Do you have budgets?

[sibyllevance]

I really hope I'm not off topic here (this isn't about debt but it is about managing money) but I was wondering how many of you allocate a specific budget to an area of their life so they don't spend too much in that area.

Specifically, when it comes to books, DVDs, CDs, concerts, theatre tickets, seeing a movie at the cinema - do you set aside a specific amount of money at the beginning of each month or do you just go with the flow?

I have a friend who goes to the ATM the first day of the month, takes a hundred in cash, goes home with it and then hands her debit card to her parents for the rest of the month.  But I'm trying to do this alone and libraries are not an option. I suppose you could say I'm looking for success stories in that area :) Thank you!

Not sure what tags to use, I apologize.

Comments

[rivenwanderer]

I don't do that--but what I *have* done is run the numbers so that I know how much discretionary money I have each month (and therefor per week) assuming I pay all my bills, buy the usual groceries, put a good chunk into savings, etc. each month. In the end, it doesn't really matter what that discretionary money is spent on as long as I don't go over that (and putting a lot in savings as soon as I get a paycheck means that if I *do* have unexpected expenses above and beyond the discretionary amount, I can pull from savings rather than going back into more debt). At least for me, it's easier to think of saving money by treating it the same as another bill, rather than trying to avoid spending money and then calling whatever I "manage" to not spend at the end of the month my savings.

[sibyllevance]

For some reason your comment was flagged by Gmail as being junk mail. First time it's happened to me, maybe it's the word 'money'? Interesting, in any case.

I see what you mean, it's very interesting. I find the approach: 'I have this per month. Minus the rent, the bills, the groceries and saving up, I have this left' very effective. Thank you!

[tassosss]

I do the same thing. I pay myself first thing after I get my paycheck. The lump amount sometimes changes depending on how I'm doing, but then what remains after my other bills is discretionary.