Tips on maintaining a good budget & saving

[Antithesis]

(I'm going to use a fixed amount of money just for the sake of the example.)

Right now more or less, I am making around $230 - $260 a week. My plan of action has usually been stashing $100 in my savings account and whatever is left over use it as I see fit for the week. My problem is the fact that the money I get for myself for the week sometimes ends up vanishing quickly (Lunch plus other necessities.)

My question is, what do you guys do for saving up money and spending whatever you don't save smartly? Food tips? and what would be the best course of action as I start to get paid more and more per week?

[Pirian]

Make a spread sheet with all expenses and see what I have left over. Easy to make weekly/monthly adjustments to the numbers

[Mizango]

I have a money market account and a savings account for my daughter aside from the main checking account and what I do is keep them all separate because im telling you man, "out of sight, out of mind" is right on. Try getting a savings account at a different bank, but opt to not have checks or a debit card if they offer it, drop money in it on a routine once a month or twice a month schedule and you will notice that it will become second nature. After a few weeks or so, your mind wont think anything of it and treat if as just another expense you pay, and before you know it you will have a nice chunk of change sitting there doing work.

Another thing we all do is we have one of those LARGE ... lets say jugs (Bubbles come in them) for lack of a better word, that we fill with only spare quarters. Do this and I guarantee you that after 6 months or so (assuming you dont have an arcade addiction) that you can easily save up a few hundred dollars in a short, yet consistent amount of time. Of course keep the canister in a closet of something, to keep niggas from stealing it and from yourself.

Good luck man, hope those help.

[Melena]

Don't eat out. Seriously. Me and my fiancee save easily 3-500 a month just by stocking up on a shit ton of frozen meals for our lunches when at work. $2.00 at Safeway is so much better then 5-9 dollars at a fast food/sandwich shop. Other then that, spreadsheet your stuff for a month so you see where it's going like Pirian said, and you can figure out what can easily be cut from there.

[Mizango]

Yeah the eating out thing is killer too.

[Tomk]

mvelopes works great for me. It talks to your bank letting you know how much money you have in the account and then you divide it up between categories (envelopes).

It also has credit tools for planning on how to pay down credit cards.

[Omnipotent]

I get paid bi-weekly. I have 100 bucks transffered(50/w) from my paycheck to another account that I have been doing for 3 years. I don't touch, nor think about. so thats 26 X 3 = 78 X 100. That's what I got in there right now, not gonna touch it probably till I buy my first car, or house etc....

[Antithesis]

I have my checking account linked to my savings account (for overdraft protection.) Making a savings account in another bank so that I don't have the feeling of security (and greed seeing as how I sometimes might take out money) doesn't sound like a bad idea. Although I think I should wait till maybe I start getting a little more to do that. Not sure though.

[Mizango]

I have my checking account linked to my savings account (for overdraft protection.) Making a savings account in another bank so that I don't have the feeling of security (and greed seeing as how I sometimes might take out money) doesn't sound like a bad idea. Although I think I should wait till maybe I start getting a little more to do that. Not sure though.

Nope, only opening it with the deposit is the bad part. After that if you want to deposit 5 bucks then go for it, just get something started because its certainly better than nothing.

[Antithesis]

Don't eat out. Seriously. Me and my fiancee save easily 3-500 a month just by stocking up on a shit ton of frozen meals for our lunches when at work. $2.00 at Safeway is so much better then 5-9 dollars at a fast food/sandwich shop. Other then that, spreadsheet your stuff for a month so you see where it's going like Pirian said, and you can figure out what can easily be cut from there.

My only concern about eating the inexpensive / cheap food is what it might be doing to my health. I have started taking a Multivitamin + Extra Vitamin C but I am not sure if that will counter anything

[rezn0r]

like they said, keeping stuff in separate accounts definitely helps. my gf & i closed on a house in february and with all these new bills/mortgage (lived with my parents up until now, and never paid rent in my life...) i was feeling pretty broke compared to when i could just party all i wanted with no worry. now i put 1/3 of each check (1st and the 15th for me) into a savings account, which i do end up dipping into for things like CC payment, etc, but at least there is a little left over being saved up.

another thing that has really helped, since you mentioned lunch cost, is brown bagging lunches, if you get a lunch break at your job or whatever and you don't end up going out to eat every day that can add up real fast, like $50+/week sometimes.

also since you are on this board, if you don't use gamefly that might help you out too, it's saved me hundreds of dollars, or at least a bigger CC balance over the past few months...

[Fistandantilus]

If you're willing to spend a bit of time it isn't too difficult to eat healthy on a budget, you just have to plan meals a bit more and do some cooking.

[Mizango]

Define cheap/inexpensive? Cooking and saving your shit beats eating sodium laced, preservative packed take out in every conceivable way.

[Mamimikun]

Cook your own food lol

[Mizango]

If you're willing to spend a bit of time it isn't too difficult to eat healthy on a budget, you just have to plan meals a bit more and do some cooking.

Mhmm

[Mamimikun]

Most the time beef,chicken comes in packs of 3-4 frezze what you don't need for another night

[Takedown3]

multiple saving's accounts and mutual funds/rrsp's. only ever spend from your checking account and make sure you don't eat out. i also find it extremely helpful to never use cash and only use debit.

doing this will help you not "lose" spare change or small bills that you would normally buy candy or smokes with.

don't eat out if you can help it, don't buy take out or chips and dip at the corner store. buy groceries from a well priced market and don't spend alot of money on shit like bags of cookies and other junk food. get the necessities and one or two treats to reward yourself with when u do good.

lots of other good tips in here, mizango's point about a savings account at another bank with no debit/checks will help.

[Olo401]

Grow your own food lol

ftfy

[Osede]

My only concern about eating the inexpensive / cheap food is what it might be doing to my health. I have started taking a Multivitamin + Extra Vitamin C but I am not sure if that will counter anything

Eating inexpensive food doesn't mean buy those unhealthy food. But instead, by cooking yourself. You may found that if you are willing to cook yourself, you may only spend about 50dollar per week, to cook for breakfast/lunch/dinner everyday.

For another tips, you don't have you cook every meal every day. You may cook a quite portion of three to four meals at once, and keep them for like three days. Just take any two or three of out the combination and bring it as lunch and dinner.

[Conrad]

Make a budget, stick to it. I have a checking account set up with direct deposit, and every time I get paid I transfer everything over $500 into my savings account and live off of the $500 until the next paycheck. I usually end up only spending about $100 a week, but I have the luxury of living at home for right now. Be goal oriented though -- you'll spend less money if you know the money you spend could go towards something more important. For me, it's paying off my student loans as quickly as possible.