r/budget

Hello everyone, I’m curious how do you budget and allow yourself to spend some and be happy?

I have a monthly budget that I write down and check off when bills are paid etc. I have a breakdown of spending money and money for savings. I have my $1K emergency fund and a bit in my checking roughly $3k in working on having $3K at all times in there. It’s an amount I feel safe with.

I plan on opening a HYSA and starting small with contributions then increasing them. I’ll be redoing my budget when my pay rise kicks in later this month to see where I’m at then. The only debt I have is $7k on my car which I’m paying off aggressively and early. I do realize I’m a bit too focused on lowering that amount. But I have trouble spending money on myself. Be it new clothes, a game or hobby etc. I’ve cut back on going out as I was doing that a bit too much.
I think I’ve been living in a scarcity mindset for so long I have a hard time with investing in myself. Has anyone else had this problem? If so how did you overcome it?

Edit the debt is what I owe on my car. I have no CC debt

I’ve been with the same insurer (Geico) for 20 years. They’ve been great, I’ve got no complaints. I’m wondering, however, about looking elsewhere because I read that it almost always yields savings. What I’m unsure of is which companies may be cheaper, but service or coverage is compromised. Any one that you’d say to avoid or to consider? Thanks!

So my fiancé and I are about $12k in credit card debt with both of our credit cards maxed out. I’m wondering if we should save the extra money we would normally put towards the credit cards (not including minimums) in a HYSA and pay everything off at once or to just pay off the credit cards with the minimum + extra cash. He’s the primary breadwinner at $40/hr and $60/hr overtime so his base annual is around $85k. I work on the weekends as a nail technician so my income fluctuates, but I put my income as my average that I would make on the lower end. We also have a 3 year old and 5 month old that I stay home with which is why I only work 2 days out of the week. Childcare is too expensive to fit into our budget and my income fluctuates too much for me to accurately calculate income to childcare ratio.

CC 1: $3500 at 25%

minimum: $80

CC 2: $8700 at 27%

minimum: $220

Net Income 1: $4368

Net Income 2: $1200

Combined: $5568

Fixed Expenses: $4095 (this is everything from bills, subscriptions, gas estimates, childcare, groceries, etc.)

Left over: $1473

Usual Savings amount: $800

Spending: $673

Edit: We have a zero based budget that sorts out all of our fixed expenses, variables, subscriptions, debt, and savings. The amounts I put are just the totals for each of those categories. I also mentioned in a previous comment, but our biggest setbacks are our cars. $660 payment for one car that we are getting refinanced this week and $690 payment for the second car we just bought. $504 car insurance was the cheapest we could find since my fiancé still has tickets on his record but those will come off soon and then we’ll be able to request an insurance rate reduction.

We’re not really able to change our expenses at the moment besides the $660 car payment being refinanced. The reason I’m asking about HYSA vs paying it off straight is because we’ve saved up the total debt before in the past and put it all down at once to completely pay off the credit card. It shot our credit scores up over 100 points so that’s mainly what I was curious about.

We’ve also been thinking of ways to increase our income, but he’s the highest paid technician in his company and is maxed out on pay essentially. I don’t believe any other place will hire him for a higher pay, plus the company he currently works at is the largest company/biggest competitor in their market. I would love to work more days during the week as well, but the money you make doing nails fluctuates during the week days so I can’t really calculate childcare to income ratio.

For context: we aren’t married, but have lived together for several years now. In that process our finances began to overlap a lot and It’s harder to get a clear picture of how much money we have throughout the month and budget while we’re sending money back and forth between each other and using multiple cards. We also both want to be able to keep autonomy over our respective disposable income at the end of the month.

The initial solution we came up with was to keep our individual personal checking and savings accounts and each contribute 1/2 of the total amount budgeted for rent, bills, and shared household expenses into a shared checking. We usually buy things like groceries with a rewards credit card, so that account would be used to pay that off each month as well. We live in a pretty walkable city, but are trying to save for the down payment on a car as well.

She does her primary banking through a national credit union, and I use a traditional bank. We’ve considered a couple pros/cons of each for our lifestyles and financial plans together.

TLDR: My partner and I want to open a joint checking/savings account while still maintaining our personal accounts mainly for paying necessary monthly expenses, saving for emergencies, and major shared purchases but can’t decide which would make the most sense between a credit union or traditional bank.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated as we’re fairly new to this but want to start making wiser financial decisions together.

Lately I've noticed something.

The moment money gets involved...

Everything suddenly feels urgent.

Spend now.

Decide now.

Reply now.

Maybe the urgency isn't always real.

Maybe it's the pressure.

This is my observation

For me it was not groceries or eating out like I expected. It was all the little recurring charges I barely noticed because they were spread across different dates. None of them felt expensive on their own, but together they ended up being a much bigger monthly expense than I realized.

Now I try to do a quick review every few weeks just to make sure I am still paying for things I actually use.

What category ended up costing you more than you thought once you started paying attention?

I make more than enough money to pay my bills, I always spend the extra. What are your best tips to save EXTRA, “fun having” money? There are expensive fun things I want to have/do, I can’t seem to save my fun money for them. Any help is accepted.

I'd prefer to use a spreadsheet that I make myself, I like google sheets. But I don't know where to start. I'd like to have 3 categorys... Savings, vehicle, and hobbies so I know which bucket to take from when buying something. Any help with getting started would be greatly appreciated!

23f and spent the past year wiping out student + car loans. Now that I’m not throwing every penny at debt I’m a little lost trying to figure out what to do with my money going forward and would appreciate some advice.

My net income is $3660/month, $1830 every 2 weeks. I live at home and pay the household internet and utility bill in addition to my own bills. Right now I match a 3% employer contribution to my 401k. This is what I’m working with:

- car insurance $217 ($1300 every 6 months)

- $90 gas

- $104 phone

- $100 utilities

- $92 internet

- $20 subscriptions

- $350 grocery

- $50 misc

- $40 toll tag

This leaves me with $2597 a month

Here are some things I know I should do: set aside money for car maintenance, set aside money for a future car purchase, make an emergency fund, max out a Roth IRA, increase 401k contributions, invest in a brokerage account.

Here are some things I want to start doing: tennis and dance classes, traveling

The only major upcoming financial commitment I have is splitting the purchase of a 3rd, “backup” household car with my mom. This car will be a Honda civic or Toyota Prius and won’t be purchased for at least another 1-3 years

Finally, I will have a 4 month emergency fund by the end of the month. This amount does not include rent ($1560) since I don’t pay it, but I am wondering if it would be prudent to add this expense in.

How would you budget for these goals with the amount that I have to work with? What should I prioritize?

Back when I was paying off debt, I followed some youtubers doing a similar thing, often US based (I'm UK) such as Budget Girl, GazelleInTents, Lydia Senn, one called Jamie who was a SAHM.

I'm getting back into budgeting now after a time away and a lot of these people have moved on, any new recommendations? More vlog, budget with me, budget shopping etc.

Is it financially safe for me to continue being a stay-at-home spouse while I keep looking for a work-from-home job? My spouse hopes to retire in about 10 years, and I’m having a difficult time finding remote work. Here’s our current monthly take-home budget for feedback.

Husband's Monthly take-home income: $10,970

This is our actual take-home pay after taxes, Tricare premiums, life insurance contributions, Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), TSP contributions, and other payroll deductions.

Housing (paid off house)
Water: $130
Electric/Heat/Air: $200
Mobile phones: $214
Internet: $125
Garbage: $16.50
Security system: $70.98
Homeowners insurance: $200

Transportation
Gas: $150
Auto insurance: $465
Vehicle payment: $417.12
Vehicle payment: $420.55

Food
Groceries: $1,200

Lifestyle & Household
Gym: $92
Car wash: $85
Netflix: $25
Hulu: $12
Paramount+: $13
HBO/Max & Cinemax: $22
Apple One: $41
Yard/Bug service: $30
Audible: $25
Kindle Unlimited: $12

Personal
Spending money (Adult 1): $500
Spending money (Adult 2): $500
Teen allowance: $400
Eating out: $300
Entertainment: $200
Clothing: $400

Saving & Investing
Investing: $1,000
Emergency fund: $2,000

Miscellaneous
Extra/Buffer: $1,703.85

This is a true zero-based budget, so every dollar is assigned a purpose. I’m interested in hearing whether people think this is financially sustainable for the next decade if I remain at home while continuing to search for a remote position, or if you’d recommend making changes now.

Hi, i’m looking for some advice and help on what is the wisest choice. I am 27 currently find my self unemployed and looking for work. I have a credit score of 600, and credit debt of around $4,600. I do not want to declare bankruptcy, I would rather be able to pay off my debts. My family is trying to pressuring me into declaring bankruptcy(also happen to be the reason for 2.5k of the debt I owe) In the next 7 years however I would like to be in a place where I can move out. And don’t want a small debt of less than $5k be the reason I cannot do so. I’m not sure what options I have or how exactly to calculate the interest of the debts and if it is worth it or not. Looking for some advice. Thank you!!

My employer advised me on Monday that I have 2 weeks remaining for my position. Basically being laid off with the rest of my team. I'll be getting 6 weeks of pay as the severance package. Not knowing how long it'll be until I find another job gives me so much anxiety, but trying to plan. My initial strategy is just pay mortgage, water, electricity, gas. Ruining my credit score seems inevitable, so I am planning to not pay or just make partial payments on credit cards? And maybe partial payments on my mortgage as well? I also have about 11k in my 401k, but I really don't want to pay extra fees on my tax return. Any advice, please?

Savings with the 5% Roth contribution from employer I guess we are at 20% but I would like to save 20% outside of that. Wants are way under.

Needs is where the hurt is. Not sure what exactly we can adjust. Transportation we live South of Miami and the turnpike (toll road) is our main vein of transportation about $140 a month in tolls. Car insurance recently reduced by $60 a month. Pets is a bit elevated because they need special food but grooming + food and meds for them.

Pretty stuck on Needs I guess.

EDIT: Thank you browserz for doing the math on this. My Pie chart had an issue.

See updated numbers below. Its much closer.

Needs 68.1% (53.1%)*	Wants 16.9% (24.9%)*	Savings 15% (22.0)*
Housing $2814	Apparel $300	Savings $2,700
Utilities $300	Body Care and Meds $100
Groceries $912.5	Going out $1000
Transportation $500	Subscriptions $250 (gym membership is the bigger chunk)
Car Insurance $228	Self Care $1000
Home Insurance $230	Gifts $100
Pets (2 dogs) $450	House Items $100
Phones + Internet $226	Fun Money $200
Property Tax $750
HOA $90

I’m an international student at a Midwest university working part time (minimum wage). Money is tight but I’m trying to be smart about it instead of just letting it disappear.
A few things I’m trying to figure out:
**•** What’s the best way to actually save when the paycheck is small? Is a fixed % even realistic on this income?
**•** Are high yield savings accounts worth it for someone with a small balance, and do any of them work well for international students / non-citizens?
**•** Budgeting apps: worth it or overkill? What do you actually use and stick with?
**•** Anything I should know about taxes as an F-1 student (tips income, filing, etc.)?
**•** Credit: can international students build credit here, and should I even bother this early?
**•** Any dumb money mistakes you made in college that you’d tell your younger self to avoid?
Not looking to get rich, just want to not be clueless and maybe have a small cushion by the time I graduate. Appreciate any advice.

I'm following Financial Peace and working my way through debt right now (paid 3 credit cards off and down to Student Loan and Car Payment).

I structure my bank accounts and my paychecks such that half of my monthly bills gets direct deposited into my 'bills' account out of my paycheck. Two paychecks/month, all bills are covered with no risk of money not being available when a bill comes due. Any variable expenses such as gas or 'Fun' money is put into a different account and I use that debit card for those purchases. This way the available balance on the card dictates what I can spend.

Since I'm trying to operate on a zero-based budget, every extra dollar is going towards debt. Because of this, its super crucial that I keep tabs on my 'bills' account to detect any potential surplus.

A surplus can occur from the occasional third paycheck in a month or if, say, my phone bill is cheaper one month. If I dont notice the surplus right away and use it on my debt, then it can slowly add up and that money wont do what it needs to. In the case of the third paycheck, I know that entire check is a surplus because i budget for two paychecks per month, but can I allocate the entire check right away, or are there some bills coming due that require a portion of it?

I'd like to be able to know with good accuracy if, given my upcoming bills and paychecks, my account has a surplus.

Basically, I envision a spreadsheet with all of my expenses , upcoming paychecks, and current account balance where I say 'If I spend X dollars right now, will my account ever fall below zero or be at zero when a bill comes due?' If the answer is no, that means I have a surplus.

Does any of that make sense?

so ive lived in mumbai for over a year now but with extended family, due to differences have to move it

how much can i expect to spend other than the rent, wifi, electricity and maid?

i dont mind cooking as long as its saving me money

thankyou for helping me out🥰

My roomie of 6 years moved and I’m in my dream apartment for 2025$ a month. I recently had a short term sublet and it was so tense and stressful.

I could move out to a one bedroom … but I put a ton of work in the place and everything I see on the market for 1500$ are sad grey tenements or cute but small with wall ac and no washer dryer 🫩

My take home is 4500$ after my pension contribution and HSA. My side hustle brings is around 1000 a month. I am paying debt down aggressively at about 1000$ a month (student loan, car payment, credit card).

I don’t dream of owning a home.. I’d love to max out my Roth on top of my pension contributions as well as a little in an individual brokerage. And travel more. I

Basically is it irresponsible to stay in a place that’s 35%- 44% of my take home?

I fell like it is? Like I’m obligated to take the cheapest option available?

Are there others who value their rental space that they make these trade offs? Even if just for a year or two?

Or perhaps others who are able to find a way to have high rent, invest and travel?

I have a lot of cc debt which has added up. $18.6 on a Chase freedom card, $8k on a capital one card, and $4.5k on a Citi card for a balance transfer. My spending habits have been out of control. I only make 85k and my rent is 2k. I don’t know where to start. I have been putting $$ towards paying it off but it’s been feeble at best and I only have like 1.5k in savings because I basically stopped putting money into savings. I don’t know what to do.

Edit:

Rent: 2k

Utilities/wifi/ins: $155 (fluctuates but this is the high range)

Transportation: $75

Groceries: $240

Phone: $50

Health: $75 (do not always use this but it’s my copay for any non annual appts)

Gym: $226

Going out: $100/ $25 a week (being realistic)

Savings: I want to put away $500 a month at least.

Interest rates for all cards are between $27-29% except for the Citi card which is 0% right now. I used to have excellent credit and still have never missed a payment but using up over 50% of avail credit has done a number on me.

My income is $85k a year. I also have student loans due soon which is around $300/mo but am unsure because of all of the DOE changes.

How do you stay motivated while paying off debt?

I contribute 75/week to fun spending, 75/week to savings, 250/week to debt payments (more than the minimums).

My rent is 1k, and I make about 2500/mo.

I'm paying a lot off, but I still feel discouraged by being in $9,255 in debt (used to be 23k in 2024—been paying everything off for a while).