Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with budgeting

How do people afford kids and also have time for them?

rabbitrabbit — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:40:12 -0800

Time, money, work, and children. How do people do it? It seems we could afford it, or have time for it, but not both. I've been thinking about having kids for a while now, and Mr. Rabbit seems to slowly be warming up to the idea, so I think it's time to really analyze how we could make this work. The thing is, I already feel like my life is really busy -- how the heck could I add kids to that without going crazy?

We would both still have to work full-time -- we have a balanced household budget, but there's not a whole lot extra and we could not meet all our financial obligations on one salary -- and we don't have family close by (no built-in babysitters). I'm wondering how other people do this. If you and your partner both work full-time and make a modest living, how do you add children to the mix?

How much headroom?

yersinia — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:32:04 -0800

Household-budgeting-filter: how can I determine how much "wiggle room" or safety margin will be needed to cover unexpected expenses? How much do you allow, and has it been sufficient? I'm budgeting for a family of three (couple + small child), but I'd be interested in examples from all shapes and sizes of households. Obviously, it'd be best to wait a few months and then figure it out empirically from actual spending patterns, but a combo of recent lifestyle changes plus imminent large purchasing decisions means that we really need prospective numbers now.

Oh, and assume that there's already 6 months of income in an emergency fund to hedge against really big misfortunes; I'm mostly talking about planning for that unexpected $100 wedding gift you have to buy, the $200 fender-bender, etc. Both direct advice and examples from experience would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Online Budgeting minus the Online.

Raze2k — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:23:16 -0800

Do any online budgeting tools exist that (a) allow manual entries and (b) don't require any access to my account information? In the olden days when I was debt-free, I used to use Microsoft Money to track my budget. You could setup Money to import changes to your account automatically, import these changes manually via files you could retrieve from many credit card / banking web sites.. or you could simply add manual entries, either one-time or recurring charges or income.

These days I don't use the same computer with regularity and I'd like to move my budget to something a bit more full-featured than the Google Docs spreadsheet I've been running with. I've tried Mint.com, but frankly I'd rather manage the data myself without providing access to any of my account information. What I'm looking for would provide the type of data entry I've described, but really what I'm hoping to get out of this is the charting and scheduling functionality to both get a quick view of where all my money is going for any given month and to see how I'll be doing financially, say, 16 months from now if all goes according to plan.

Does anything like this currently exist?

simple budgeting question

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:35:01 -0800

If you earned $2500 a month after taxes, and you paid about $1000 on rent/bills/groceries/fun, how much of the remainder would you pay toward a credit debt of $6000 at 9% and how much would you put into savings at 4.5%?

How to stop living in a landfill and get solvent?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:32:28 -0800

I'm drowning in clutter and my bank account is empty. How do I change? I have stuff. Too much stuff. I don't need to buy anything ever again - when I say 'too much stuff', I mean clothes folded in crates under the bed because they won't fit in my clothes storage, striped laundry bags on the floor of my room, and barely enough space to open the door of the bedroom I rent. I find it hard to get rid of things - I worry I won't be able to replace them, or I might miss them, or in the case of practical things, that I'll have to spend more money to replace them. I'm aware that I live in a stressful environment, but it still feels so hard ot get rid of anything. I've never saw it as a problem for years as I've thought 'I'm not one of those people who keep empty milk-cartons' but the situation can't continue.

That's one problem.

The other is that I still keep buying things. I don't want to make it sound like an addiction, but...it's gotten to the point where 'sale' signs make me nervous and I try and avoid going into shops because I know I will spend money I can ill afford. Even museum shops. As a student I would overspend in the sales, buying things that didn't quite fit because they were cheap. Now the 'trigger' seems to be bargain shopping - eBay (thankfully I have no account now - it was dangerous - and sell things through my boyfriend's) thriftstores, planning what activity or scheme I'll take up next. Lots of people describe themselves as 'shopaholics' and there are so many magazines that encourage shopping, but this isn't buying shoes on impulse (well, it is :) ), it's getting halfway through the month and having to budget to the penny.

I earn a reasonable salary (£25k) and should be enjoying having disposable income - or money to save - for the first time. I'm paying off an overdraft at £200 per month so for the next year or so I can;t, or shouldn't, be spending recklessly. It'[s embarrassing that colleagues are buying hardware or going on holidays when I'm either unwilling to buy simple groceries because I think I'll blow my budget, or have only £10 to last the month.

I want to move in with my boyfriend in a year or so, so for that reason alone habits will need to change, but beyond that daily life is much less pleasant and I want to get to a place where I have a sensible attitude about money and my possessions. I'd like to be someone who lives in a comfortable place and doesn't feel guilty treating themselves to a new top or a trip to the theatre *once or twice a month*. At present, the idea of buying something the week before payday seems unheard of.

Basic costs for simple web development?

googly — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:10:14 -0800

I am writing a grant for a project that will include some relatively simple web development. Please help me with some rough estimates for labor and equipment costs. I am writing a grant for an academic project, part of which will involve developing a small website. The primary function of this website is to include a survey that asks respondents to compare visual materials (different representations of data) and answer some questions about them. [The research goal, for those who are interested, is to explore how visual representations of health information impact peoples' understanding and evaluation of that information]. I am woefully underinformed about web development, but here are two things that I know we will need:

- The site does not need to be commercially slick, but we would like it to look professional and be visually appealing, because the quality of the presentation plays a significant role in the research. I am thinking some kind of basic (flash-type?) animation rather than just a series of static pages.

- We want people to answer questions, and we want to collect data on the responses, so there will be some simple data management involved. (We can do more complicated analysis of the data on our own).

My questions:

(1) Roughly how much time would I need to budget for the programming and upkeep of something like this?

(2) Who can I get to do this work? I assume that a savvy CS undergrad or grad student could do this kind of thing, but is it necessary and/or worth it to hire a real web developer/designer?

(3) Depending on who we hire, roughly how much would this cost? We are in Montreal, Canada, BTW.

(4) We are already budgeting for some good (Mac) computers, so I think we've got the hardware portion covered - though any advice would be most appreciated of course! Do I need to budget for software as well, or can I assume that whoever I hire will already have the software? If the former, is there a standard software package that I should budget for (ideal), or do I need to have a rough figure and leave the specifics up to whoever I hire (less ideal)?

Apologies in advance for the vaugueness of these questions. If its not already apparent, I'm a total noob on these matters.

lock in or take my chances re heating oil rate?

madamjujujive — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:16:36 -0800

I'm looking for thoughts on whether I should lock-in a heating oil rate of 3.79 for the season. FYI, I live in MA.
I realize that this is a bit of a crystal ball question, but if anyone has any informed commentary on the matter, it might help me make a better decision. I was going to lock in but rates have been recently dropping. I was thinking the drop might be a pre-election phenomenon and that prices might rise again post-election. But now with the economic crisis, I am flummoxed in trying to think about how that is likely to affect pricing/supply going forward. I'm not looking to take a poll as much as looking for reasoning about why I should or shouldn't.

Amazing budgeting program with bonus of an iphone app?

nataliecay — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:52:03 -0800

Are there any fantastic web-based budgeting softwares that also have iphone apps?? There seem to be a lot of flimsy iphone budgeting apps, but I'm looking more for a serious budgeting program that has the added bonus of an iphone app. I'm financially irresponsible. I need help. I've used web-based budgeting software before (mvelopes, etc). And I've also seen the budgeting apps in the apple app store, but they all seem to be a little less involved than what I need. I'm looking for something that imports account info from my bank, will help me put spending into categories, etc.

My main use of the program would be on a computer, but it would be fantastic if I could find a program that has an iphone app as well. I'm on a mac at home as well if that matters in your recommendation.

Thanks in advance!!

View my savings as separate sub-funds?

forthright — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:26:11 -0800

Personal Finance Filter: Is there an application that can help me track money in separate accounts AND what that money is earmarked for AND keep a log of the movements? I have looked through Quicken help, and done a MeFi search on "personal finances separate funds". I also have tried using a spreadsheet for a while but it's cumbersome, especially the part about keeping a log of the funds movements. I apologize if the answer was obvious and I missed it.

To elaborate: what has worked well for our savings and budgeting efforts (until recently) is keeping a savings account and a spreadsheet to split up what parts of the account (sub-funds if you will) are earmarked for. We can then transfer between funds if we change our minds, move funds in or out of the savings account to/from the checking account, as we find extra cash or need to pay for a justified expense.

It started to break down when the account got too large to keep in a local savings account (there are worse problems I know). So we put some of the longer term funds in ING. We don't want to continue using two spreadsheets, because it's proving hard to keep funds movements between each of them and the checking account straight, etc.

Does anybody else do this? Is there an app or a feature of an app that supports this? All suggestions welcome, but we want to stay in the general spirit of our system because it has worked so well for us!

Thanks in advance!

money troubles

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:04:39 -0800

I want to start being more financially responsible. My husband doesn't want to hear it. Can I do this without hurting our marriage? How? A bit of background: We've been together for nine years, married for one, and we have two kids, 7 and 1. We got together when we were quite young (and had our first baby immediately) and started out beyond broke. We're doing much better than we used to, but we're still broke - and worse, we're in debt all over the place. We're behind on everything.

He works full-time and makes most of the money. His income mostly goes to our family/living expenses. I go to school, work part-time and my money goes to pay off child care and my cell phone and credit card bills. Neither of us are particularly financially responsible. Neither of us have good credit. I shop too much and have the credit card debt to prove it. The responsibility belongs to both of us. I know this. But things are spiraling out of control, and I want it to stop. I want to start acting like grown-ups, get our shit together, maybe make a budget, maybe even start saving a little, especially with the recession coming up (or happening already). But the family money isn't mine, and he refuses to think about it or talk about it. And it's getting us into trouble.

Things have been getting progressively worse. His bank account is currently hundreds of dollars in the negative. He just got this account recently because his previous bank account went hundreds of dollars in the negative. He has a credit card with a $200 limit that he hasn't paid since god knows when. He hadn't paid our cell phone or internet or insurance bills in months and they were about to be shut off, so I paid them when I got my student loan. We were two months behind on the rent until I paid that with my student loan too. Now we're one month behind. We owe money to our daughter's school and I don't even know who else. The money we get is his - he gets the paychecks and deposits them into his account. At one point we had some savings in an account that served as overdraft protection for his checking account, but now that's gone. I have no access to any of it. I don't know where it goes. He doesn't either. And I can't even ask him. He gets tense and stressed out and angry if I say anything about money at all, to the point that he has straight up told me on multiple occasions that he doesn't want to hear it and he doesn't want to think about it, so he won't. But isn't not thinking about it what got us here in the first place?

He's burned out and depressed – clinically, probably, but he dismisses the idea if I mention it, saying that what makes him unhappy is his situation and that drugs or therapy couldn't help with that. He says that it's really upsetting and depressing to him that he works so much and is tired all the time and never sees any of it or has anything to show for it. He admits that there are things that he spends money on that he could cut down on, like not bringing a lunch to work or going out to the bar with his friends, but he says that he's too exhausted or he doesn't have time or he wants to do fun stuff that makes him happy on his off time to make him feel better about working so much. I can understand how he feels. I'm exhausted and stressed out about juggling the responsibilities of school and work and kids too. But he says that there's no way that anything can or will ever change about our situation, and I don't believe that at all. When I graduate, we'll have dual incomes, and when the kids get older we'll have more time to ourselves. I don't think it's inevitable that we'll be broke forever. I think we're managing our money badly and there's room to improve. There has to be.

I want things to change. On my end, I'm trying. I have ADHD and I'm terrible with organizational stuff and paperwork, but I've been using financial software to track my spending and remind me to pay my bills and stuff, and it's been useful to me. I know where my money goes and I don't bounce checks or miss payments - but I can only do this with my (limited) money and not the family finances, and I think it would be a useful tool for all of us. Today I brought up the suggestion that we sit down as a couple with the numbers and work out a budget. He got upset (as he always does) and said that he doesn't want to deal with it. At all. I said that I'd really like it to be something that both of us are responsible for, but that if he really doesn't want to or isn't willing to deal with it, that I wanted to at least take on part of the responsibility of doing so. I asked him if he was interested in the possibility of a joint checking account; he said no, that it would go negative twice as fast. I asked him what he wanted to do. He said “Fine, I'll just sign the checks over to you then!” But he's not happy about it. He says that it means that he never has any money and can never do anything fun, and that it'll make him feel even worse about working so much and about his life. I asked him if he wanted an allowance and he said that he thought it would make him feel dependent on me. I asked him if there was any solution that would make him happy. He said no, nothing about this stuff could ever make him happy.

This isn't what I wanted. Ultimately, I'd like us to do this together. But if he won't do it, somebody has to be taking the responsibility, right? Is there a better way for me to be doing this? What can I do? How can I keep him happy? I don't want him to be stressed out or miserable, but I do want us to be above water.

(And before anyone says it, DTMFA is not an option. I'm feeling frustrated with him right now, but he's a wonderful, loving husband and a caring father and my best friend in the world. I want us to get through this together and be stronger for it.)

Thanks, y'all.

Teaching personal finanance to Burmese students

gauchodaspampas — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:28:18 -0800

Asking for a friend: She will be going to Thailand to teach students mostly from Burma and needs some advice. If you have any follow-up questions for her, you can ask them, and if she gets a chance, she will either email you directly, or she will email me and I will post what she says.

Here is what she has to say:
In a couple months I will be headed off to Chiang Mai, Thailand to teach several classes to a group of about 20 students between the ages of 17 and 22. Most (if not all) of my students will be from Burma.

I have been asked to teach a class this year related to budgeting/finance. The school has found that once they send the students back to their communities they do not seem to have a concept of a budget. An example is a student who graduated and then was sent to manage another recently started small school. Unfortunately he was not sure what to do with the resources given him. Apparently many of the students look at money as something to be spent right when it is earned.

My confusion over all of this is that I am fairly well-versed in the basics of personal finance here in the US but want to be sure that once I teach my class I will have gotten a heads up on cultural differences. An example that I have heard of is that in Thailand people care for extended families more than we do in the US and would therefore need to take this into account when budgeting. What other bits of information are there like this that I can keep in mind while planning and teaching my classes? Are there any good books/websites that I could read about the concept of finance and budgeting from the perspective of Thai culture (in the more remote areas)? My main goal is to give them the most pertinent information and not the same thing they would get if they took a finance class here.
Thanks!

Vacation Panic

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:53:24 -0800

EmergencyVacationAdvice. . . Filter. Free flight to anywhere in the 48 states, but I have to decide time and place by tomorrow (Thursday) morning - including budget planning! Please lend me your wisdoms. This evening my girlfriend informs me that her parents will fly her and I to the (48 state) US location of our choice. . . but for whatever weird reason the tickets must be bought by tomorrow afternoon! I am ostensibly going to be paying for all other expenses on this trip, which will need to be late this month and/or early January.

This opens me up several frustrating and interconnected problems that I will now lay at your collective feet to help me with.

First of all location. We don't know where to go. We live in Wisconsin and want warmness and, more specifically, warm beaches most. Middle to Southern Florida is the only place that I know approximates this description. But I'm not sure if this is a realistic expectation for even that region during this time of year. Is rain and chilly a probable outcome? Are beaches realistic? Warm, nature-related things, I suspect, would make us happiest, but personal preferences, raves and recommendations from y'alls are definitely welcome. (I really need ideas!)

Second is the time span and budget. I couldn't even know exactly for a few weeks how much I could spend on such a trip but it could possibly be around $300 to (hopefully) over $700. How much can I expect to pay for food/lodging/entertainment? How can I keep expenses low? I need to know this so I can say how long we want to stay. Longer may be better. (Clever lodging options or locations could be the key to saving the most/getting the most time)

Right now we have a tentative location set for Sarasota, Florida and tentative length of 3-4 days. We were really quick about it, and picked one out of several obvious locations (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, etc). But maybe there are nonobvious locations that would be better/more affordable. These are the kinds of considerations I hope you can lend wisdom too. Thanks.

Is there an online alternative to Quicken?

katyjack — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 08:04:09 -0800

I've been tracking my expenses in Quicken in conjunction with using Bank of America's Internet site for bill payment. Primarily, I'd like to get better at managing my cash flow and keeping track of both how I spend my money and what big expenses are coming up. Quicken is working ok for me, but I've got two big problems with it - 1) in order to keep it someplace convenient for me to use it every day I've been storing it on my work computer, which I'm uncomfortable doing and also I'd like my husband to have access to the information, but there doesn't seem to be a good way for us to share the info. What I'd like is on an online solution that works similar to the way BofA works (shows what's cleared the bank, allow online bill payment) but also lets me enters transactions like checks I've written so I (and my husband) know they will clear the bank soon and that we really don't _have_ that money and will let me keep a calendar of upcoming expenses so I can know what my cash flow situation is. I've looked around and all I've found so far was http://www.mvelopes.com which seemed unnecessarily complicated and not calendar based which is really what I'm looking for. I'd like to be able to look at the whole month in advance and see exactly when my bills are due. And again, it needs to be something online so I can access it from any computer and so that my husband and I can both use it. Is there anything like that out there?

How to talk about money with my spouse.

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 19:03:18 -0800

Money is difficult. I'm familiar with Your Money or Your Life, "pay yourself first", Quicken, The Tightwad Gazette, etc. but my money problems seem to be intertwined with a lot of relationship stuff that is hard to unravel. I make what looks like good money (to me): $55k a year. We payed $13k in taxes, leaving us with $42k. Ten percent of our gross goes to our church, $5.5k. [let's pretend that isn't negotiable, because for us it isn't]. Our home, which is within walking distance of work, has a monthly mortgage of $1200 (80/20). We have four kids, ages 9, 6, 5, 2. Our 7-year-old minivan costs $176 a month.

Money is really tight since we moved from our $800/month home, which was 25 miles from work, and costing us an additional $300/month in extra gas and vehicle costs. (we sold the second car, which was costing $160/month, when we moved).

Those are just some of the particulars of our finances. We are barely making it each month, which is a source of embarassment and shame, given our gross income. My spouse's identity is somewhat tied to our home and lifestyle.

Another problem is that we are not getting along that great, so it's very difficult to broach the subject.

My apologies for the amorphous nature of this post. I would be interested in hearing if anyone has been in a similar situation and was able to dig their way out. I am afraid if I moonlight and make and extra $500/month that it will just get spent.

Where do I start? It feels like there is more to this mess than just budgeting. Is there such thing as a combination marriage/financial counselor?

Personal Finance 101

junkbox — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:19:15 -0800

Young married couple, mid-20's, good income: ready to take our finances more seriously. Who do we talk to? My husband and I are not particularly good with money. We earn it, we spend it, and as long as we've got a little in the bank we feel all right about it. This has worked okay for the last few years, but it's not particularly sound fiscal policy.

Together, we realize that we need to learn how to handle our finances more adeptly. How to budget, how to save, how to clean up our somewhat checkered credit history, and how to afford a house without mortgaging ourselves up to our eyeballs. We have a good income -- enough that we're paying down our debt, keeping up with our bills and increasing our savings a little -- but we're not as responsible with money as we should be. We have this sense that if we managed our money better, we could do a lot more with our income.

We're looking for general financial counseling: someone to help us set goals, show us new habits, and teach us about the wide world of personal finance, without giving us a hard sell on investment plans or mortgage rates. Where's the best place to get this kind of help?

Food budgeting

wtfwjd? — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:12:12 -0800

How much do you spend on food a week? What is the ratio of eating out and eating at home you do to arrive at that number? What is the least a couple can spend per week and still eat well? How does one transition from eating out every meal and being pretty clueless in the kitchen to eating in (saving lots of money) but without spending hours and hours making food and cleaning up? How do we do this without TV Dinners, microwavable foods etc?

Help me build a desktop

Grod — Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:03:53 -0800

I want to build a desktop computer for under $500 (not including the monitor) if I can manage it. The catch is, I need quite a bit of power. Right now I'm looking at Athlon 64, but this will be the first computer I've built, any advice\experience is appreciated. [more inside] I intend to use it primarily for graphics, both traditional (photoshop, Corel Painter, illustrator, flash, etc) and 3D (most likely 3ds Max 6, because Max is what I'm most familiar with).
Since I am a poor student I'd like something that can be upgraded over time, and is powerful enough now that I won't feel compelled to upgrade for at least a year.
I know the biggest exspense will be the video card, and maybe the ram, but I don't know much else. Thanks.