Comments | bugorama: money.

bugorama

money.

Jan 19, 2009 21:04

in 2008 I successfully set up quickbooks for the farm so that we could close tabs on our income and expenses. at the same time, I wanted a clearer picture of our personal spending habits so I also set up a quickbooks file for our personal expenses. I kept track of every single receipt and itemized them all into different budget categories. now that ( Read more... )

Comments 7

hoorayiwake January 20 2009, 16:01:43 UTC

My parents started me on spreadsheets when I was about 13, and I've been doing it ever since. I haven't yet switched to Quickbooks (I chalk it up to laziness of learning a new program), but Excel still works fine for the time being. I've found that it's enormously helpful to understand just what all of those seemly small expenses have added up to.

Several years ago, I came up with the same food vs. recreation discovery that you did... but when I realized that food WAS my recreation, I felt completely justified. :)

By the way, I think the only significant category I use that you didn't mention was for gifts/charities. If I get to the end of a month (or a year) and it's empty, it serves a good reminder that I need to be more generous and less self-indulgent with my budget.

bugorama January 20 2009, 19:42:48 UTC

food is our entertainment too!

actually I do have a giving category -- I just left it off because I ran out of time/room. it's smaller than in the past too this year, but we gave several tons of vegetables to the food bank!

your parents seem to be have done a great job raising two mature thoughtful women!

hoorayiwake January 20 2009, 19:59:44 UTC

Hey, thanks!

I think your veggie donations are probably far more needed and effective than most monetary ones anyhow... and more tasty!

ariellejuliana January 20 2009, 16:16:40 UTC

Man, I would be grumpy if I had to pay that cell phone bill. We're so lucky to be allowed to stay on our parents' plans - Paul's parents just pay his (extra $10 a month) and we pay my parents $120 a year to keep me on theirs.

bugorama January 20 2009, 19:45:17 UTC

we used to share the cell phone account with my parents but they dropped off to get fancy new iphones. : P

it's bigger than it looks too because it's also our internet access ($43/mo.).

syllepsis January 20 2009, 17:37:37 UTC

I'm not quite this comprehensive, but I do have a total daily tab I keep myself to. I figure out for the year what my daily income will be - parsing it out per 365 days a year, rather than the hourly or daily figure - then figure out what I'd like to save for the year and getting myself on a plan of average daily spending to meet the plan. It's kind of fun, actually. I shoot for the average daily total each month (what's probably a ridiculously low number for most people), usually going a little over, then start new with the new month - same average and trying harder, depending on how badly I failed the month before. December was actually my best month last year for staying on budget. I didn't even adjust for Xmas spending. I don't even know if any of this makes sense. But I love talking about budgeting.

bugorama January 20 2009, 19:49:27 UTC

I've never thought about a daily budget before. sounds like a neat idea. probably wouldn't work well for us personally though because our expenses tend to come in big bulk amounts: monthly bills, a quarter of a beef cow, bulk food orders, etc.

I love budgets too. I always thought I "wasnt a numbers person" until starting the farm, but actually I LOVE the business side of it. of course it helps that we're doing pretty well. it probably wouldn't be as much fun if we were in the red.