Budgets don't work

[Anonymous]

David Bach, author of "The Automatic Millionaire" and "Smart Women Finish Rich," has a podcast I was listening to where he says budgets don't work. His contention is that you should automate your savings and then the rest is yours to do with as you please.

That's what we do, but I feel out of control with money. We save a little over 20% of our income each year (8% to retirement, 12% to after-tax savings) in an automated way, and then we blow the rest, and I really don't know where it all goes.

If you don't budget, why not? If you do, how has it helped you and what is your process?

[Anonymous]

There’s a difference between not budgeting and not toting up your actuals. You are doing both but you could have a much better grip on where your money goes if you tracked actuals.

[Anonymous]

We budget in the sense that we try to work off of X money for each month that includes all expenses other than standing bills like utilities, phones, internet, subscriptions, etc. So the X money includes groceries, gas, activities, take out, etc. We got in this bad habit of wasting food, buying unnecessary things at grocery store, and too much takeout and this type of budgeting /tracking has really helped.

[Anonymous]

I generally don't budget because it seems like a waste of time. That said, when we were buying a house we built out some projections about what our cash flow would look like before deciding how much to spend on a house. We also consider how much certain vacations or larger ticket purchases cost before we make them to determine whether they are worthwhile.

Otherwise, we have relatively simple wants and needs so there's just no need for us to budget because I know we are saving enough.

[Anonymous]

Budgets worked for me until recently.
I kept track at the end of the month on what I spent on groceries, other food (i.e. restaurants), kid's stuff, pet stuff, etc. It was generally comparable month to month since I started this in 2013. If I splurged on something I could make up for it by being frugal the next month. Now that prices have exploded it's all up in the air. We've stopped eating at restaurants and I don't buy lunch at work anymore but I'm not sure what else I can cut.

[Anonymous]

We budget in the sense that we keep track of spending. Once or twice a year, we look at our spending to see if anything is out of whack. Then we adjust. We are fairl6 consistent with our spending, so there usually isn’t anything we need to tweak. We do save first too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Budgets worked for me until recently.
I kept track at the end of the month on what I spent on groceries, other food (i.e. restaurants), kid's stuff, pet stuff, etc. It was generally comparable month to month since I started this in 2013. If I splurged on something I could make up for it by being frugal the next month. Now that prices have exploded it's all up in the air. We've stopped eating at restaurants and I don't buy lunch at work anymore but I'm not sure what else I can cut.

What are you making for dinners? You can plan three dinner that are generally cheaper to make: pasta, bean, eggs. Then, make your usual for the others and see if that helps. If you are already doing that, you may have to increase your bean meals. Or change from canned to dried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:David Bach, author of "The Automatic Millionaire" and "Smart Women Finish Rich," has a podcast I was listening to where he says budgets don't work. His contention is that you should automate your savings and then the rest is yours to do with as you please.

That's what we do, but I feel out of control with money. We save a little over 20% of our income each year (8% to retirement, 12% to after-tax savings) in an automated way, and then we blow the rest, and I really don't know where it all goes.

If you don't budget, why not? If you do, how has it helped you and what is your process?

I actually generally agree with this. Too many categories just makes things difficult to track. So after we pull out money for saving, here are our other budget categories:

Nanny (autopay)
Mortgage and Insurance (autopay)
Charitable contributions (autopay)
Groceries
Travel
Everything else

Since the first three are on autopay, it really just is that we make sure to have money for travel and groceries. The rest just gets spent.

[Anonymous]

One size does not fit all. Budgets work really well for some people, and others don't need them. Experiment and figure out what works for you.

[Anonymous]

We do the same thing as you basically--maxed retirement accounts and then we set a yearly goal for our brokerage account. I have no clue where the rest of the money goes. If the credit card bill looks especially high one month we will try to pull back spending the next month, but we still don't have a specific budget for anything.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with all pps who said working with what you got post auto savings. I also don't feel comfortable giving those creepy apps access to my finances. Good luck to you all who did that when they're hacked. 🤣😆

[Anonymous]

I use a three-account system.

Account #1 is mortgage and bills. Everything is direct deposit/direct debit so I never see or touch the money.

Account #2 is petty savings, $200 a pay period for minor emergencies or major necessary purchases. (New fridge, etc.)

Account #3 is whatever's left over and I can spend it on anything I want. No tracking, no budgeting, no guilt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I generally don't budget because it seems like a waste of time. That said, when we were buying a house we built out some projections about what our cash flow would look like before deciding how much to spend on a house. We also consider how much certain vacations or larger ticket purchases cost before we make them to determine whether they are worthwhile.

Otherwise, we have relatively simple wants and needs so there's just no need for us to budget because I know we are saving enough.

This is generally our take too.

[Anonymous]

I write down what I spend each month for my own information using pen and pencil. I have done it for many-many years because I enjoy it. I don't save anymore as I have enough in investments to retire now.
Managing my own investments has been great learning experience and even better for my NW.
I take home ca $5k monthly. $3k goes to rent and all bills including student loans starting in five days. $2k is for everything else for two people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Budgets worked for me until recently.
I kept track at the end of the month on what I spent on groceries, other food (i.e. restaurants), kid's stuff, pet stuff, etc. It was generally comparable month to month since I started this in 2013. If I splurged on something I could make up for it by being frugal the next month. Now that prices have exploded it's all up in the air. We've stopped eating at restaurants and I don't buy lunch at work anymore but I'm not sure what else I can cut.

What are you making for dinners? You can plan three dinner that are generally cheaper to make: pasta, bean, eggs. Then, make your usual for the others and see if that helps. If you are already doing that, you may have to increase your bean meals. Or change from canned to dried.

I'm extremely frugal with dinners, I've been using Budget Bytes for years. We are DCUM poor (120k total)!!