Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [budget]

for questions that relate but are not limited to, budget planning, budgeting practices, budgeting software.

A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending.

Budget - From Wikipedia

242 questions
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Why do personal finance apps focus on outgoings rather than income

I am looking at using a money management app, rather than just my own Excel spreadsheet, for my personal finances. The way I've always thought about my money is "I have a fixed amount of income which I can't exceed, so I need to look at my outgoings…
simonalexander2005
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I can make a budget, but how can I get myself to consistently follow my budget?

I'm able to sit down and put together a budget. My problem is following it. After about a month of being strict, I lose sight of things, and get off the budget. It's then a couple of months later and I realize I need to get back onto a budget and…
James Mertz
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11
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5 answers

I've tracked my spending and have created a budget, now what do I do with it?

I have spent considerable time this year tracking my expenses and income so that I can have confidence in my household budget. I've been using an Excel spreadsheet that I found to track everything into various categories. In many cases I've used 6…
dpollitt
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11
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3 answers

How should I make a budget?

How do you go about making a budget? Where do you start (ie: with income or expenses)? Related: Where can I find an example of a really basic family budget?
C. Ross
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8
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2 answers

Personal finance management: precise or approximately?

I've started my personal finance management a couple of weeks ago and I'm having a problem with monetary adjustments. I have three possible solutions (two precise and one approximate): take in account all monetary adjustments, even the smallest…
user7631
6
votes
2 answers

I'm building a family budget. What is a realistic and reasonable amount to set aside each week for "entertainment/misc."?

(Finally) building a budget. I know it would be unreasonable to say that I won't spend anything on frivolities, but I have to be honest with myself and build a budget that is realistic and attainable.
Nat_Rea
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6
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4 answers

Weekly budgets based on (a variable) monthly budget

My brother is a musician and works on a project basis -- the company pays him in the end of month, based on the hours he was working on each project. He is young and he doesn't make that much on a month so he needs to be careful to make it to the…
Mahdi
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5
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3 answers

What kinds of expenses should I have separately in family budget?

What kinds of expenses should I have separately in family budget? Like food, medications, transport, clothes, housing, kids, personal expenses, sports, flat maintenance, loans, rent. There are simply too many things and probably some categories…
user3076
5
votes
4 answers

Logistics of managing the daily budget

My wife and I have historically struggled with managing our budget. Not because our money priorities are out of whack, or we have too much debt, etc. Rather it's just a time issue. One person has historically been slated to enter in all the…
wadesworld
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1 answer

How do I budget for bike maintenance?

Bike commuting comes with plenty of surprise costs, from flat tires to bike theft. Would an experienced personal financier figure out a 'safe' amount of money to put in a savings account for the year's bike problems, or would they try to…
user6309
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4
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2 answers

How do you enter details of spending in a department store?

I have been trying budgeting for the last few years but always get overwhelmed by the amount of work - whether using notebooks, spreadsheets or apps. The biggest problem is that there is confusion in categorization of entries into buckets. I shop a…
Karthick S
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3
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4 answers

Budgeting with unforeseen social events

I read with interest a lot of people's advice on here about planning their finances. Some even have budgets down to the last penny. My question is pretty simple - if you're of that mindset - what do you do in situations when something comes up…
Andy
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3
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3 answers

How to calculate money needed for bills, by day

I'm trying to figure out how to budget my money so I can look to see how much money I need on that particular day for bills. I've had an excel sheet I've used for a while that has all my bills listed out, how much they are, how often they occur, and…
BlueCaret
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3
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2 answers

Family Budget: How to avoid double counting spending pulled from short term savings?

My wife and I keep track of our budget on a spreadsheet. We save $200 dollars a month to spend on furniture. The money is transferred automatically into a savings account. We want this money to appear on our budget so that we can make sure there is…
Robert
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3
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How can I conveniently allocate small sums of money to budget for future expenses?

If I have $X in my checking account, and I know of upcoming purchases this month, such as, rent, groceries, a haircut, a new bicycle, a new pair of glasses, my gym membership, etc., is there an easy, effective way to put specific sums of money for…
hamilton.julius
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