Money and how we handle it.

I have to admit, I am horrible at handling money but guess in ways I'm better than some. I do not have credit cards or accounts because I know if I had them I would use them and have seen so many people loss everything because of credit debits they couldn't afford. But, if I have money I will spend it. I manage to pay my bills but sometimes it is difficult as my pay is up and down depending on the writing assignments I get. For the most part I live a simple life, cut corners where I can, and do without "extras" but for the most part I am much happier now than I was when I worked outside the home for people who did not appreciate my hard work.

when i am a university student my mom gave me fixed maintenance every month and i earn some pin money by getting a part-time job.i am seldom do the budget but i keep tracks of evey peeny i spent.sometimes i have a little money to spare ,i chose to save them. now i have a job,my pay not enough.so i must do budget .i think at any rate it allows me to savings.

I tend to be more of a saver when it comes to money, however I feel its also important to set some cash aside to do some fun stuff. After all whats the use of making money if you save it and then someone else comes along and spends it. So you can however set a small amount aside so that you can have some fun. This fun does not need to be expensive. It can be a movie and popcorn or any other fun thing you might like to do?? if you dont have money to take all your family members out, try renting a movie and make some snacks at home. But its important to have fun as well.. dont forget that

i think i am pretty good in handling money... i am always very cautious with my money and make sure that i always save a little part of it for emergency purposes... i do the budget in the house... my hubby is terrible with money... so he lets me handle the money part... right now, i am trying to save to have a baby and buy a house... quite hard because we have a car loan and other big expenses as well...

Hi Linda At our house we all do our part. We all try to turn off lights etc to save money and we will buy what we need, when we need it.We also splurge once in a while. Hubby and I are both the type of people that takes care of clothes,shoes and so forth so we don't run out to buy the latest fashion. We don't have a budget per se but just don't spend foolishly. My daughter on the other hand is only allowed so much for clothes, gas etc. R

I have a very strict budget. Every week my husbands paycheck and my paycheck goes directly in the bank. I then put a set amount in my budget for housing expenses, doctor bills, car and van payments, cell phone, gas, groceries, unplanned car expenses, vacation, and $ for a night out without the kids. When all is done, my husband usually has $20 for the week and I have $10. We pay everything with our Discover Card for the cash back and we never carry a balance on the card. When we charge $40 for gas, that $40 goes from the gas column to the Discover Card column. It works very well for us. We always have enough for a date night. When we have an unexpected car or doctor bill, the money is there for us. However, we don't have much in savings, but this system works well for us.

We live paycheck to paycheck, and can hardly manage. I save quarters and dimes. When ever I make some extra on the side, I put it away. We stay on our budget, so that all the bills get paid first. Sometimes I must cut out food to pay bills. I also do some things on line for coupons or points for some extras for fun. I rated you a + for your post. It's very good. Thank you sugar.

Well Linda I live on my own now and the Money does not last due to a lot of Things and me still trying to get straight and no matter how hard I try it just won't last.

I am really really bad at managing my money. I don't keep track of my checkings like I used to and this has created a lot of problems for me. I have become overdrawn quite a few times in my account, which causes me to be broke all the time. I don't know why I do this. I used to keep track of every penny, and always had my check book balanced, so I know how, it's just a matter of wanting to do it. I am trying really hard these last couple of months to get back on track. Wish me luck.

Oh my...The only way I found that works for me is taking lump sum out of my check that goes into another bank where I have no checks or a debit card...lol..If it wasn't for that I would probably be bad with money. But this works for me, I never see it...

No, I tend to make a budget for me & my other half each time before we get paid. I like to have things budgeted out each pay day because then we are able to get all of the important things done before purchasing the things we may want. I know that I always put grocery money aside, along with money for bills, or if our puppy needs dog food.. Or we are trying to save up money so we can go on vacation to get away for a bit. Or if we have a special occasion we want to celebrate I will put money on the side to save up as well. I know that a long time ago my other half & me never followed a strict budget. It was terrible because each time we never knew how much money we would have left afterwards. We also never budgeted money for our bills. So most of the money we would get each pay day.. Would have to be pulled out of the money we got paid.. And then we'd have hardly any money left over because we never budgeted for our utilities, nor did we budget for our groceries, among other things.. There we're so many times where we had to pawn our things off at a pawn shop just so we would make it buy on that pay day.. I then began to make up a strict budget each pay day & now we are doing so much better.. We know what we need to put money aside for each pay day.. And we are know longer as stressed as we used to be.. I mean of course we still are some-what but I do believe that's perfectly normal. But at least we know how much money we will have left over after we put money aside for the important things we may need to get, as long as the things that need to be paid off before anything else.. I honestly do the budget each month. But I do run it by my other half before hand just to make sure that I didn't forget any thing.. And just so he is involved in what is going on with our finances.. I think it's important to involve your partner as they need to know what is going on as well.. I don't like to leave him in the dark when it comes to our budget each pay day that we are going to have to be following.. I know that I came up with an idea to make an 'emergency' fund each month. So we will put money aside for that sometimes as you never know when something may come up.. And I believe it's important to have a fund such as this put aside.. In-case something had happened & you needed some money but didn't know where to get it from.. I like to have that fund to lean back on just in-case.. As you never know what life has in store for you sometimes.. Even though my other half & me do put money aside for bills, groceries, among other funds.. We also still enable ourselves to put money aside as well for things we may want to do.. Such as going on vacation, among other things.. I don't think a budget should just be all to serious all of the time.. Though the things that we need to pay each month come first before deciding to put money aside for anything else though.. In conclusion.. I think deciding to have a budget each month was one of the wisest choices we have ever made.. I think it truly has helped us a great deal over the last while.. I think if we didn't decide to make a budget that we would still be on the same road as we we're before.. Struggling with paying utilities, among not being able to afford to put food on the table.. I never want my other half & me to ever go through that ever again.. So I plan on following this strict budget for years to come now.. I think it will truly help us to get farther in life, compared to just 'winging it' each month! . . Thanks for allowing me to share! xx

In our case, I am the one who keeps a budget and I just update my husband about it. He gives me his share for all our expenses and I’m the one who settles all our bills. We set a budget per month and we try to stick to it as much as we can. Although right now, we don’t have much to put on savings because majority of our salary goes to our housing loan. But we opened a joint account and a savings account for our daughter so in case we have extra money left from our salary and our business did well, we have something to deposit to save up for rainy days. Although I agree with you also that we should have fun and enjoy the money we worked for. That’s why we are also saving up so our family can have a nice vacation also.

well for myself... i control myself to spend half of what i earned and put teh rest into bank... I am just a university student.. I would like to save for the future..:)

yes, i set budget every month deposit 5% of my salary into my saving a/c

Interesting question. Id like to add to your discussion. When I started off I never really saved money because I always felt that I needed it to pay this or that when bills come up. I read a book called the automatic millionaire and it pretty much put my spending habits into perspective. It ask the simple question. Are you better off 3 years ago then you are now? Anyway the book talks about a simple concept called the latte effect which is what we spend on without thinking about. Such as a coffee every morning for example. Lets say that you buy a coffee m-f at 2 dollars for 5 days. Totaling 10 dollars a week equaling 40 dollars more or less a month. So anyway sorry for boring you but I try to save 5 10 20 dollars a pay check into a money market account that has a good interest rate. And I place some of my money in a savings account for a rainy day 4 to 5 dollars a pay check. So far its worked and I'm better off then what I am 4 years ago.

I just spend what I have to every month and try to cut back on my spending. My main goal is to make a budget for myself, based on estimates on how much money I get every month (which isn't a lot) and go from there. I've been rather lazy and haven't done a budget yet. I really should get around to it.

I was from family who were very strict and careful with expenses as we were not rich that's why we were so careful. I was taught to to save and how to spend the money without making us suffer. Now, i have my own family and so far we manage with bills and shopping and we still have pretty much saving. The key is discipline. We don't have to be too strict but not too lose as well. Buy stuff when on special price or on bargain, do shopping in the market, stick to the plan of meals in a week. never buy things if stuff in the fridge or pantry still pile up. be creative with cooking and if you can, when you receive salary, save first before you spend.It looks hard but you will see the result.

No savings would scare me, especially with a trip coming up. I heard from someone a "safe" amount of savings is six months worth of paychecks. So for example, you make $2000 a month, you should have $12000 saved up somewhere. (WAY HARD, I know). I usually just spend and try to spread it out over the month.

I dont really have a plan yet because i am so young but i figured if i save 5 dollars a day that is so much money over a year that is just sitting there and i can use later on in life that it is TOTALLY worth it. But when i do get old enough to have really important bills and such i will try my hardest to organize them myself but if not i will hire someone to do it for me or something. Hopefully i will have a partner to do it for me though by then... Good Discussion...

I think its best to project your income for aleast the next 3 months....If you think that you or your husband has enough income to cover your expenses, then you dont need to woory about anything.. However, there's a piece of advice..Inorder to avoid money problems, it is always good to draw up a budget and keep tab of all your expenses...Try to keep extra funds from your saving in your bank account for emergencies. One great money saving tip is to keep as little amount of cash in your pocket...If you see something you think you like, try postponing it to the next day. You'll realise you really need to impulse buy. Also, if you have to go on trips or vacations, plan ahead and save enough before you go on the trip..This way, you dont have to worry about finance problems while you are on your vacation