How do YOU answer the credit card question?

Avatar for cmpat
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-21-2003
How do YOU answer the credit card question?
1432
Fri, 11-05-2010 - 3:30pm

Why can’t you just use your credit card?



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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:03pm

The only ones I have are:

Car Maintenance, Activities/Entertainment, Clothes, Home and Medical

The rest are in my checking account as they are regular bills that come out once a month, mortgage, utilities, food, life insurance, newspaper, gym, car insurance.

Then there is emergency savings and savings for the kids.

In another account is my taxes and homeowners insurance.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:04pm

Tickets would be in activities/entertainment. I put a certain amount there each week.

Avatar for savcal2011
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:05pm
I don't like budget billing - for me - because it doesn't let me see unusual increases. Earlier this summer, our bill rose wildly one month ... then right after that we noticed some odd things in the A/C. Turns out we had a fuse out and the fan was not working all the time (or seomthing -- I didn't talk directly to the ac guy) and wasting a lot of energy. If we hadn't seen that bill increase (for no apparent reason) we might not have caught the issue as soon as we did.


So, on your grocery bill .. you have a budget, and you adjust your purchases to ensure you stay under that number? I've done that at times, but I'm not really concerned about how much I spend on my groceries, as long as I know I'm not overpaying for things. I don't use coupons (they dont' save me enough to make it worth it), but I do bulk shop and shop sales. If i want salmon for dinner this week, I'll buy salmon ... even if that means I spend $20 more this week than usual. I don't adjust the rest of my menu to fit that salmon in under my budget. I just dont' have any financial motivation to do so. Also, if some month we're going to be gone a lot, we might spend a lot less on groceries. I'm not going to go buy MORE jsut so that I hit my budget target.

"I don’t mind a banshee, that’s fine. 2 banshees? I HATE you. I actually wish bad things upon you." -- Day[9] Daily #459 P1

Avatar for savcal2011
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:06pm
So you don't have a budget for that vet bill. Or that postage. K thx bai.

"I don’t mind a banshee, that’s fine. 2 banshees? I HATE you. I actually wish bad things upon you." -- Day[9] Daily #459 P1

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:18pm

Oh, our bill shows us how much we have used, if we have spent more or less than what they estimate for the year.

Yeah, we spend only a certain amount per month, most of it at Costco and then the rest with delivery. I get all the non-bulk stuff with delivery. We will have to get a gallon of milk this week as I am not going to get delivery until Saturday but I don't mind spending $2 out of my spending money for it. It doesn't happen that much and I don't usually spend all my spending money each week. I take what I don't spend and save it for bigger things that I don't want to take out of budgets like pedi's, hair coloring, going out to dinner with friends, parties-have a passion party coming up soon ;)

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:19pm

If I had an animal, yes I would have a budget for "pet". I did so when I had one.

Avatar for savcal2011
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:25pm
I don't have a "spending money" budget. I just spend what I want, as long as I know it won't affect our other bills or goals. I don't have to "reallocate" what I save on groceries in order to get a pedi.

"I don’t mind a banshee, that’s fine. 2 banshees? I HATE you. I actually wish bad things upon you." -- Day[9] Daily #459 P1

Avatar for savcal2011
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-06-2010
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:25pm
I used to have a budget for postage ... because I mailed all my bills and spent quite a bit on postage. And I buy my stamps a roll at a time.

"I don’t mind a banshee, that’s fine. 2 banshees? I HATE you. I actually wish bad things upon you." -- Day[9] Daily #459 P1

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:32pm
Not all of our expenses would fit into those categories. Whenever I have in the past tried to budget that way, I always had several things each month that didn't really fit into any of the categories.

I found the best thing for me is to keep a running checking account balance in Excel. Then I project what my expenses will be in the upcoming months-- right now it goes through December 2011. Basically, I look at what my current expenses are and what things fall during certain months and add them all in. When something changes, I make the appropriate changes in the upcoming months. In my checking account I keep a certain amount as a buffer. Before we get our middle of the month paychecks, I transfer anything over the buffer amount into the savings account attached to our checking-- unless I know we have an unusual expense coming up that month. Then, when the savings gets over a certain point, I can transfer that money elsewhere.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Thu, 11-11-2010 - 7:34pm
I buy mine that way as well. It's especially nice once they started with the forever stamps.

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