Weekly budgets

[Murphy69]

I use a home money management package called Moneydance.

It costs about $50 and allows you to install it on several computers, and never expires.

I used Quicken for a long time, but got sick of the constant upgrade cycle (actually...they kept removing features!), and the very shoddy support.

Anyway, for about 10 minutes work a week entering all transactions, it keeps very good record of my expenses, account balances etc.

Every f/n I print off a graph of my current networth, and put it on my wall. (I only count actual assets in my networth...not household goods, cars etc).

On Moneydances start up page there is a graph of projected vs actual expenditure against each budget catergory, so you can see if you are under or over achieving.

I've also set up sub accounts under the real bank account names. So for example I have an NAB bank account called 'Savings' (just my normal transaction account)

The structure looks like this
Savings
-- Living Costs
-- Salary Reserve
-- Investments
-- Property Fund

As I get paid into the main account, on moneydance I transfer my budgeted living costs for that fortnight into 'Living Costs', and any amounts I want into Salary Reserve and Investment.

Moneydance shows 'Savings' as the sum of all the sub-accounts. When I get ready to go shopping, I check how much is in 'Living Costs' and know that this is my limit. Its possible to have negative value in a sub-account, but thats a hint that you need to change your habits.

I have an aspiration to have 1 pay cycle excess in my Living Costs account, and 3 months 'Salary Reserve' at any given time.

I also plan to have one months loan repayment for every IP I hold, which is in the 'Property Fund'. This is my contingency for a place being vacant etc.

Given I only have 1 IP at the moment...its not a huge amount! Its an offset account against that IP so the salary reserve and 'Investment' sub accounts are reducing my interest until I use those funds.

You could quite easily do all of the above on a spreadsheet, or Quicken etc equally as well. As others have noted though it takes a bit of discipline. I've found that printing out my graphs and putting them on the wall has helped my stick to it.

Some keys are:
- Record as much as possible as it happens. IE: Don't sit down once a week with receipts and try to enter it all, but enter transactions as soon as you get home.
-Once a week log on to your bank web site and do a quick check to make sure the accounts agree.
- When a bill arrives, I enter it into the moneydance calendar so I know its coming up
- Don't worry about sticking to a budget first....just record everything against a budget catergory...you'll soon realise where you are over spending.

- be honest...I have a catergory called 'Fast Food' another called 'Dining' and another called 'Alcohol'. If you lumped all of that under 'Groceries' you might not realise where the money is really going. (You could argue that Fast Food and Dining are the same thing...me I consider going out for a nice meal to be a seperate catergory to buying a coffee or something quick in the food court. You'll soon be surprised at how much you spend on these non-essential activities. If you smoke...list that as a seperate budget catergory.

You can get too detailed in budget catergories...but try to have seperate catergories for discretionary and non-discretionary expenditure.

Murphy.
(In no way connected to Moneydance, Quicken etc)

 

[RumpledElf]

I know from experience as a weight watchers leader, that most people think a serve of meat is closer to 400g - it isn't. And if you are eating that much it would be 4x as expensive.

We try and go for 300-500g lean meat between us, and at least 700g of meat with bones in between us.

Roasts on the other hand ... usually get 1.3-1.5kg and I'm not sure how it happens but there is NEVER leftovers

We get our roasts in a part side, so $30 gives us about 5 meals. We're cheapskates so our budget for any dinner is $10 maximum in total. Sometimes it comes to much less than that.

In a few weeks our budget has to increase ... nappies for the new one, and I'm going to be eating way more than everyone else or I'll wind up losing 20kg in 3 months, which is a Bad Idea.

 

[Indifference]

$700 per fortnight for food.... yep, been there and know how this happens We are 3 also...

Our reason, was no menu planning, going shopping before dinner (when you're hungry), shopping fortnightly instead of weekly or every 4days, spending $ on work lunches when perfectly good food goes to waste at home....which then eventually gets tossed out.

A tip: plan dinner menus for at least 5 nights from 7 and only shop to the menu!, eat before shopping, be strict with work lunches, and shop more frequently.... yes this helps reduce waste and everything you make is fresher.

We did that, and our food bill was cut in half! We just got lazy and wasteful over time... But now we eat just as well, waste less and have $$$ left at the end of the week

 

[Lamingtons]

I do agree with meal planning, this meant that food was always in the house ready to go.
I have tins of tomato, jars of passata sitting around waiting for when I want it and do not have to run out and buy one can and one jar from the supermarket. When that happens, it's usually 7pm and you're too hungry and can't be bothered cooking as we will be eating at 9pm - URGH hate it.
So we end up getting takeaway.

Speaking of which I need to start using Iexpense app on my iPhone. Mr Lamingtons is most upset that I have not used it.

 

[The Fuzz]

I have talked to my wife about this and she has been inspired to do a meal plan for the week for every meal, and only buy enough for that. We will let you know how much we save.

Thanks heaps guys, you have all been very helpfull!!

 

[Lamingtons]

Oh btw when you meal plan.. this is how I do it.
Because I don't know what I would feel like eating. I do about 5 meals for the week and have one day for takeaway. Usually Thursday as I have playgroup in the afternoon and I'm exhausted hiking up and downhill with my son.

So I know that I want to eat say the following

Chicken stirfry
Chicken and Vegie soup
Beef strag
Tacos etc
Spag Bol
Sauce from Spag Bol in pasta bake.

This means I know that I can buy bulk beef mince (cheaper) as I will use it for spag bol and tacos. I also do not say I will have Chicken stirfry on Monday because I know that I am not one to be restricted like this.
So armed with my list, I go to Aldi and buy my meat etc - well I used to until I copped a dodgy eye fillet steak the other day. It was within date and it was OFF and I had a sour taste in my mouth. You probably don't have Aldi but it is good for me because I do not end up buying a ton of crap - iced lemon tea that is on special and oh i just feel like having some.

So work out what part of meal planning works for you. Eg.. are you a Monday - Chicken Stirfry or you have several meal plans.

PS. I wished that I was paying $100 per week in rent. I can't say I ever had such cheap rent in my 10 years living in Melbourne.

 

[The Fuzz]

thanks for such a detailed response...you're right, there is no Aldi here in Port Augusta, just Coles and Woolies. There is one butcher, but I have had a look and it seems very dodgy and poor quality meat so we wont go there. We move back to Adelaide at the end of the year (thank god) so we will be shopping at all the discount places and should be able to buy bulk meat from decent butchers.

 

[The Fuzz]

The $100 a week rent is subsidised rent from the government (SAPOL employee). I kick myself when I think about all the money we could have saved in the 18 months that we have had this rent. Our savings went on a cruise last year and my wife got really sick on it - it was an absolute nightmare. We spent so much money on it and regret it heaps now. Lesson learnt.

 

[Lamingtons]

That's ok fuzz, i just bought an IP.
I went to the bank and did a bank transfer for the 10% deposit.
Guess what, the last time I did a withdrawal that size was to buy a CAR.
And i regret it till this day. It was 2004 and I still want to kill myself over it. I could have purchased a 2bedroom house in Flemington for $300K and now it would be worth $500K easily.

 

[The Fuzz]

we were saving for a house last year and at the last minute the cruise was more tempting - by the way, never go on a P&O cruise unless you like 3 star. They market it like it's 5 star - but 5 star it aint!

 

[The Y-man]

$300-400 for a family of five per fortnight is incredible. I really cant see how we could get our bill that low. If you dont mind, could you tell me what you would normally eat?

Fuzz,

Can you put up details of a week's worth of grocery receipts please (just group up meat, veg, condiments, etc)

FYI, we almost always buy stuff at coles and woolies that have been marked down 30-60% prior to the best by date (we prefer the "second sticker" 66% off just before the best by date).

That goes for meat, fruit, veges, fruit juice, yohurt, bean curd etc.

Max $100 per week for 2 of us (and that's with mostly organic meat, veg), although we do get stuff from our own garden these days to supplement.

The Y-man

 

[The Fuzz]

we haven't been keeping track of receipts etc.. we would not have any idea on how much we spend on what. All we know is that we are at the supermarket every other day and easily spend $100 on only a couple of bags of groceries.

We are starting to track all spending from today and I'm sure it will not be long before we know where the money is going.

 

[The Fuzz]

In regards to buying perishables, like dairy and meat, with discount stickers... we have been burnt a number of times with meat that is off. We are reluctant to do this - food poisoning is so not fun!

A number of you have brought up the idea of a vege garden, which seems like a great idea. But we have no idea about gardening and find it hard keeping herb alive! Is it really worth all the effort? Can you save heaps of money growing your own vegies when you take into account the cost of setting up a garden from scratch, costs of fertilizers etc..

 

[HandyAndy888]

Enjoy...I certainly don't....well, it depends if I'm in the red or black...I can email an empty excel file if anyone is interested.

 

[HandyAndy888]

In regards to buying perishables, like dairy and meat, with discount stickers... we have been burnt a number of times with meat that is off. We are reluctant to do this - food poisoning is so not fun!

A number of you have brought up the idea of a vege garden, which seems like a great idea. But we have no idea about gardening and find it hard keeping herb alive! Is it really worth all the effort? Can you save heaps of money growing your own vegies when you take into account the cost of setting up a garden from scratch, costs of fertilizers etc..

It needs to be done at a medium to large scale (i.e. at least 100m square) for it to provide a decent ongoing crop. Growing is easy....

 

[Luv2Travel]

Fuzz, obviously your food bill is one area to look at, but with your combined incomes, you are taking home about $1,200 a week and only paying rent of $100. That leaves $1,100! Even if your food is $350 a week, that's still $750 a week disappearing. You need to do what others have suggested and find out where it's going.

Something I do, which is a bit over the top I know, is I never keep cash on me. That is one of the biggest ways to have money just dwindle away I find. I don't buy my lunch at work, I don't buy daily coffees, in fact in the eyes of my work colleagues I must look like the world's biggest tight@rse. But I'm not, I just don't like spending money on non necessities that I can't justify, other things including designer clothes, fake nails, fake tans and all the other rubbish women do (it shocks me what I hear a work colleague spends money on and yet she's in a heap of debt and rents ). Maybe your wife is spending it all at the beauty salon. Don't get me wrong, I like to look nice, but you can do it without spending a fortune. However things I really want and think are worth while (such as my life long dream of buying a piano) I don't mind paying for. So I'm not totally frugal living a miserable life.

 

[Mooze]

We spend around $200 per fortnight on grocery. We spend more than we should given we're on the move a lot and so can't really have a pantry (a few essentials travel with us but that's it).
Great easy meals that are cheap
- Home made egg fried rice (left over rice, bag of frozen veggies, bit of ham or other left over meat, egg omelet, soy sauce)
- tuna pasta (large tin tuna, jar of pasta sauce, whatever veggies are on hand/almost gone, bag of pasta)
- chicken veggie soup (we use one chicken breast (about 250g) for two of us x two meals) - (chicken, chicken stock cubes, soup veggie pack, whatever left over veg you've got (brocoli stalks etc))
- lentil curry (red lentils, chicken or veggie stock cubes, pumpkin, carrot, capsicum, sweet potatoe, whatever is in season)
- slow cooker/crock pot stew - whatever veg is available + cheap meat (if you're worried about fat levels, cook the day before, cool overnight, scoop fat off top, reheat) cheap meat often tastes better because it's stronger flavoured, but needs more cooking due to being tough
- chili con carne (or veggie chili) in the slow cooker - couple of cans of four bean mix, some red kidney beans, turkey mince (woolworths have this for 4.99 per 500g pack), crushed tomatoes, chili and herbs to taste.

 

[The Y-man]

A number of you have brought up the idea of a vege garden, which seems like a great idea. ..

It takes a bit to get going - for example finding what works in your soil/climate and what doesn't.

Once you get momentum, it's actually pretty easy.

It can be easy as throwing the next green potato you find in your pantry into the yard....

The Y-man

 

[WinstonWolfe]

Here's another spreadsheet you can play with Fuzz.
Just remember garbage in, garbage out. You really need to run a log for 4-6 weeks to track every cent. That will be your big ah-haa moment.
Maybe the visual charts will help. Click on the pic below to download the spreadsheet.

 

[WinstonWolfe]

we haven't been keeping track of receipts etc.. we would not have any idea on how much we spend on what. All we know is that we are at the supermarket every other day and easily spend $100 on only a couple of bags of groceries.

We are starting to track all spending from today and I'm sure it will not be long before we know where the money is going.

Several of us have mentioned planning your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for a week, compiling a shopping list for that menu, and buying it all at once and nothing else. Then stay away from the shops. This is probably the most powerful thing you can do to rein in spending.

Re a vege garden, it is very simple if your dirt is not overly sandy or clayey. Even if it is, keep a compost barrel as well and you'll be right in no time.

If you pay more than $7/kg for tomatoes, there's $10 of pre tax income saved a week in that. Cherry tomato crawlers grow virtually anywhere and are quite prolific in their yield.

A variety of lettuce is also good to have. But an idea to set up fine mesh over it to keep out bugs, birds, rabbits whatever. Carrots, celery, cucumbers, radishes are all very easy to grow. You just need to ensure a drink every 1-2 days. If it gets cold at night, a good idea to put corro iron roofing over the top to stop frost damage. You might also grow winter vege like broccoli, zucchini, pumkin moreso than the salads. There's heaps of resources on the net about this stuff, and it would be good to learn and teach your kid/s.