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

[lassarina]

I use Mint.com, which will fetch information from your bank account and credit accounts and categorize it all (you can tweak its categories, and it is smart and learns well). Then it will tell you what you are currently spending on broad categories, and give suggestions for reducing that, as well as compare you to others in your geographical area. You can have it send you e-mails or SMS when you are getting close to one of your budget limits. (I have a friend who uses it to keep herself from spending too much eating at Chipotle!) If you know you're going to have a specific cost in a given month--moving, for example--you can budget a one-time cost into Mint and it'll acknowledge that. (Or you could add $200 to your shopping budget around Christmas, etc.)