r/budgetingforbeginners

Before you panic, this is just my opinion... but I'm a professional and you should take me very seriously ;)

I'll start by saying that I've been tracking my expenses for about 6 years, and financially, it completely changed my life.

Ever since then, I've been obsessed with personal finance. I did it all: YouTube videos, finance books, blog posts, budgeting tips, money podcasts, you name it.

If it had anything to do with managing money, I was interested.

Over those 6 years, one thing has become incredibly clear to me: why people struggle to stick to a budget, or take control of their finances in the first place.

To start, here are some basic observations I made:

1. What people spend on and what people THINK they spend on are entirely different.
2. People do not understand the difference between "Budgeting" and "Tracking"

So to break it down. When people finally have their breaking point, or the moment where they decide to take control of their finances, they often make the mistake of saying "I'm going to start a budget"

ERRHH WRONG!

Back to point number 1, people have no idea what they ACTUALLY spend, so "creating a budget" will always miss the mark to where the control is required. It also skips past the "diagnosis" stage, and just goes straight into "treatment".

Six years ago I had my own 'what the heck is going on with my money?' moment. I opened my banking app, tracked every expense from the previous month, and the shock I felt is what kept me tracking ever since..

The step I think most people skip is TRACKING their spending first, and my recommendation, is retroactively tracking at least 1-3 months of spending.

Personally, I ended up tracking the prior 12 months because I couldn't believe what I was actually seeing.

And that brings be back to point number 2!

Tracking vs Budgeting.

To this day, I have never created a budget. From that moment, all I did was simply track my expenses, and slowly refined my spending habits as time went on. I whole heartedly believe, if you're tracking your spending, and just being AWARE of where your money is going, your spending behaviours will naturally evolve.

Here was my experience tracking:

The day I opened my laptop, and tracked the last month of spending, I realized I had spent more money than I'd ever be willing to share on "dining out". I couldn't accept the amount I actually spent on restaurants and fast food.

The thing was, I didn't even particularly care all that much about eating out. It had just become one of those subconscious habits.

Meeting up with friends? Let's grab lunch.
Someone wanted to hang out? Let's go for dinner.
Weekend? Brunch.
After work? Let's grab a bite.

It was just my default.

But when I saw what that habit was actually costing me every month, my whole perception of dining out changed.

What happened next? I switched to coffee shops, going for walks, hanging out at a park. The difference? none. I didn't "sacrifice" anything, i just realized what it was costing me, and my habits changed.

The point I'm trying to make is this:

I think people struggle with budgeting because they start with "Category Limits" before gaining an understanding of their subconscious spending.

Then they inevitably go over, get discouraged, and convince themselves they're just "not good at budgeting" or don't have the discipline to stick with it.

Tracking doesn't involve sticking to something, it's lifting the veil on your spending.

I think we've reached a point where people believe controlling their spending means limiting their spending, when in reality, it starts with learning their spending.

Track first. Learn your habits. Then decide what actually needs to change.

I'm curious if anyone else thinks this way, or if you think I'm completely off.

For those of you who successfully manage your money today, what came first? Tracking your spending... or creating a budget?

Hi everyone, I have been budgeting for the past 3 years now and now it has become a habit that after every single expense, even if it is a nominal one, I note it down and then add the transaction in my app.
I used to use a spreadsheet before but it became too difficult to maintain after 3 years.

Sometimes when I am with my friends, I get sideway looks from them when I log my expenses and also note if anyone owes me anything.

How do you handle situations like this?

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?

I've been tracking my spending for about 6 years now, and I actually started with a self-made spreadsheet. I used that spreadsheet for roughly 5 years and honestly, I wouldn't have had it any other way when I started.

So this isn't a "spreadsheets are bad" post. They worked extremely well for me.

My setup was pretty simple:

• Monthly fixed bills
• Variable/personal spending
• Income
• Net savings calculation

I wasn't doing anything crazy. I mainly wanted to know:

"How much am I spending in different areas, and how much am I actually saving each month?"

The reason I think spreadsheets worked for me is because I knew how to build something that matched the way I wanted to think about money.

But over time I started noticing some downsides.

The first is setup.

If you're comfortable with Excel or Google Sheets, building something for yourself can be great. But if you're new to budgeting, creating a spreadsheet from scratch can feel like work before you even begin budgeting.

The alternative is downloading someone else's spreadsheet, but I often found those to be:

• overly complicated
• designed around someone else's system
• difficult to learn

The bigger issue for me was consistency.

With a spreadsheet, I had to sit down at my computer and enter transactions later. That usually meant going through my bank statements or transaction history and trying to remember what I spent money on.

And if you're someone who only has short bursts of motivation to track spending, that timing can matter a lot.

Eventually I switched to using an app.

The biggest difference wasn't dashboards or analytics.

It was simply that my phone was always in my pocket.

Buy coffee → track it.

Fill up gas → track it.

Buy groceries → Already tracked before the clerk gave me my receipt.

For me, the habit became:

"Just get the expense in."

I can review reports, budgets, and trends later.

Curious what everyone else uses:

Spreadsheet, app, both, or something else?

And why does that approach work better for you?

I built a free tool to sense-check whether a big purchase is actually affordable

I’ve been working on a free tool called Affordit and would genuinely appreciate feedback.

The idea is simple: most affordability calculators focus on one number, usually the monthly payment. But in real life, that’s not enough.

A £400/month car payment might look fine until you factor in rent, bills, existing commitments, savings buffer, insurance, timeline and whether you’re wiping out your emergency fund.

Affordit is designed to help people sense-check big purchases before they commit.

You can use it for things like:

* buying a car
* planning a wedding
* saving for a holiday
* moving out
* rent affordability
* renovations
* University
* house deposits
* salary changes

You enter the goal, target amount, savings, monthly contribution and a few basic details. It then gives you:

* an affordability score
* a clear verdict
* estimated timeline
* monthly contribution needed
* what is helping or hurting the plan
* ways to compare different routes

There is no credit check, no bank connection and it is not a lender decision. It is just a planning tool to help you ask: “Does this actually make sense for my situation?”

The site is free to use:
[https://affordit.app\](https://affordit.app/)

I’d really appreciate honest feedback, especially on:

* whether the result is easy to understand
* whether the scoring feels useful
* what information you’d want before making a big purchase
* whether anything feels confusing or unnecessary

Not trying to sell anything here, just trying to make the tool genuinely useful.

Welcome to the weekly thread for all things budgeting apps!

This is the dedicated space to ask for app recommendations, share your reviews, and discuss the tools you use to manage your money.

• Found an app you love? Tell us what it is and what makes it great.
• Looking for a new app? Describe what features you need, and the community can help.
• Have questions about an app's features? Ask away!

Let's keep the main feed clean and have all our app talk right here. Dive in!

My spouse and I are making a decent amount of money, but I just can’t seem to get a handle on keeping a budget. I make one, and then things end up being more expensive than they used to be or something breaks and it blows the budget. I feel like making the amount of money we are now that we should be much better off than we are. We have worked our way up here from nothing. 15 years ago we were sharing a car and making minimum wage, 10 years ago we were skipping meals because it was rent or eating, and even 5 years ago we had to apply for utility assistance because we couldn’t afford our bills and were considering bankruptcy because we couldn’t afford our student loan payments. This income level is pretty new to us. I want to start putting more money in retirement, but it seems impossible to do that and still be able to pay down our debt and afford things we need like clothes and kids activities. I will say my spouse is also pretty terrible with spending too so that is an issue.

We make 200k, we take home about 11,500 monthly. After bills we have about 3100 left over. $1000 goes to general savings and then another $500 is split between eating out, kids activities savings, and clothes. We then have 1600 left. I am trying to pay down debt though. We have a disgusting amount in student loans, 2 car payments one car has 12k left on the loan and the other has 20k, and about $2k in credit card bills. I’ve been trying to pay down debt with extra money. This large salary is new btw. We both started new jobs in the last 10 months and have doubled our income. We weren’t really able to save before so I’m trying to build up our savings for emergencies. I do plan to lower the amount I put in savings once we have one month of income in savings and then lower the amount im saving monthly. I’m just not sure how to split the 1600 extra between retirement, saving for the kids college, saving for any big purchases and paying down debt.

A few days ago I made a post about the single most important step when starting a budget. If you completed this step congrats, the hardest part is behind and now creating a budget is so much simpler. But how to create a budget that lasts?

Many people probably smarter than myself would use a zero-based budgeting method. There are a lot of educational materials on the topic which can be accessed easily. I think this method is genially great and it works for many people in US that decided to take control over their money. For me this method feels too strict and I personally fail the mission to give every dollar a job and there are many people just like myself.

I prefer to use a different method. This method splits all my spending just into 2 categories: Fixed and Flexible expenses. People who use 20 different budgeting categories would call me crazy and tell me that this method is set for inefficiency and suboptimal spending, but it works for me and most importantly it lasts.

So here’s the method in 3 simple steps:

Pay yourself first. Decide on a specific amount that is untouchable and automate it moving on a pay day to savings or investments account. 10% is usually a good number, but you can start much smaller. The key is to build a habit, not to save a fortune immediately.
Understand your fixed expenses. Rent, mortgage, subscriptions, day care, gym, car payments etc. These are usually fixed. You can simply review your last few month bank statements to find out which transactions are same every month. See if anything can be optimized here.
Whatever is left after paying yourself and covering the fixed stuff gets split across the weeks. If you overspend one week, recalculate for the rest of the month. If you underspend, let it roll into the next week or go to savings.

I’ve been using this method for couple of years now and it helped me to enjoy life while saving and investing consistently. It won’t fit for everyone. Same as zero-based method doesn’t fit everyone. But it’s fair to have several options so as many people as possible would find their way to take control over money.

If anyone need help to set up such a budget let me know in comments 🙂

Hi folks,

I’m 56M with wifey 58. I’ve been reading about folks using calculators to figure out their savings and annual budget but it got me wondering - what can I use to monitor my monthly spend so I stay within that budget? Is there any chance app that people use to connect to their bank or CC? Do people put most of their expenses on a CC and monitor the spend through that app? I’m concerned that spend will surprise me compared to my monthly budget allocation.

Any suggestions welcome. Thx.

Should you throw them away? Scan them with some software? What about digital receipts?

I am a student who plans to save 40-50% of my allowance every time I get it.

It is a big number compared to the usual 30-20% but I want to make it so that I dont recklessly spend and take advantage of my early entry point on compound interest.

whenever I spend too much I always make due by thinking something similar of beind in debt to myself so even when there are a few slips I still manage.

Nowadays I just noticed I recklessly spend on wants and find it difficult on putting it in my savings, any tips?

- note: Spots near my campus has good budget meals that can last he day or make me full for lunch which is 26% while transpo and phone data is 16%

Looking at it there is very little room for wants which will take away from savings if I get tempted.

50% saved, 42% needs, 8% wants 💀

I was able to get comfy on this system once, ans I wanna do it again so I can just have good general savings and save up for a cool stuff that is not part of the 50% save plan. so yeah I dont remember how I even got comfortable with this to begin with, and kinda want it back so I manage my finances more responsibly in a way.

- It may also help im introverted not in a shy way, but more of a me-time where I like doing stuff alone so while I socialize, it doesnt take majority of my wants budget and I buy cheap steam games or something

I’m a student, and I think food takes up 70% of my expenses. I don’t spend a lot in general on clothing, entertainment. But I spend on food a lot. And if each meal on average is $7, that’s around $400 I’d be spending..

I hear a lot of people say they want to take control of their money but have no idea where to start. The whole thing feels overwhelming before it even begins.

I know some budgeting people will disagree with me here, and every financial situation is different, but I genuinely believe there is only one step in building a budget that is actually hard. The rest is pretty easy, and some of it is even fun once you get going.

That one hard step is understanding your fixed expenses.

Which expenses are exactly the same every month? What is the total of all of them combined? And is there anything in there you could cut?

The only way to do this properly is to go through two or three months of bank statements inside your banking app. You are looking for rent, mortgage, daycare, car payments, debt payments, subscriptions, insurance, and anything else that shows up automatically every month. Write it all down and add it up.

Here is the part that surprises most people. The average American thinks they pay for around three subscriptions. The actual average is closer to eight. You are almost certainly paying for something you forgot about or stopped using. Cancelling those alone can save well over a thousand dollars a year.

Once you have your fixed expenses total you finally see the full picture. That number is often hard to reduce because rent, debt, and daycare are not easy to negotiate down. But knowing exactly what is committed every month tells you what is actually free.

Building a budget around what is genuinely yours to spend is a completely different experience than guessing.

For people who completed this step, what did you find the last time you went through your numbers?

I’m making a little motivation chart for the month and want to incorporate no spend days to save more (impulse spender here), and I’m curious what everyone thinks a valid and feasible number of no spending days per month might be. I think it’s depressing to just say don’t ever spend on extra things, but what number would create a goal that would make an actual difference?

Not counting groceries/gas/unavoidables - counting wants/non emergency household items/extra food and coffee/etc.

Edit: I’m doing a monthly gold star print out for goals, so it’s more like a “this many days is the goal and I get to give a gold star each day I don’t spend and I get a prize if I reach the goal”

I have a budget, but temporarily I want to more granularly track a handful of specific variable expenses in order to get an idea how much I am actually spending in those categories. I am aware of the most basic method by assigning one category. But I have some items that fall into 2 or 3 subcategories that I want to track.

For example: I want to track how much I am spending on coffee. I buy cold brew from the grocery store, milk and creamer. I want to track this under "main category coffee" AND also under "main category grocery". I also buy coffee at coffee shops. I want to categories these expenses as "main category coffee" AND " sub category starbucks/dunkin". I also sometimes buy food at these coffee shops. I want to categories these expenses as "main category eating out" AND "sub category starbucks/dunkin".

As you can see, there is a lot of overlap.

What is the correct way to track these categories and subcategories so that I can later create proper graphs that don't double count the data?

Welcome to the weekly thread for all things budgeting apps!

This is the dedicated space to ask for app recommendations, share your reviews, and discuss the tools you use to manage your money.

• Found an app you love? Tell us what it is and what makes it great.
• Looking for a new app? Describe what features you need, and the community can help.
• Have questions about an app's features? Ask away!

Let's keep the main feed clean and have all our app talk right here. Dive in!

An app that shows you the safe spend as the only money you have and a feature called "Can I buy this?", that allows you to input text or scan thru a photo, pull the price and pit it against the safe spend money to show you if you can actually afford it.

I am thinking of doing it for subscriptions as well. You can set goals and see if you can afford to spend something over time as well.

It will be offline of course. Idk how I can integrate it with bank money but that's the idea.

I think it will help people spend without feeling guilty.