What's involved in your budgeting method? (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by LesserAbe@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I think budgeting and practical finances should be taught at multiple stages throughout a student's life. I thought I knew the general idea but didn't appreciate how much neglecting it would set me back.

What is your process for budgeting? As a starting point this article lists a few methods.

I use zero based budgeting where every dollar is assigned a purpose. I don't end up sticking exactly to the plan, but I do keep a spreadsheet which lists my current balances and all expected expenses, so I can see my future balance and avoid going in the red. A couple times a month I cross off expenses which have been paid and update the balance. This is especially helpful to me because a big portion of my income is irregular month to month.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] ultranaut@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I have most bills automated, everything that can go on a credit card does. I manually pay down the cards unless there's a good reason not to, like currently I'm getting ~1% interest on one of them so it can carry a balance for a few months. In the past any excess cash would get moved into a brokerage account about once a month but that's on hold for now because there's been a lot of big expenses recently and I need to hopefully pile up more cash for another big expense later in the year. I don't actually track anything very closely beyond looking at the accounts regularly and doing some rough math. I round things as conservatively as possible when doing the rough math so there's always some leeway built in to my assumptions that err on the side of me spending more than I probably will.

this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024

83 points (97.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26669 readers

1757 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.