clothing, and living expenses, and adjust when you discover you've significantly misestimated or as the situation changes. There's a few very basic budgeting points here that you seem to be forgetting:

Now then, are you honestly suggesting that you cannot look at your existing wardrobe and get an idea for what will need replaced in the next year? Or that you don't have an idea for how many other articles of clothing might become necessary? Or how many you might randomly decide to purchase? It seems a quick survey through an online retailer would permit a very good estimate of "How much I'll probably spend". General living expenses are set in the same way.

I think I may just not understand how to word what it is I'm confused about. Right now, I live paycheck to paycheck. I'm working my way out but I also want to not leave things in Spending Money. If I divert any extra funds to building my emergency fund, I feel like it's working against myself to remove funds from emergency funds after that. To combat that, I'm thinking of adding buffers for things like clothing and household goods like cleaning supplies and such but no idea where to get the numbers necessary since I'm really just starting out.

Hopefully that makes sense with where I'm confused.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 20:15

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 22:48

Irritated Goat: Mar 12, 2005; This post is pathetic.

I have a couple of just mundane easy questions.

First one: Would 3 months be a good average for figuring out Grocery bills? Should I give it more time since we just changed how we eat?

Second question, if I know my Pet supplies budget varies on if I need to buy litter or not, do I budget for the full amount possible or just budget for food and move some money from something else if I need litter?

I've basically got a lot of my stuff down thanks to YNAB goals and general advice.

# ¿ May 3, 2017 18:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > How to Create a Budget