The Budget is back, baby! (and will be updated monthly)
"I'm bringing budgets back (yup)! Them other non-budgeters don't know how to act (yup!)" Haha...right Mr. Timberlake? ;) What, you don't think that's the same as bringing sexy back? Well check the calculation my friends:
Budgets = Confidence = Sexy!
Aww yeahh! Okay, so maybe YOU wouldn't swap it in, but this frugal ba$tard sure will. After all, it's what got me started blogging! Well, that and buying a house and all, but it definitely kept me on track. And to this day I've been a good little boy and continued to stick with it month after month. I mean, you *have to* know where all your $exy money goes, right?What I haven't been doing, though, was keeping it updated here on the blog for all to see. So going forward my budget will be updated the first week of every month! And, as always, you're more than welcome to borrow/steal any part of it:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Download via Excel: Budget Template
- Check out in Google Docs: Budget (filled in)
*Updated: 1-31-10: My current paychecks are bit wonky right now as I'm contributing 90% of all my paychecks to 401(k)! Yes it's crazy, but yes I want to become a millionaire faster ;) So you will see a lot of negatives here until I max out, and in the mean time will be pulling cash from my side savings account to "pay myself."
Here's the paychecks portion above. It took me a while to figure out what works for me and what doesn't, but keeping it updated and refreshed every month helps to nail it all down. You can find the rest of the spreadsheet here, but this is the most important portion of it in my opinion...If you can come out in the positive every 2 weeks, you're awesome as hell! Here's the average breakdown of what's included in these "paycheck budgets" (I keep it avg. as my paycheck usually fluctuates a bit):
Paycheck #1 ($2,249.18):
- Mortgage $$ ($848.24) - 1/2 of my portion of our mortgages. We have a 30-year fixed, along w/ a maxed out HELOC as a 2nd mortgage.
- House $$ ($300) - We tracked and averaged our other house expenses (utilities, groceries, etc) over a good 4-5 months, and eventually came up with our own "house budget". This $300 covers 1/2 my portion, and the Mrs. puts in the rest (you can see the breakdown in the spreadsheet).
- J's Credit Card ($638) - Like the house stuff, I tracked everything i spent over a handful of months (clothes, gifts, work lunches) and then averaged them together to come up with my own "c/c budget" that gets paid off in full each month. It doesn't work for everyone, but I freakin' love it! I get mad cash back rewards, and it's super easy to manage.
- Cash Withdrawal ($100) - I *have to* have cash on hand all the time :)
Paycheck #2 ($2,249.18):
- Mortgage $$ (848.24) - the other 1/2 of my mortgage portion.
- House $$ ($300) - the other 1/2 I contribute to our "house budget".
- Insurance: All ($143.42) - homeowners, auto, computer, and bling insurance for the Mrs. and I.
- Insurance: Life ($55.56) - life insurance for both the Mrs. and I.
- Cash Withdrawal ($100) - to cover the next 2 weeks ;)
So there you have it - J's new & improved 2010 budget :) Again, feel free to steal any part of it! It may look a bit confusing at first, but it's totally cool once you get the hang of it. It's all a matter of what works for YOU though, so if you already have a great method down pact, then by all means keep rockin' it out!
---------------
PS: Be sure to check out my list of Best Free Budget Templates too, you might find something that works a little better for you there. If you don't, you must really despise 'em ;)
Labels: budgets, money management, paychecks, tools and resources, updates
posted by J. Money at
11:59 AM
17 Comments:
I asked my husband if he really thought budgets are sexy and he said maybe to accountant chicks.
;oD
(keep in mind that he works with a bunch of accountants and he claims none of them are sexy, so he may be a little jaded.)
Now I am going to read your whole budget with an open mind (obviously I think like a human calculator so I'll probably find it way sexy.)
J., I am so proud of you for going through your budget and showing it to us. But J.-- WTH, I thought you and the Mrs. were combining! What's this "my half" bologna? :)
Awesome! Those are some nice spreadsheets - there's nothing quite like working on a budget and then having it work (sorta) ;) !
Whaa?! Budgets are sexy to EVERYONE ;) (at least i can hope). saving money at least is, and that's what happens when you budget!
@Kaitlyn - Haha...well, most of our money IS combined into the accounts and all, but I'm the one who manages it all (except for her "do as I please" account). Plus I'm really the only one bringing in normal paychecks, so that's all ya get to see ;) She brings in some from T/A'ing, but it goes straight into her own account for school stuff and all - nothing really to budget there.
You WILL be happy to know though, that I'll be posting our first combined Net Worth in the next day or so! That will bring on more togetherness ;)
Sounds goood! You go simple too. Instead of having seperate budget for every categorie, you kind of combine too which makes life alot alot easier!
Love the budgets and yes budgets are sexy! I am constantly reworking mine so I'm glad you posted yours.
Thx for the budget sheets. They are lively and so easy to follow. It makes budgeting not such a scary thing. Thanks again!
Woohoo! I'm glad you guys like it :) it's funny because the colors DO help get me excited to track it all each month! there are def. some more crazier ones out there, but once you find one that you like (and makes you stay on top of it) you're home-free baby.
Any advice for those of us living with constantly changing income? I'm a freelancer, so while I try my best to maintain a budget -- an ever-changing amount of income is pretty stressful.
Oh man, haven't given that much thought to be honest with you. BUT, I'd venture to say that if I were in your shoes I'd be putting every expense that I could on a credit card and then paying it off each month in full (actually, i already do this! haha...)
As long as you're good about it, you could use your c/c statement as a generic budget and you'd only have to make 1 whole payment each month instead of 10+. And in the meantime, just save up all your $ into one main account to pay for it all.
If you're not a c/c fan, I'd probably suggest paying off all bills as they come in w/ your stash, and then tracking how much you have left over at the end of each month (or cycle). after a cple months, you should have at least some better idea of the leftover situation, and then just save it up or pay off some debt with it over time :)
For "Halahblue", I've been in this situation before. It's not easy, what worked well for me was to budget for the average amount. If I could keep my lifestyle expenses under this amount, I knew I'd be safe. Additionally, I split out my savings into two accounts (one for actual savings and the second for 'surplus' to account for month's when my income was less than the average.) Anytime, I made more than the 'average', I placed the excess in this savings account. Hope this helps.
-Matt
http://blogtoamillion.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/personal-budgeting-101/
Your budget is awesome! I am so jealous. I am going to revamp mine today. :)
I never thought of breaking up the paychecks. Thanks.
Breaking up the paychecks really helps for a Monthly budget. We do this and it's great when twice a year we have a month were we receive three paychecks. It's so exciting to throw that extra paycheck straight towards debt since we don't need it.
Most def! Breaking down the paychecks helps with managing it all better (at least for me), but more importantly allows you to see how much you have, or don't have, LEFT OVER. That was one of the things that really gave me that "a-ha!" moment - when I could see exactly what money I have left to play with...and when I originally saw that I *didn't* have any, it was much easier to wake up and finally do something about it :)
Btw, I recently came out with a list of the Best Free Budget Templates around - check it out, you may find a better solution than the one I offer above.
I never thought about splitting the mortage payments ! cool idea
Glad I could help! I like to keep things as evenly as possible (usually) so I can look forward to extra money during BOTH paychecks instead of just one ;) Even if they're smaller than one big jump one paycheck over the other. Happy holidays!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Back to Budgetsaresexy.com