Do you have a budget if you aren’t broke?

[WhenWillWanksWildly]

I’ve been listening to snippets of Dave Ramsey and co hence the Americanism of broke.

DH and I have always had a budget and still do now we’re comfortable because we are still reliant on a monthly income from work. When I mentioned my food budget and to my boss she was aghast that I totted up my list and tried to keep in budget. Ditto with giving ourselves pocket money for whatever we want to spend it on guilt free.

If you did have a budget when you were broke but no longer follow a budget what income level were you at? I was wondering if there was a magic number when people gave up budgeting I guess.

Oh yesss. If I didn't have a budget I'd probably overspend or lose track of spending. I also love a spreadsheet and it meant I could still use one whilst on mat leave 😂

We’re very comfortable now after years of not being, adult DC grown and gone, no mortgage, high income but I still have a budget and numerous spreadsheets that I work to. Ones for outgoings, ones for savings, holidays, fuel consumption, you name it. It helped us stay debt free throughout our lean years and it keeps us comfortable now.

Pretty sad really but it’s the way I roll.

I have a loose and fairly generous budget. I have a ‘housekeeping’ a/c online and budget for annual costs in it, also things like the dogs meds, food etc.
Anything I spend on the credit card is accrued from the current month income etc.
I trained as an accountant. Not doing this would be strange…

Yes. I'm a contractor so aware I could be without work at any minute so always saving. I'm not miserly but I do have saving targets.

Same here - I don't have a BUDGET as such for every item, but every month all the expenditure is put into a spreadsheet so you can see what it's all gone on, and every 6 months I do a wider review of all my savings, pensions etc to make sure the big picture is going the right way.

The only exception is that my wife and I have a specific bank account we use for "fun" stuff (holidays, meals out, days out with kids etc) and that has a defined £ per month that we each put in. Therefore arguably we do have a budget for that to make sure we don't go bananas on it.

I think I'm a bit half and half:

I have an annual budget where I record everything from food to insurance to hols etc., I have a monthly amount to spend on myself, and I try to save money on food etc., but I don't have a set budget that I have to stick to.

I don't think it's as straightforward as we stopped budgeting when we hit x household income. We don't need to budget the way we used to when our incomes were lower and our mortgage and childcare bills were higher. Since the pandemic we also save a good deal on commuting costs. We should budget though to have something set aside for the future.

Not really. We used to, but quite a long time ago reached a point that we can meet our monthly expenditure & wants, and save plenty, and still have money left over so it isn’t needed anymore. We’re very fortunate.

We no longer have a budget, but old habits die hard, and I don't spend wildly because we have money in the bank. It isn't uncommon for me to internally say "How much? " at prices for some things, and not pay them, even though I do have that money in the bank.
So I still enjoy buying things in charity shops as I still enjoy the 'thrill' of a bargain, and quite like doing my little bit for sustainability, even though I could now afford to buy new clothes when I wanted.
I still check the prices of things in different places, and buy the best value.

We use Ramit Sethi's Conscious Spending Plan which is like a budget but has some reflection to it.

Like a PP I'm retired but I still have a budget of sorts. I have saving pots for annual car expenses, Christmas and birthdays, and travel

I have comfortable savings but they have to last me so I try and live within our pension income

I record everything I spend, on a spreadsheet, but I don’t have a rigid budget. My spending habits are fairly consistent, so I am lucky to know there will be enough money to cover it all each month. Not a high income household, but not big spenders either.

we have a very rough ball park figure for groceries and petrol... some months its up and some its down, but its usually not far off.. ofcourse recently the cost of groceries has gone up so much we may need to revisit this budget

I work to a budget and always will. My parents weren’t well off, so have taken a leaf out of their books wrt food shopping, going for dinner or getting a takeaway. I was shocked when I met a family when we lived abroad who had an empty fridge and lived on takeaways. They always complained about never having money. It really opened my eyes and made me more anti take away.
Dh once complained about the food bill, I sent him shopping and he put the most useless random crap in the trolley and the bill was huge. He has since been banned from food shopping. I like to plan for the week.

I definitely do. I have an excel spreadsheet with about 20 lines where it all goes. I check my account every 3-4 days and add anything I have spent. I will transfer over what I should have leftover to my savings account at the start of the month and then I just work with what’s left. If something unexpected happens, like an appliance breaks, I’ll just use my savings for that.

No, never had a budget even though I have a finance background.
All finances are pooled. Some is transferred to savings on pay days. We buy what we need. Neither of us has extravagant spending habits.

Yes. Needed a budget as a student and when first working and still have one now so I can work towards retiring early for both of us
we have found the amounts spent in the various categories the Which! Guide to retirement have helped. We use the moderate for most things and the luxurious for food and clothes.

edited to add : it is all recorded on spreadsheets and I love a spreadsheet. It means we always know how much we have available

The same too. It took about five attempts to make YNAB stick in my mind as a do-able concept, but now I wouldn't be without it. It makes a significant material difference to my bank balance.

Yes, because not having a budget can quickly lead to being broke!

We don't budget to that extent, but we do set a monthly figure that covers everything and stick to it. The figure is based on overestimating how much each category costs (eg £100 a week for groceries but we don't often spend that much). That gives us enough wiggle room that we don't have to do things like closely monitor individual grocery shops or plan each small purchase.

We’re lucky enough that we don’t need to budget hard. When I had less money, I definitely did stick to a budget.

No, I've been very broke and then low income and now I'm very well off. I had a budget when I was very broke (below the equivalent of benefits) but not since I was on a low wage (equivalent of min wage). I do have certain thresholds for things that I consider acceptable spending so it's not like I'd be spending freely even without a budget, but I'd just buy what I need and try to get the best price for it, and it costs what it costs. I've always had plenty of money left at the end of the month and managed to build up good savings, so I don't think it's necessary to stick to a fixed budget to do that.

No, not a budget per se, but I do track income / outgoings / debts / investment pots monthly.
Its my little 30mins excel task on the first week of each month. Plus I add boring little formulas showing last 12 month spend in each bucket and YOY changes each month. So I can see if certain areas are going up or down. Plus what annual expenses are coming up in future months.
But life is for living really, so I don’t agonise over it, just like to be well informed regarding my own financials.
I guess at a basic level only real budgeting principle is obviously to ensure income stays comfortably well above outgoings lol!

We don't have a budget in the sense that we have X amount to spend on the weekly shop, but I am conscious of prices and wasting money. We do an online shop and I will choose some things based on them being a good deal e.g. only buying certain items when they are on offer. Other things we particularly like and I will buy regardless. We're well off enough that an extra £20 on the weekly supermarket shop is not a big deal.

Yes, and I wish I'd done it when I had less money because I could have thousands more saved than what I currently do. I started last year after I finished my PG degree, was in £1.2K credit card and overdraft debt and to pay off the debt I upped my working hours, hoping that seeing things in black and white would motivate me to pay off the debt, then save more, spend less crap and that's what happened. Like some others, I do a spreadsheet with wants, needs and savings, and forecast month by month.