who has a budget

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Another thing has recently been highlighted for me is that it's really hard to make a budget work when you step out of "line" on basic items like mortgage or car payments. When those are very high percentage of the budget (because you bought too much house or car) then all the scrimping and saving on groceries is fine but really still hard to balance. If your house is 30% of your budget and 10% to the car suddenly a lot of disposable income is gone.

[mumof2]

livingalmostlarge we always buy our cars with cash so we don't have that issue...but saving for a house but want our morg to be no more than what we pay for rent now..

[Smilinggirl]

I purchased YNAB back before it went online. I use it to track spending, including monthly saving. My budget is based on the minimum amount I would have each month and I flex between categories as needed while staying within my minimum. Anything extra I earn that month goes into a savings category, then if I choose to spend any of it, I just move it into that category. Lots of people on their forum monitor down to the penny, export and import from various accounts etc.. I just round up and keep it simple because that works for me. I like knowing where my money goes, but I don’t spend hours stressing it.

[Snicks]

We really dont' have a budget. Never have had one. Probably should but we dont'. However my approach in life was simply , do not spend more then we earn and in fact spend less and bank some for the future. That is pretty much it. All our CCs are paid in full, we don't carry a balance. Our home is paid off and we banked 529 money for our kids as well as managed to save 7 figs in our retirement, so with that approach we did ok. I think mostly HATING debt was the biggest factor in doing well. And, I splurge when I want something.