How do YOU budget?

[MrsFabuloso]

The first way. Makes it easier to know that the bills will always be paid up in full. And if there's left overs, then we get to do something we wouldn't normally, or it goes to the next bill.

[Gigi]

i saw a financial counsellor. They ask to see your bills for last year.

They then do a breakdown.
52 weeks in a year
work it out to suit your pay cycle, so let's say you get paid each fortnight
so 26 fortnights in a year

annual bills (add 10% to last year's bill, to allow for inflation) - quarterly bills - work them all out to how much they are a fortnight.

then you know what you need to be "putting aside" each fortnight, for all those "known" bills

e.g the regular bills you get EVERY quarter, EVERY year.
plus an approximation, of the bills you get regularly, but you never know exaclty HOW MUCH they will be, like car service, dentist

for utilities, some companies let you "bank up" credit on your account
i do this with my gas and electricity, every fortnight, i pay an amount onto my account, so when the quarterly bill arrives, i am often in credit (only by a little).

so with money diverted, into prepaying accounts, and "save for the annual bills" - that means the money is NOT in my everyday account (where i might just spend it) - takes temptation away. I only let myself have access to the money that is left over, after i have done all my allocations. Doesn't leave me with much, but at least i know i can spend that money guilt free.

For day to day stuff, i take that out each week in cash.
Give myself a grocery allowance, a fruit n veg allowance, a petrol allowance and a spending allowance.
Once those amounts are gone, that is it.
i have gone back to this "cash" system, as i found it unsettling, to be buying food on EFTPOS, and never really know, how much i was spending (when i was IN the shop, wondering, if i could really afford to be buying X).

my X refused to budget with me, didn't see any point in it. he thought budgetting was only worth it, if you had money to invest. i feel the opposite, i feel the less money you have, the more crucial it is (to me) to know where every dollar is going. the less money, the more crucial the choices you make, how to spend that dollar.

the financial counsellors are good at getting you to discern between "wants and needs". but also realistic.

automating my new budget, has really destressed me. i know every fortnight, a huge chunk of my money "disappears", gets diverted from my everyday account, but it gives me peace of mind, knowing i won't be getting big bills (e.g rego), without any way to pay them, or they will be paid already (the electricity and gas).

with all the stuff in the news, about the carbon tax, everything going up, i have no idea if my new budget will still be making me calm, in a year's time - all i know is that it's working great for right now. a budget is always a work in progress. new priorities come up, nothing stays the same.

sorry to hear your hubby has had his hours cut back - that's a big adjustment.

Simply Savings is a good website for budget tips - to gain access to the Vault of tips, it's a paid subscription. Maybe your local library might have their "$21 Food Challenge Simply Savings" book, about feeding your family for a week, on the contents of your fridge/pantry and spending $21 at the supermarket. Even if you do it for one week out of four, that's one week you save heaps at the supermarket.

With tax rebate time coming up very soon, and Family Supplement - those amounts might help to provide you with a "buffer", for unexpected events, car needing exxy repairs, larger annual bills.

best of luck with the readjustment. it takes work.

[deletedit]

We get a lot of small pays in each fortnight - the biggest is $550. Then some other ones once a month.

My pay goes on the pay-in-advance thing and any smaller bills, say under $300. Partner's goes on food. FTA goes on mortgage. Monthly pays go on any large bills (these have always been house related - land clearing, replacing windows, buying a fence etc). It seems to work. Our house deposit is in a high interest account that is hard to get to so that is where all our savings comes from, just interest on that.

I should really start saving for a car but we are going to be so close to the edge when we get the second mortgage that I think all our tax returns and any of our house deposit we don't use are just going to go straight on the new mortgage. We have one of those low income loans so for the first couple of years our payments won't even cover the interest, so the lower we can get the new loan the better.

[emc2]

I'm on Centrelink benefits so I've been using Centrepay to put aside money on my power bill - $20 a fortnight. Then my phone and internet is a monthly direct debit. My mobile is prepaid.

I mix things up a bit, I am renting government housing these days, but I opted out of their automated system, as when I was working I kept triggering reviews, which staff should have ignored, but didn't, and it caused a lot of hassles.

So some things I budget every fortnight for but at the same time I might buy some items in bulk which last for months.

My situation has changed again now I have bubs and I am trying to save as much of that baby bonus as I can. Well I will be after a few more purchases lol. My Mum says I have enough flat nappies for twins now!

[KittyK]

I do the first one. I even have a budget book I didn't include the electricity, rates or water though and I have decided to do that from now using my last bills as a guide. I find it easier knowing that we won't ever be out of pocket a huge chunk of money because i will always have money there for the bills that come in.

[~me~]

My DH has an excel spreadsheet that I have to put in our bills and expenses including 'play money' or what we call 'rations'. At the end of the year he tallies up the total cost and fortnightly expenditure and we put it into a bills bank account.
Works great.