Budgets and credit card vs debit card (paying, debts, account)

[Hemlock140]

If your employer offers direct deposit, that helps a lot. Mine allows for 5 different bank accounts. In addition to the 401K and Health Savings account, I have some of each check going into two different credit union savings accounts, then the balance into the main checking (debit card) account.
When I get a raise, I add it to the savings rather than ever see it and end up spending it. The credit union and bank accounts all have alerts that text me when a deposit is made (today is payday so I got two alerts, one for mine and one for my wife's).

[Giesela]

Thanks for the responses but...ugh my head hurts. I've been searching for a spreadsheet all morning and still haven't found one. I'm sick of all this!

Let's see. I have a cell phone but no data only wi fi and I'm on a 20 cents a call pay as you go plan. I'm not allowed to take my cell phone into the building where i work, and since the heat/cold in the car kills the battery, it stays at home. So I'm not that cell phone savvy.

Do you load a debit card with so much money or does it pull from your checking account? It would be so nice to have a card that you load and when you swipe it it displays what your new balance is.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by Jeo123

Mint is a very useful tool, personally I just wish it had a better way to "report" your activity. As an example, I personally like to split my activity between "normal" expenses and "one time" expenses. Especially now with an upcoming wedding, my normal budget is completely shot. You have to put down a few deposits and things get thrown out of wack pretty easily. Those shouldn't be ignored, but when looking at trends, it's nice to see what my "base line" would be for things like food, utilities, eating out and other things without the big swings distorting stuff.

But as far as the OP goes, I think it could substantially help in that respect.

i find that every year "one time expenses" come up. sure, some are bigger than others (like a home renovation) but i dont really have any interest in separating most of them because there is always something. one year its some auto expense for $2,000 and another its some kind of hvac repair/replacement things but its always something.

if you really did care, you could just categorize things in mint under some kind of "one time expense" category and then when you look at 1 year of spending you could just look at the "one time expense" category and get a number for that and deduct it. im not sure what other way would be easier. since i regularly play around and analyze individual categories like auto, home, vacations, etc. it really would be one more of the many things i look at.

[CaptainNJ]

here is my pie chart for the last 12 months. i can drill down to specific categories within those categories you see. its really easy to play with and if i want to isolate one time expenses, its pretty simple.

[Aredhel]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Do you load a debit card with so much money or does it pull from your checking account? It would be so nice to have a card that you load and when you swipe it it displays what your new balance is.

A debit card pulls directly from your checking account, but to buy things with it you swipe it just like a credit card. If you do online banking (either with a computer or your cell phone), you'll see the debit card charges show up on your account almost immediately. You can think of using a debit card as form of "electronic check writing": each swipe equals one "electronic check written," but they post faster than paper checks do.

One small caution: if your debit card is compromised, your bank will need to close it immediately and it may be a few days before any stolen money is redeposited into your account. So if you decide to go the debit card route, you might want to have a second, smaller bank account not tied to a debit card that you could use for emergency backup for a few days if needed.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

You could use my aunt's trick. Every time she uses her credit card, she opens up her checkbook and enters it as money spent.

She can easily see how much money is left and when the credit card bill comes, the money to pay it is there in her checking account.

[mustang84]

I have been tracking my expenses manually in Excel for the last 8 years (basically since my student loans kicked in and I realized I needed to budget). I also use my credit card all the time and pay it down at the end of the month, then track those expenses in my spreadsheet. I have a handful of categories it is broken down into:

Groceries
Fuel
Fast food / lunches
Dining out / entertainment
Car care
Shopping
One-time expenses (car insurance, travel, etc)

I also have categories for rent, student loans, utilities, subscriptions, etc.

All I do is plug in my expenses, then plug in my income for that month, subtract out expenses from income, and the bottom category tallies how much I have left for savings. It took a little work to set it up, but now I spend maybe 30 minutes every couple weeks to maintain it.

I've also created another Excel spreadsheet that tracks my net worth. It's pretty interesting to watch your debt drop and your net worth go up each month.

[Bluff_Dweller]

Lots of good advice on this thread, thank you all so much.

I suppose I am the cheapskate. When I retired 15 years ago, I tried to simpify my bill paying. I have all my monthly expenses, utilities, groceries, insurances all charged on the (only at the time) cash back credit card. Then 4 days before the due date I call in my payment from my checking account. The first year I had over $200 cash back. It is a lot less now but there are now new cash back credit cards giving more percentage than my one card. I am using the credit cards money for 4, 3, 2, 1 week interest free as I pay it off each month. I now only use stamps for greeting cards only. Also as a security measure, I don't have any account numbers on the internet this way!

[JimRom]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Thanks for the responses but...ugh my head hurts. I've been searching for a spreadsheet all morning and still haven't found one. I'm sick of all this!

Let's see. I have a cell phone but no data only wi fi and I'm on a 20 cents a call pay as you go plan. I'm not allowed to take my cell phone into the building where i work, and since the heat/cold in the car kills the battery, it stays at home. So I'm not that cell phone savvy.

Do you load a debit card with so much money or does it pull from your checking account? It would be so nice to have a card that you load and when you swipe it it displays what your new balance is.

For the budgeting part, try www.everydollar.com
It's put out by Dave Ramsey's team and we've been using it for about 4 months now since it launched. It works very well and allows you to categorize your spending as well as making a budget.

[Briolat21]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Thanks for the responses but...ugh my head hurts. I've been searching for a spreadsheet all morning and still haven't found one. I'm sick of all this!

Let's see. I have a cell phone but no data only wi fi and I'm on a 20 cents a call pay as you go plan. I'm not allowed to take my cell phone into the building where i work, and since the heat/cold in the car kills the battery, it stays at home. So I'm not that cell phone savvy.

Do you load a debit card with so much money or does it pull from your checking account? It would be so nice to have a card that you load and when you swipe it it displays what your new balance is.

I'm not aware of a card (debit or credit card) that would display your "new" balance automatically after a transaction ..

you would have to either go to an ATM and do a balance check, or go into your bank and ask what your account balance is, or go online and log into your bank account and check.

As others have mentioned, a Debit card is attached to your Bank Account (checking, usually, though you can often access multiple accounts at the same bank from one card - for instance checking and savings) - when you process a transaction as "debit" - it asks for a secure PIN code, and the money is immediately deducted from your bank account.

As others have noted, its essentially like writing a check, but much much faster.

What you have to keep in mind is that a debit card is not a Credit Card, and if you don't have the money in the account to pay for the debit that was made you may either run up substantial fees, or may have the transaction declined. You'll need to familiarize yourself with your banks rules on that.