Budget
My wife and I have been exploring the idea of one of us going part time. With our second kid on the way and my investment business growing, it seemed like a good time. That is, until we reviewed our budget.
I took great pride in having a good understanding of our finances. I thought I knew how much we were saving every monthand what our balance sheet should look like months from now.
So, it came as a big surprise to me a couple days ago when I realized my estimates were completely wrong.
We figured this out after we put our financial transactions into Quicken. It was hard to imagine we spent so much for our cars ($200/mo. for gas and oil changes), energy ($150/mo.), and “household” ($300/mo.).
The biggest surprise was household. I didn’t even realize it was a category — we spent WAY too much at Target, IKEA and Costco.
As skeptical as I was that Quicken would help us manage our finances, it seems to already be making us think more about where we can cut back and save more. Currently, including the repayment of principal, we save about a quarter of our pre-tax salary. But, after reviewing the summaries on Quicken we should be able to find more fat to cut in our budget so we can get to our goal sooner.
Even if you think you have a good handle on your finances, and even if — like us — you are saving a reasonable amount of your salary, it may still benefit you to look at purchasing Quicken, Money, or some other financial software to help locate areas you could improve your spending.
Carnival of Personal Finance #112: Best Week Ever Edition | The Frugal Law Student said,
August 6, 2007 @ 7:06 am
[…] Financial Reference takes a look at the surprises their recent budgeting revealed. […]
Carnival of Personal Finance #112 is up at Frugal Law Student! « I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… said,
August 6, 2007 @ 9:55 am
[…] There are tons and tons of excellent submissions and I couldn’t even start to highlight them all, but some of the ones that really struck my fancy this week were The Dough Roller’s Ten Things I know Now at 40 I Wish I Knew at 20 (me too), Married and Broke’s SWOT That Idea Into Reality (SWOT’s a cool concept and I’m glad I read this), Financial Reference’s Budget post, where they learned by making a budget they spent a lot more on miscellaneous stuff than they ever imagined (and my readers know I *totally* relate to that!), and my very favorite post of the week, Five Cent Nickel’s look at the Three Best 529 Plans. Being that I have been thinking about 529 plans a lot lately, I learned so much from this post. […]
SavingDiva said,
August 7, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
I’ve been shocked about how much money I spend on my car every month. It’s been the thing that has shocked me the most. Some months I spend more than I do in rent! I’ve started riding my bike to work, and I try to drive as little as possible.
I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… » Blog Archive » Carnival of Personal Finance #112 is up at Frugal Law Student! said,
August 20, 2007 @ 10:20 am
[…] There are tons and tons of excellent submissions and I couldn’t even start to highlight them all, but some of the ones that really struck my fancy this week were The Dough Roller’s Ten Things I know Now at 40 I Wish I Knew at 20 (me too), Married and Broke’s SWOT That Idea Into Reality (SWOT’s a cool concept and I’m glad I read this), Financial Reference’s Budget post, where they learned by making a budget they spent a lot more on miscellaneous stuff than they ever imagined (and my readers know I *totally* relate to that!), and my very favorite post of the week, Five Cent Nickel’s look at the Three Best 529 Plans. Being that I have been thinking about 529 plans a lot lately, I learned so much from this post. […]