Ballin' on a Budget

I was well into adulthood before I realized how important a budget is. Nevermind my parents pounding the idea into the ground--I just didn't get it. It seemed so stuffy and unimportant. I had money, I spent money. End of story. 

I've since learned that budgeting is like style--personal and highly customizable. Since being married, Kyle and I have tried and tested just about every budget style out there, and I'm here to give you the highlights. 

1. Cash Budget

While not for everyone, this was probably one of the best and most successful budgets we used--for a short term goal. It's not something that I would typically recommend as a long term budget, but if you're needing to meet a heft goal in a short amount of time, the cash budget could be what works. 

There are multiple ways to make this budget work, but the the one that stuck for us was putting all of our regular dependable bills on autopay, and then budgeting out all the variable expenses in cash. We had five categories in cash: groceries, personal funds (one for each of us), entertainment//date night, gas, and miscellaneous. 

Some people recommend you take all possible bills out in cash and pay them the old fashioned way, but we figured autopay was just as easy, and kept us on track. Any additional money was then put in savings. This budget helped us save almost 10k in about six months. We were not making a massive amount of money, but we kept ourselves on a very tight budget and squirreled away every spare penny. 

This is why we didn't think it was sustainable. It's not realistic to expect everyone to save every spare penny while also only spending $50/ week on groceries. It was imperative that we stuck to our cash allowances and stopped spending when the envelope was empty. 

The best part of this budget was the large boost in savings we saw in a relatively short amount of time. We were able to live off one paycheck and save the other. It was also nice to see physical cash being depleted and having a good idea of when I would be out for the month. Kyle agrees that having cold hard cash available gave him a better idea of how much he was spending, and gave him a hard stopping point. 

2. Excel spreadsheet

Ah, the classic. This was my first introduction to truly budgeting and I LOVED IT. Color coding, setting equations, and designing it to work for our specific budget. While this is technically a method of budgeting and not an actual budget, I still feel like it counts. 

The hardest part of this kind of budget is the upkeep. I checked the spreadsheet and our bank account daily, sometimes multiple times in order to keep on top of it. While this kind of upkeep may seem intimidating, it was the best way for me to learn about money in and money out every month. 

This was the method we used when we were combining our finances right after we got married and opened our first joint checking account. Because of this the hardest part wasn't actually related to the budget itself, but the gathering of all expenses from each of our respective lives. 

The method itself was straightforward--check the budget, update items, and adjust spending accordingly. We still used our debit cards, but it gave us a better hard number to work with when we were at the grocery store or shopping for fun. 

3. EveryDollar by Dave Ramsey

While he's not for everyone, we did have our fling with Dave Ramsey. We don't subscribe to all of his ideas, as we still have some debt, but his methodology does have some value. 

The best part of this budget is the easy as pie app that is available. While we were tight on cash we used the free version, but the paid version makes things so much easier. 

Essentially you build you budget in the app, and then as you spend money you assign the purchases to budget items. It's like the excel spreadsheet on steroids. The paid version even more so--it will pull purchases from your bank and have them available to match to budget items. No more flipping between the bank app and the budget app--it's now all in one space. This app makes updating a budget incredibly easy, and even lets you copy from month to month to make it even easier. 

This is the method we are currently using and it's great to have a central place to track expenses. While we've dabbled in the cash budget while using this method, ultimately it makes using your debit card as easy as using cash. 

Hopefully this helped you see how personalized budgeting can be. It's not all boring numbers and math (although that is a big part of it.) It's another way to organize your life, as well as make it easier to reach your goals. Budgeting is how we managed to move across the country, buy a house, and have a baby without breaking the bank. 

What other types of budgets have you used? Let us know in the comments!