Comments on: Budget Your Money! – DFA Tip of the Week – 3/23/2009

By: Credit Card Debt Reduction

Credit Card Debt Reduction — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:23:01 +0000

[...] Now that you have everything in order, just let all your bills go on autopilot. Use this time to start a budget and take care of other personal finances loose ends. Continue reducing you expenses, start [...]

By: home budget

home budget — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:23:36 +0000

Setup automated budget and keep tabs on our living expenses. Track our budget progress anytime. Thank You for your site.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 04:04:12 +0000

It’s been about a year now. We tried various approaches: had dedicated budgets for food and clothing, wrote down all expenses, tried plenty of software and online services but realized that it was too boring and too intrusive (to my taste). In the past my wife opposed the idea of having to tell me about every cup of coffee she drinks with other moms from school. Now she doesn’t have to do this.

You can have a look at an online system that utilizes this kind of approach: it tells you your weekly and daily (for convenience purposes) budget based on your income, expenses (mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc) and your Emergency Fund details. (Didn’t want mention it earlier as don’t want it to look like an ad) the address is http://www.weeklyenvelope.com . Would be interesting to know if you find it suitable for your purposes.

By: DebtFREEk!

DebtFREEk! — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:16:27 +0000

Sounds incredibly simple Matt. How long have you been doing this? Are there any problems/limitations you’ve run into with this method?

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:50:29 +0000

Here’s a simple example: let’s say we have a weekly budget of $280. This gives us $40 a day to spend: and as long as we don’t spend more – we’re OK. For instance: a Subway sandwich might cost $7 and a cup of coffee – another $3. We just tell each other the total amount (why bother with the details?), write it down and carry on living.

By: DebtFREEk!

DebtFREEk! — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:09:59 +0000

Sounds interesting Matt. How is it working for you?

To me it sounds similar to goal setting. You start with a large goal, then break it down into smaller & smaller goals until eventually you have daily tasks you must accomplish that slowly get you closer & closer to your ultimate goal.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:49:39 +0000

We define a weekly and a daily budget (equal to weekly budget divided 7) and do our best not to spend more than we’re “allowed” to. This also builds trust because we both know each other’s expenses and are mindful of each other. And it takes us not more than a minute a day to remember all expenses and write them down (no need to classify them if you don’t exceed the budget). So it’s a simplified envelope approach, which helps you to budget expenses instead of looking back at our past spending.

What do you think of it?

By: sarah121212 (sarah121212)

sarah121212 (sarah121212) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:00:50 +0000

RT @MattJabs DFA Tip of the Week – One of the single best pieces of financial advice you could ever receive is simply to…http://is.gd/oB8F