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.

I'm an accountant by trade and a YNAB user (around 10 years I think). It's my second favourite hobby after riding (unfortunately tells me exactly how much my riding costs )

No I don’t budget, but I put far more than is realistic into savings every month and then leave it there as long as possible before transferring some back to my current account, I hate the feeling of moving it back out, so spend less. Some months it all stays in, some months a couple of hundred has to come back out and some months I barely save £100.

Yes. Its a habit I can't break. I'm an Accountant, so a way of life for me. I'm budgeting for our other life goals, savings/ pensions etc. Cashflow modelling over the next 10yrs will tell me when I'll meet those goals. As I'm fully accounts nerdy🤓 about it, I do monthly "P&L"s so I can compare income/ outgoings for previous months and years. I also track our Gas and Elec usage, doing 3 readings a month. I love my home accounts spreadsheet, it's a constantly evolving masterpiece, I'd be devastated to lose it. Yes, I accept that I'm a complete saddo 😁

Another ynab convert here. I love knowing where all my money goes and that I’m prepared for irregular expenses like car repairs.

I’m a freelancer so my income varies and I need to have a decent cushion in case I can’t work for any reason. I have way more than the recommended 6-12 months of income put by but couldn’t imagine not having a budget. It’s easy to lose track and spend more than you really want to.

I’m surprised by the amount of comments. Wish I could multi quote as I’m sure I’ll miss some points I wanted to pick up on.

Looks like maybe 60/40 not having a budget although I think having an idea of how much you might usually spend is essentially a loose budget of sorts. When ‘I’ say a budget for groceries I mean I try to keep it under £150/week which still allows treats and favourites. If there’s a special offer on and I bulk buy I’m happy to go over one week and be under the next. I’m not taking stuff off the conveyor belt. First couple of weeks of the school hols are also always more expensive buying picnic food and snacks ironically so we spend less at attractions. I might need to see if that’s really cheaper!

Our income is around £110k. We don’t have an actual budget, but I know roughly what we usually spend on food and bills each month so plan for that when sorting money for savings and other things. We always have some wriggle room each month so doesn’t matter if we spend more than usual.

We have a fancy colour coded spreadsheet so we can do pie charts of spends through the month week by week or monthly categories.

Interesting analogy with Amazon having a budget and not throwing money around.

Family attitudes definitely had an influence and DC will be off to university next year so really need to get them trained up too. We’ve done saving up for things with them but not so much on day to day spends.

We dint have a budget either but I know roughly how much we spend each month and I do keep an eye on it from afar.

I think the difference with you is that I don’t regularly total and then REDUCE my spending if we are over budget - because I know we can afford that. Talking about food budget there! So the overspending is never going to into the thousands or even the hundreds.

Yes I always budget, and plan.

Have done it since I get my first mortgage 20 years ago and still do it now.

Ive been really broke in the past and budgeting helped gain a clear insight of where our money was going & how to make savings etc.

DH and I are as tight as gnats' arses so we don't really need one, we penny-pinch as a matter of course.

We have completed DR Babysteps and still sit down and budget every month and have our sinking funds all listed. We can comfortably afford most of what we want to buy, but will still always look for the best deal and budget for big purchases.

@Goldmember you are my dh’s twin. We have a colour coded, seasonal, utility spreadsheet.

I used to love budgeting but now I don't really bother. DH and I are both high earners but I still "allocate" an amount to certain things mentally.

Now I just pay all bills, shunt a load into savings, send dividends into investment accounts and the rest is whatever we choose to do with. Whatever isn't spent at the end of the month also goes into savings.

We were never poor but we're both careful spenders generally so I always wanted to keep track of what was coming and going. Now that we earn a considerable amount more against our outgoings, I get more angst in making sure it's protected for our kids and that our investments are growing.

We aren’t wealthy, but we’re comfortable. I think this question would be a lot more interesting if the responses were from actual wealthy people
My mum has a friend who is very rich (multimillionaire, owns several properties) and I remember my mum being shocked at friend shopping at Lidl and collecting tokens for other things.

Yes I budget, and I always shop around for the best offer. I will usually only buy what’s on offer when grocery shopping. I mentally set aside a budget for groceries and diesel.
I then have various saving pots for holidays, Christmas, etc. I transfer a set amount to savings each month.

If I’ve some fun money left over, I might myself a top or order something online.

I still feel a bit uncomfortable when making big purchases, even though we have the means to pay. I grew up in a family where money was very tight, and I don’t think that feeling ever leaves you, which isn’t a bad thing, I guess.

Yea, same here. Have used it with household income from £30k to £80k. It just gets easier to move money around now we're more comfortable.

I’m too disorganised to budget. I know where my money is and what it is doing but that is as far as it goes. No pots all over the place or any complex algorithms to determine who should pay what. If it isn’t being used it gets put where it will get the best return.

I didn’t pay my mortgage off early for the same reason, despite having the means to do so for at least ten years. It would have cost me money.

I have a budget and find it helps with this.

It's not a super in depth budget (x for hair, y for eating out etc) but more money for bills/savings etc and then x amount for personal spends - which I am free to decide what this is for and will change each month.

Since having this I feel more comfortable spending as I know this amount is realistic and set for me to spend - if I blow it that's on me and won't affect bills/savings

The one thing I find budgeting particularly useful for is non-monthly expenses. So every two years I have to buy two pairs of new glasses, and even without going mad on frames or anything this comes to £500. Now I have a budget category for glasses and just put away a small amount every month, so that when I need it the money's already there. I don't strictly need to do this, I could just have general savings and dip into them as and when. But this avoids three calls on the savings happening in the same month in an unplanned way.

The other major non-monthly budgeting is for DS at uni. I start saving for next year almost as soon as he's gone back for this year.

No, not really, we don't even think about it much, just save a bit, spend the rest. If it's over a certain value we talk about it. Eg When and how you save for bigger things eg upgrading both cars every few years. Not lavish people. If Dh wants to buy something he just does.

Exactly the same here.

I also consider whether things are value for money.

I've never really had a budget, I just buy food, petrol and other expenditure as I go along. I don't write a list before a food shop either, it would probably help if I did though, then I wouldn't keep forgetting things I need.

I keep track of all my spending just by visiting my bank account online, I can see immediately what I have spent and any pending expenses coming up as well as what I have left in the account.

Yes, we are a high income household (comfortably six figures) and low outgoings (no childcare or commuting costs) but have a very closely watched budget. We have a lot of free money but we also have a lot of wants, especially holidays, so it's the best way to make sure I've got the right amount of money being funnelled into the right saving pots. If we had free reign DH and I would easily spend hundreds a week on food and bits for the house, we are big spenders tbh, so need some reigns to plan for the bigger spends!

I earn 200k and don’t budget for normal day to day expenses.

What I do is keep a close control on investments to ensure the best return I can. I put huge amounts into pension and other savings meaning my day to day liquid cash is relatively modest compared with my salary so that helps manage low level spending.

I’ve already paid off my mortgage and will soon have enough put aside for DS schooling which starts next year. I don’t really have too many other significant costs other than a car and holidays so no real need for a budget.

I have previously been very skint early on in my career so am very appreciative of my current circumstances.