Comments on: I hate budgeting … so, I've only ever tracked my expenses once!

By: Making Money 201? «

Making Money 201? « — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:02:36 +0000

[...] … heck, why wait for me?!] but, here we are, tied down in the minutia of counting check stubs (‘No Budget’ Budget) and counting minutes (Power of 10-1-1-1-1) [...]

By: How the (not quite as) poor (as other) people make budgets … « How to Make 7 Million in 7 Years™

Sun, 17 May 2009 08:50:59 +0000

[...] Do the No Budget Budget … once … that’s [...]

By: Where Did All the Money Go? «

Where Did All the Money Go? « — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:35:42 +0000

[...] … but only because he actually already has a pretty strict budgeting system in place: I love the idea of withdrawing a certain set amount from the ATM each week for things like personal spending and entertainment and “when it’s gone it’s gone” … much like Caleb’s envelope system a lá Dave Ramsey described in a comment to my post at 7million7years. [...]

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:02:02 +0000

With a site like Mint (mint.com), it is pretty easy to budget without budgeting. Sure it won’t correctly handing cross-month expenses yet, but it does tell you a great deal about what you are spending (and earning).

It won’t work for real estate investments (apart from the online appraisal estimate), but it does a fine job of tracking expenses. I used to waste time entering stuff into Quicken, and now I can spent that financial energy working the numbers on a potential real estate investment, or sorting out the costs of a new start-up I’m considering.

Neil (who, unlike his brother, finds his hair growing too quickly all too often)

By: Adrian

Adrian — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:19:18 +0000

@ Contest – LOL. I have a solution for you … keep reading to find out (at least while you’re reading you’re not spending!)

By: Mrs. Wiggles

Mrs. Wiggles — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:48:00 +0000

Thanks for the article. I like budgeting. I find that it actually keeps me in line and headed in the right direction,

By: Contest

Contest — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:36:31 +0000

Interesting idea, I guess I don’t have much self-control because thought it might help me know where to cut back I would totally forget about it and start buying things that I don’t really need.
For me it has been better to set a plan of how much I have to spend and then hold myself accountable to that plan. Really like your idea though. It would help to see where money is being spent!

By: traineeinvestor

traineeinvestor — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:42:42 +0000

I keep budgeting simple: I run all my non-investment expenses through a single bank account. Each month I add up all the money that has gone out. So long as the amount spent is within expectations (it will vary from month to month due to some expenses like holidays, insurance payments not occuring each month), I do not spend too much time thinking about exactly what I have spent the money on. This takes less than 10 minutes each month. If I have a blow out, or the monthly expenses are trending upwards, then I will spend the time figuring out why, otherwise it is not worth the time to do a more detailed analysis.

I’m with you on the haircuts – these days, I think the seach fee is the biggest component of the cost of a haircut.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:25:54 +0000

Adrian: Haha!

Actually, she’s okay. She’s willing to learn and she is learning. She’s improved a lot in the time we’ve been together.

I don’t need to move to Italy. I have a bountiful supply of delicious, cheap Chinese food here in Taiwan (often cooked by my fiancee ). In some cases, it’s actually cheaper for me to eat out.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:33:42 +0000

@ Cekki – If I were living in Italy, I would recommend an UNLIMITED budget for pasta, panini (con prosciutto, of course), and chianti (Reservo, of course)

@ Caleb = Dump fiancee and move to Italy (see above)

… thanks for your comments, guys!!