Some money/budgeting questions.

We want to stop using our credit card. Right now, we can pay off our card and start using just cash and have the c/c for when we do online orders. My idea is to immediatly transfer money after any purchases.

For the people who use cash, especially for thos who allocate a certain amount each month for usage, how do you do it so that you don't run out of money by the 20th of the month?

Re: Some money/budgeting questions.

We still use the credit card, but we only buy what we can pay off that month, so it's kinda like using cash.

Until I got used to how much we could spend each month, I'd enter every charge into my checkbook register like it was a check, so that I knew how much money I had left that month. Does that make sense?

Re: Some money/budgeting questions.

We set up our budget so we spend less than we take home. Money goes into savings each month and then money is allocated to bills and spending money. Whatever doesn't get used stays in the checking account as a cushion for the next month. Every couple of months we'll take a chunck of the 'extra' in checking and put it into the savings acct.

If unexpected expenses come up we transfer money from savings to checking.

I am going to be out of work for a few months on maternity leave ( I don't get paid leave) so we have redone our budget to spend less across the board, we'll end up dipping into savings more than I 'd like but I guess that is what it is there for.

Re: Some money/budgeting questions.

We watch and enter in Check Card expenditures as if it was checkbook so that way you know your balance and don't overspend. IF there was ever a problem we do have overdraft protection that goes into our savings, but we haven't had an issue because we both stay on top of the money. Also, we've really cut back (blah I know but a must these days) so if you're not spending willy-nilly there's less chance of an issue.

Message edited 11/11/2008 8:47:53 AM.

Re: Some money/budgeting questions.

we deposit $$ directly into savings, so we never 'see' that.
We spent a very long time writing down what we buy/spend and came up with a budget that way. We made cuts where we thought we could.

Whatever the average 12 month budget is goes into checking and the rest goes into savings. I'd rather save more and dip into savings if I have to rather than put less into savings and have it 'available' in checking, KWIM? I find we are less likely to 'dip' into savings that way and we save more $$.