I used to have a really hard time with budgeting. I tried Mint, YNAB, and other random spreadsheet methods but nothing could really get me to budget/save as much as I wanted to (and there were months I went over because I spent too much in the beginning/middle of the month and didn't plan for the end as well). However, now I focus on a "daily budget" and it's really helped me keep my spending in check as well as evenly distribute my spending over the whole month.
https://i.imgur.com/t1wnAvU.png
Based on my fixed expenses (i.e. mandatory savings amount, rent, utilities, loan payments, etc), I know I have about $1800 in free cash flow a month to spend (blow) on whatever I want. Well, I was having months where I would actually somehow (and quite irresponsibly) blow through all of that, which was painful to see happen but I had issues curbing my spending and sticking to any budget. So I set a goal: allow myself to spend $1k a month and additionally save the remaining $800 (to put towards my student loans to start, then to start funding my retirement). I could probably get lower than $1k, but I wanted to start out this way and see how well I could do for a few months.
In order to do $1k a month, I determined I would need to spend no more than $32.26 per day (assuming a 31 day month, plan for worst case scenario). So that became my "target per day". All of my expenses (Rows 17 and lower, which I input manually so there is some manual work required but I've gotten good at it now) are then summed up to get my "running total". The running total is then divided by the "day diff" which is number of days since my last statement posted (I don't track from month beginning to month end, I track based on my CC statement cycle since I put everything on CC) which is just a subtraction formula of the statement start day and current date. This gives me my "daily average" and the cell is colour coded to be green if it's below the target per day or red if it's above. Lastly, it's helpful for me to know how far between my target and my current I am, so that's where the "total delta" comes from. It tells me how much I could afford to spend on any given day and still be at my target spend threshold.
This has all helped me keep my spending in check. If I notice I'm getting close to or over my target? Stop spending for a few days and watch it drop below. If I notice I'm pretty far below the target per day? I'll allow myself to splurge a bit and treat the SO to a nice meal or start to try and get that delta as high as I can so I can send even MORE to my student loans this month.
Hope this might help someone else get their budgeting on track as I FINALLY found a method that seems to be working for me.
Submitted March 09, 2019 at 11:04PM by dolphinrapeawareness https://ift.tt/2NUX4n4
