The #1 Thing I Did For My Finances

I’m UK based, so these app recommendations won’t be of use to everyone, but I really like Chip – an app that learns about your income and spending habits than draws bits of money here and there to put into a savings account. It has added up nicely over the months without me even realising that money was gone. I also like Squirrel – it basically pays you a weekly allowance every week, after calculating how much you have left after covering all your bills. It ends that cycle of I’m rich-I’m poor that I used to go through from the beginning to the end of the month.

I keep a spreadsheet on my phone using the Numbers app that comes standard on an iphone. It’s completely customized for me. I keep track of every CENT I have and every CENT I owe and every CENT in savings. I also keep a running list of things I want to buy. I try very hard to have the money saved up before I buy something. It really helps with making wise spending decisions. I check most of my accounts everyday. The days I get my interest payments are like Christmas morning! And I go in to my spreadsheet and update everything. I even get excited to pay bills because I like to have everything in order. It takes a certain kind of personality, I think.

I use Mint. It helps, but ultimately I get so frustrated because my housing costs (Brooklyn) are so high. That will never go away so I always feel the drive to focus more on making money.

Other vices: Seamless and Uber. It’s hard to get me to use the subway on the weekend and I don’t really enjoy cooking.

I totally get it! I used to really hate talking about money with my husband because we’d put off those conversations until we absolutely had to deal with something, which was usually not good news. Now we try to talk about it more often so it has become more of a benign, weekly conversation. Also, we use YNAB (you need a budget), and it’s helped us a lot with keeping on track and has given us lots of small goals to keep and celebrate (sticking to a monthly dining out budget, for instance) instead of just the big goals of spend less, save more.

A little late to this, but just wanted to chime in! My husband and I have been working on a happy medium for years. I’m a saver and he’s a spender, both due to our respective backgrounds. A tight, every dollar accounted for budget makes him feel claustrophobic and horrible about his salary, so we just don’t do it. Instead, I have set amounts that go into our savings account with each paycheck, we try to increase our savings/retirement contributions each time he gets a raise, and if we do somehow accrue debt we try to pay it off ASAP and not beat ourselves up for it.
Last year involved uterine surgery for me and our third consecutive miscarriage… it was ROUGH, and we ran off to Italy for Thanksgiving, something we hadn’t exactly been saving up for. No regrets. My husband’s bonus last month all got slammed on that debt and it’s gone.
One little thing that’s helped with our situation has been using Qapital in addition to our normal savings. It’s in a separate account, which is nice, and I can set up all sorts of little ways for us to save extra here and there, like rounding up each purchase to the nearest $1 or saving a little every week to a gift fund, so I never have to pause when getting birthday presents or worry about Christmas. I’ve included a link below because it’s nice for everyone to get a little bonus when signing up.

I’m using Qapital, the free, easy way to save money! We’ll get $5 each for our first Goal if you sign up here:

https://get.qapital.com/FkFGsMOhfM

Two things:

1. I spent the money to meet with a good financial advisor who helped me get my savings/investment plan on track. For so long my money focus was really simple: get rid of debt. Now I am now debt-free and making a good salary, so finances have become more nuanced. I needed a pro (who, btw, came recommended by someone I trust) to get me on a more strategic track.

2. I revamped my ethics/philosophy related to consumption. My rules are: no animal cruelty, North American companies preferred, and businesses with a track record of environmental/social responsibility required. Fast fashion, bye. Drug store cosmetics, bye. Big box stores, bye. Yes, it can be more expensive (although, not for cosmetics and personal care items – that’s a myth perpetrated by Big Drugstore). Yes, it takes more time to do the research rather than buying on-the-fly. But once you find companies and products that you love, it’s easy peasy (shout out to Well.ca for you Canadians out there). The financial upshot: I buy way less of everything, and simultaneously miss nothing. I feel great about how I spend my money and never experience buyers’ remorse since impulse buys are a thing of the past. Money talks – we should support companies that are worthy.

I read a lot of Money Diaries on Refinery29 and that inspired me to do one on my own. I track my daily spending in a Google doc that I have on my phone (crucial for when I actually have cash and don’t get a receipt). The first page of my document is like a typical Money Diary setup – I list my actual paycheck amount/frequency of them per month and then list out all my current monthly and yeary expenses. I track everything that I buy and at the end of each week I total up my amount and break everything into these categories: Food & Drink, Home & Health, Clothes & Beauty, Entertainment, Transportation, Bills, and Miscellaneous. It’s a little much but this method works to keep me much more mindful about what little things I’m spending my money on. It also helps so much when actually trying to make a realistic budget for yourself.

I have a daily calendar (spiral bound – old school!). On each month’s page I list that month’s expenses, including rent, utilities, etc. I also list income and goals (put $500 into savings, don’t buy wine, etc). And then for each day I pencil in how much I spent on what. It’s based on this Japanese technique, and it’s been helping me realize exactly how much money I spend day to day. I also try to only spend cash and give myself a weekly allowance.

https://monininja.com/kakeibo-art-saving/

You need to examine bank statements and credit card statements to make sure you are not a victim of fraudelent activity. I have to balance my checking account to the penny, because it’s the way my mom taught me. Keeping track of expenses lets you see where you can cut corners. I view things in terms of disposable purchases and investment purchases. For instance, food is a disposable purchase. So it makes sense to get the most for your dollar. Pot roast has the same nutritional value as filet mignon, but at a lower price. A pair of leather boots or a quality leather handbag is an investment purchase, because you will have it for years. Likewise, an antique end table will last forever and become a family heirloom. Too many people throw money away on unnecessary things and then complain about being broke. It’s also important to have a rainy day fund for unexpected expenses, such as an appliance that dies unexpectedly. Examine all your regular monthly bills. We recently switched cell phone carriers because we found a better deal elsewhere, thanks to our daughters. Before you renew internet, call and ask for a better deal. Remind them you’ve been a long time customer. It helps. Shops sales. I rarely pay full price for anything unless I have been looking for a long time and what I need or want never goes on sale. I could write a book on budgeting and saving.

My husband I text each other our daily expenses – every day. It all gets entered into an old school Excel spreadsheet where it is totaled by category. It is tedious (and thankfully my husband manages most of it) but it has helped us tremendously. We have an annual budget and we know every $1 that comes in and out.

I use YNAB. It’s a life saver, the helpdesk is fantastic and OMG, they actually succeed half of the time to make it seem more fun to budget. It’s a miracle.

I use the app Personal Capital and I check it everyday. It’s great for budget tracking purposes and to make sure I’m on track with my financial goals.

I cannot say enough how much You Need A Budget (YNAB) has transformed my relationship to personal finance and budgeting. I check my accounts and budget daily – and actually enjoy it! Since starting up with YNAB last year, my earning, spending and saving has been radically transformed. I paid for a year of YNAB in a heartbeat after my free month (despite cutting most other subscriptions and being super-strict and minimalist in what I sign up for, paid or free). Plus, they have tons of free, live, interactive webinars! I was doing at least one a week for a while and learned so much!

This is not going to be a popular one, but I gave up make up a few years ago, partly because I wanted to sleep in more and partly because I quite frankly couldn’t afford it! I really can’t rationalize spending $60 per month for products to paint my face on every day anymore, and seeing the cost of some of the products advertised on blogs and websites just reaffirms this…and the icing on the cake- my skin has never felt better :)

Yes! Saving is hard, finances are hard, and for some reason I feel it is often brushed over and not discussed, especially for women. After going through a rough patch where I overdrew my account a few too many times, I started to really look for budget help. Two big things really helped me out:

1. “Weekly Flexible Spending” — I went to a talk about finances from LearnVest, and while it was partially geared towards using their app, it was also really informative. The budgeting method the speaker talked through is called “One-Number Strategy” and basically works like this:
Your Monthly Pay – (Fixed Costs (bills) + Goals + Long-Term Expenses (i.e. vehicle registration)) = Your Flexible Spending Amount.

I divide that by week and use that amount as my weekly budget. Keeping it flexible just works for me — sometimes I want to go to that amazing impromptu meal with a good friend. I’ll eat ramen the rest of the week because the experience is worth it. But also super rigid “$50 a month for eating out” just doesn’t fly well for me. (I love food, can you tell?)

There’s more here: https://www.learnvest.com/knowledge-center/how-to-budget-with-the-one-number-strategy

(PS I don’t work for LearnVest. I just found this valuable.).

2. Simple –I use the bank Simple, which lets you create “Goals” in your bank account, which are kinda like separate accounts. My money is partitioned so that I only see my weekly budget as my available balance. All other money is assigned to something and thus off-limits. It’s been a huge help, sometimes even helping me budget for things like buying new underwear.

Simple’s Goals features can automatically save money overtime, similar to how Digit works. Just takes a few dollars every week from my flex budget to help me save for that trip to Japan.

Simple also helps me out because it shows an alert after every transaction. It helps drive home that oh, I just spent that much money. The magic card didn’t just give me that latte, I actually have $6 less in my account.

It’s not a perfect system– I’m still working on contributing to my retirement again. But I feel more in control of my money and spending, like My Money and Me have a good healthy relationship. Some flaws, sure, but we are working on it. And really, isn’t that how every meaningful relationship should be? Open and honest?

The best thing my husband and I have done for our finances after we combined them was to start using YNAB. We’re 4.5 months in now and we both agree that it has been a life changer! I always used spreadsheets before and he used Mint (without budgeting), so he found my spreadsheets really precarious and honestly, they’re just not as flexible as YNAB is. With YNAB, I no longer get stressed out about small charges I forgot about and didn’t add a category for yet. We both add transactions while we’re on the go with the iOS updates and then on the 1st of the month, we sit down and do a budget for that month. We are homeowners, so I always felt like our spending wasn’t very regular or monthly, so YNAB’s goals feature really helps smooth that out! It makes it feel like no month has to be the same (because they’re not!) and makes it easy to cover overspending from some other category. I would also say that sticking to a precise budget isn’t the most important thing. What matters more is staying on top of your spending and keeping your spending aligned with your values.

If you’re a student, then you can get a year’s free trial of YNAB and if not, you can usually find a three month trial (“ynab camp patton” should turn it up).

The best thing that we did for our finances before combining them was to max out our retirement accounts early. Our 60 year old selves will really thank our 20-something year old selves!

You go girl!

Growing up, I had to handle all my own expenses. I moved out as a young teenager and put myself through school. I am becoming more aware of my back of spending since having children. I tend to hoard money. I am better at spending on the children but have a difficult time spending on myself. My husband keeps me in check. He notices that my shoes are wearing through or that I have had the same coat for fifteen years. Anyone else struggle with this? Any tips?