Moneytrackin': Recent global tips tagged with "budget"

Organization

justdivamee — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:06:38 +0200

In order to get your finances in order, document everything before spending.

One method to not overspend

eitai2001 — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:11:41 +0200

When carrying a credit or debit card around, it becomes very easy to overspend. So the tip is to withdraw a set amount per week in cash that you plan on spending. Say you plan on spending $100 per week, then only withdraw that amount. The only problem here is that you generally will finish your $100, and use a little bit more. So instead, withdraw $80 and set that as your spending limit. That way, if you finish your $80, you will use the remaining $20 on your card. If you put fixed amounts in your head, you generally try your best to stick to that amount, which is why you should set a weekly limit slightly less than what you actually would like to spend. The big upside, is that if you stick to your lesser budget, you will have more cash saved at the end of the day.

Create a budget

october506 — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:18:44 +0200

Creating a budget will allow you to see how your spending habits are and see how things could change so you can savemoney in some areas. Once a budget is created, STICK WITH IT!! A budget is useless is you make it and forget about it.

Using the 'Notes' field

drnitinranjan — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 06:10:28 +0200

You can use the Notes (seen at the bottom of your dashboard) to plan future transactions. So, just at a glance, you can see how you are going to spend your next month's budget, and whether you need to cut out some expenses.

Save money in ways you didn't expect

adama1 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:04:36 +0100

Use moneytrackin to tag the historical transactions downloaded in CSV format from your online banking website. Looking through the statements, find keywords in the description of transactions that categorize them. You can do this for any category of spending such as groceries, entertainment, food, business.... this allows you to see where it is the money is going out. For example looking through my statement I found various repeating transactions from different poker venues and online sites: 16/02/2009,POS,"'4748 13FEB09 0000 , FULLTILTPOKER , .",-270.00,5964.02,"'Switch Account","'******", 17/03/2009,POS,"'4748 16MAR09 1956 , THE PUNCH TAVERN , LONDON",-11.75,2408.04,"'Switch Account","'*****", 28/07/2009,POS,"'4748 27JUL09 0000 , CASINO AT THE EMPI, LEICESTER SQ",-250.00,357.10,"'Switch Account","'********", 05/08/2009,C/L,"'4748 03AUG09 1442 , GCA* CIRCUS CIR , LAS VEGAS USA , USD 63.50, RATE 1.6892, ERTF 1.03, CHARGE 2.00",-40.62,1247.69,"'Switch Account","'*****", 23/11/2009,POS,"'4748 20NOV09 0000 , GROSVENOR , LONDON EDGEWARE RD",-80.00,555.62,"'Switch Account","'*******", From this I added tags to be generated (on the Import page) from text as follows: TEXT | TAG –––––– GROSVENOR | POKER CASINO | POKER CIRCUS CIR | POKER PUNCH | POKER POKER | POKER I now have a list of when I'm spending money on poker and exactly how much it is that I've been spending on it, and it was a real eye opener. I thought it was just a past time but it turns out it's my main outgoing.. Best of luck and I hope this helps you save some money!

how to lower down date cost

jokejong — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:17:07 +0200

I've been dating for a while now and one thing i realize is that what makes the date special is really the time you spent doing things together and making each dates special and memorable. i try to lower down the cost of dates by limiting the number of times we go to expensive restaurants, but making sure that i still do bring my gf to nice places. i try to be more adventurous by going to uncommon places, though not too expensive. i try to buy cut flowers, and wrap it on my own, more creative and more sincere as it's more effort. we share some of our meals together, like sharing a bowl of soup and sharing dessert and appetizers, that way we lower our expenses tremendously!

Simple Budget

monkeygroove — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:44:51 +0200

One of the best ways to save your money is to use cash. Get several envelopes and mark them with things like food, clothes, etc. Then figure out how much you want to spend on each category, and place that amount of cash in each envelope. When you need to make a purchase, then take out some of the cash, when the cash is gone, it's gone. Remember, cash never bounces or overdrafts. It is what it is.

Budget weekly cash

ricky_williams — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:40:12 +0200

If you're like me and use your debit card excessively estimate how much money you might need for the week. I find it much harder to hand over hard cash. So I will take $40 cash in my wallet for the week and find that I end up spending alot less than if I just debit all my purchases.

Monthly Budget

ricky_williams — Tue, 05 May 2009 15:54:05 +0200

Create a monthly budget, on a sheet of paper write fixed expenses and variable expenses and write down the ones you know. Then add them up and allocate money from your paycheck to the fixed expenses. Then play with the amounts for the variable expenses, maybe lessen, increase or eliminate ones that you really don't need. Try not to use your debit card as much, instead pull out the money and carry it in your wallet to pay for things you know you will need.

How to keep control on the budget at these tough times

anandh — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:28:11 +0200

Set a monthly / weekly spending budget and pay for all your shopping / dining expenses using CASH. Dish out the credit card. Anytime you run out of money in hand means that you have exceeded your budget. Try it couple of weeks and then you will know how to budget efficiently ! Forget credit cards for life (and just hold on to free cards as they will improve your credit score - and also during crisis)

live off last months money.

jymcpherson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:36:08 +0100

I came across this tip and it seems helpful. If you make all your outgoing money come from the previous months income then you can pay bills instantly as they arrive. You don't have to time your paychecks to fit with your bills. This in turn relieves stress and makes life better.

Live below your means.

GPAaron — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:13:10 +0100

The only thing you should consider financing is a house. Never finance a car, furniture, computer, or anything else – even during the holidays. If you can't pay for it in cash, you cannot afford it. Also, give to a cause such as Food For The Hungry. Trust me, you will be blessed for it.

Winter is homemade soup time

samchico — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:12:50 +0100

Buy veggies in season (they're cheaper and better for you), lentils and kidney beans and start making soup. Great for the body, soul and budget. A cheap hand blender to blend soup directly in the pot is a great investment.

Reward Yourself

moneytrackin_de — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:06:52 +0200

Create a budget for necessities (groceries, gas...etc). When you are under-budget in a category, reward yourself with something small. For us, if we go significantly under-budget in groceries, my husband and I each get to eat out at lunch one day instead of bringing one. It seems simple, but you'd be surprised at how motivated it makes you to stick to the shopping list or to conserve gas.

Budget your month

scella20 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:54:14 +0200

Chart your spending for a month to see where every dollar you spend is going. After that month, look at your spending and see what is uneccessary or excessive. Set up your checking account to have all the money for your bills, groceries, social life, etc. and your savings to hold all of the remaining money. This will limit your spending when you see the balance remaining in your checking is getting lower. The key is to be disciplined and not take money out of your savings unless it is an emergency. Set a goal and reward yourself for a job well done.

How to Watch What you Spend

cheapscott — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:48:18 +0200

Don't go too low level in a budget, no one wants to spend their life tracking how much they spent on groceries 1 month compared to another month. Instead try to follow something like X% Monthly income on mandatory or committed expenses (rent, food, gas, etc) Y% Monthly income on fun money (movies, dates, games) Z% on short term savings (money into a savings account for unforeseen expenses) A% on long term savings (money meant to grow over long periods of times like 5-10 years; stocks mutual funds) B% on retirement (IRA, etc) You can still keep track to a low level, but at a glance you can see if you're been over spending on mandatory expenses, fun money or not saving enough. It's worked great for me for many years and was inspired (and explained much better) by this article: The 60% solution: articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/ASimplerWayTx

Budget Plan

codyr1951 — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:19:12 +0100

I'm using Dave Ramsey's envelope system for budgeting my money. It's fairly easy. All you have to do is set envelopes for each place you spend money (Walmart, Gas Station, Grocery, etc.) and divide up your money into each envelope. When you run out of money in that envelope, that's it. No more spending for that area. If you are running low on gas, and you are almost out of gas money, cut down your traveling as much as you can (it's good on your wallet, and the environment). I took it a step further. Instead of carrying envelopes around, and wondering where to hide them at home, I keep all the cash in my wallet, or bank account. I then have all my "envelopes" categorized into accounts on moneytrackin.com and when I spend money in that category, I take out my iPhone, and using the moneytrackin app, I deduct it from my account. It was hard at first, being tempted to spend the money in other categories, but I've gotten better. Some of my categories are: Wal-Mart Gas Petty-Cash Eating-Out Money Savings In the "savings" account, it's what I use to save up to what I want to buy, say a new computer, etc. I have a totally separate savings account in the bank as a back-up for a cash melt down or something of that sort. Hope this helped!!

Simplfy your budget

topnotch10 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:17:57 +0200

Moneytrackin is a fantastic service that provides accessibility and sharing of the household budget, but without an easy and effective method for using it, it is not as useful as it could be. I recently read the following article on budgeting: articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/LearnToBudget/ASimplerWayTx I've simplified the budget even further: 1. Calculate your monthly take-home income. 2. 70% of that amount is for all your daily living expenses. This just combines the "committed" and "fun" categories in the article. 3. 20% is for "long-term" savings. This combines the longterm savings and retirement categories from the article. 4. 10% is for "short-term" savings for vacations or home improvement, etc. With moneytrackin, I created 3 accounts (committed, long-term, and short-term). At the beginning of every month, the corresponding amount of our take-home income is added to each account using the periodic transaction function in moneytrackin. At the end of every week, I simply type in each of that weeks transactions in the appropriate account (almost always committed). My wife can login to see the balances at any time to adjust her own spending, and so can I. Granted, the 70/20/10 method may need to be adjusted depending on your specific situation, but the essence of the method has worked really well.