24
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de to c/personalfinance@lemmy.ml

A Vanguard video (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1nprZjV_6FM) refers to 4 budgeting methods

  1. the envelope method
  2. the pay yourself first method
  3. 50/30/20 method
  4. zero based budget method

Which one is your favourite?

Edit: non-text version with a 5th method: https://www.lendingtree.com/student/simple-budget/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think 2 or 5 is closest. Basically, we pull our savings target on payday, and we track spending for each category, but we don't check up on spending until the end of the month, and sometimes not every month.

We discuss deviations every few months and make adjustments as needed. For example, our restaurant spending was steadily rising, so we set a goal to cook more and try to prepare new foods, and that cut the desire to eat out.

I think this works because my wife and I are both quite disciplined and frugal. We do make more than the average household, but we spend a similar amount I think ($60-65k for a family with three kids; median household income is >$75k for my area).

When I was a student, I did envelope budgeting because most of my expenses were fixed (housing, tuition, etc) and I didn't have a lot extra. When I got married and my first real job, we lived the same way for a couple years until we had a nice cash cushion, then gradually expanded our spending as needed. For example, we got a bigger apartment when we wanted kids, got a house when we planned for a second kid, had a single car when I could bike to work and bought a second when I couldn't. Each spending increase was intentional.

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
24 points (96.2% liked)

Personal Finance

3832 readers
8 users here now

Learn about budgeting, saving, getting out of debt, credit, investing, and retirement planning. Join our community, read the PF Wiki, and get on top of your finances!

Note: This community is not region centric, so if you are posting anything specific to a certain region, kindly specify that in the title (something like [USA], [EU], [AUS] etc.)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS