Question

I've found that my budget isn't working as much as I would like for myself and my family so I'm needing to make some drastic changes starting from next week. If you have found that your budget hasn't worked out for you or is missing something or something needs to be changed. What have you changed, added in or where did you start looking to make the adjustments needed?  

Answer 1

Everybody's budget is going to be different. Start by tracking your expenses so you can get realistic budget.  

Answer 2

I wanted to do all these sinking funds right away but it isn’t realistic until I get my debt paid off. I have one for Christmas I started and then small ones for both my kids birthdays and that’s it. Eventually i will have more, like one for vacations and one for my dream truck but it’s not in my budget right now.  

Comments

I feel the same way! I'm so excited to start doing all of my sinking funds but then I can't afford to do all of them right away.  

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@vicegerent same! I had to make myself take a step back and come to realize I can’t do it all RIGHT NOW and that’s ok! Because eventually I will. It’s frustrating but will be worth it

Answer 3

My biggest problem is that I don’t carry my cash envelopes with me and it’s way too easy to use my debit card. So I ordered a wallet that’ll hold my cash envelopes. It’ll be easier to use the cash now.  

Comments

Sadly my wallet doesn't fit miko's cash envelopes I have to fold it a little bit smaller to fit it in :( lol doesn't look as pretty as miko's wallet with her cash envelopes in it.  

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@vicegerent I ordered a wallet off Amazon. It comes with 12 envelopes. They aren’t as pretty but they’ll do for now  

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@snocat please share the wallet you got.  

Answer 4

I think everyone’s budget needs are different. For us we cut cable TV and honed our food budget. We also keep track of everything.  

Comments

We already didn’t pay for subscription services at all, but if we had any I would cut those.  

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I have started tracking everything this month and so far so good :)

Answer 5

Could you write out your bills and edit the post so we can help better

Comments

I'm just looking in general nothing necessarily to do with my budget. I just can't fit all my sinking funds in only some then it's a choice of which ones are priority.  

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@vicegerent gotcha! For us we lowered our 401k plans to the minimum payments allowed. Paid off the balance on our iPhones and that lowered our monthly bill be $80. We were spending way too much on personal items like Starbucks and fast food. So every paycheck my boyfriend and I each get $100 to last two weeks for our own spends, so $50 a week. And once it’s gone you better eat the groceries we bought. We realized we were paying a $10 rental fee for our internet router so we returned it to Comcast and bought an $80 one at Target! We freeze our gym membership any month we aren’t actively using it Shopped car insurance rates and got a lower premium Cancelled cable and only use streaming services like Netflix and Hulu with our Firestick These are the changes we’ve made the last year and we’ve seen an amazing improvement

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@vicegerent I do some sinking funds just monthly and others with every paycheck.  

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I don't get my own personal spend money, is that something that I should be budgeting in? What I've been spending money on is on mother drinks and also mars bars that's really the only things that I purchase for myself as a mom. I've bought myself clothes a few weeks ago and some books but that wasn't in the budget.  

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@vicegerent I would take out cash every paycheck or monthly. That’s your money if you want to buy a shirt or a candy bar or Starbucks. The $100 is already accounted for in your budget

Answer 6

It would help to explain what isn’t working. Like is your food budget not enough? Are you having unplanned for things come up? Do you feel like it’s too strict?  

Comments

My food budget will have to be increased but also my sinking funds having to pick what is priority that can fit in my budget where as others can't.  

Answer 7

I didn’t do any sinking funds so far just re paying debt. But we’ve paid of 6400$ so far this year so it’s a win still. I also had to re adjust food budget a few times and put eatting out is also our shopping budget currently

Comments

How did you fund things that randomly come up if you don't have sinking funds?  

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@vicegerent it all Comes out of the shopping/food out budget unfortunately I put 200$ in it every month. We’re not really doing any shopping so it’s working for us currently . I’ve had to take oil change for the car out of it, my husband smokes, if we go over on the groceries. Some times there money left in there and I just let it sit in there extra for the next month. For the most part we’ve been doing super well. Once our line of credit it paid off tho I’ll start sinking funds for everything we have 6700$ left on it  a ways to go still. We’re also selling things on the side and that’s going onto the line of credit as well as extra payments

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That's pretty much the amount of debt that I have at the moment but we're also supposed to be moving in 4 months time so I need to also save for the moving costs as well

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@vicegerent oh for sure it sucks everything cost money and it so expensive. That’s not bad if it’s all your debt! I have more unfortunately 5000$ school loans and 25000 for our car but the line of credit was out first stop on paying things off half way done lol

Answer 8

I use a hybrid system that took me over a few months to find it worked for me. I couldn’t do the money envelopes but rather an electronic version plus I added another budget system that is online because of my crazy schedule.  

Answer 9

I started to introduce sinking funds but realized I can’t do it all. Instead we’re taking whatever money is “leftover” from necessities and figuring out what’s most important in the next couple months. We’re not saving for vacations, getting to focus on our EF, or upgrading our furniture just yet because it’s not in the budget. After the next few months, I’m hoping we can reevaluate and start including some of these things

Answer 10

For us it was trying to save too much every month and shorting where I needed more money. Like groceries. I was always trying to skimp and always spent more and then some other category would pay the price.  

Answer 11

Honestly, I went back to tracking my spending for several months and basically started over. But my previous budget was pre- TBM, and I’ve learned a lot from Kumiko over the last several months.  

Answer 12

I am cashless and I just use an excel spreadsheet to track my "envelopes" and everything has a formula. It didnt work for me rewriting everything 5 times and knowing what everything is by looking at one thing has actually slowed my spending. Everyone is different and you do you

Answer 13

Our biggest hurdle is that I am the bill payer. And I can estimate all the things for envelopes and such and And fill my husband in on what the plan is. He shakes his head yes and then the next thing I know he made a Home Depot run or I got a haircut or some other random thing I wasn’t expecting. I have learned to just keep a cushion of like 200 bucks for now. Checking the balance is every day helps as well I can sometimes make adjustments as needed.