How do you maintain a budget without needing to count every penny spent?

[arrieros81]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

The way we do it is that we have a joint checking and savings account. We've forumated a budget, and determined how much money needs to go into that account to pay fixed bills. We also came up with a number for contributing to savings, as well as our own individual contributions to retirement accounts. We review this every now and then, and make adjustments.


We each have our own individual checking/savings accounts as well, that we get direct deposited money to. When we get paid, we have auto deposits set up to move money into the joint checking/savings account. Bills are paid of of that account, our joint savings is built up, and we've allocated extra for things like eating out and such. Most bills are set on autopay, and we have an extra $1K or so in there to give a buffer in case something unexpected comes up.


Then, whatever is left over in our personal accounts, we are free to do whatever we want with.

That's currently how we do it too, a checking account for joint living expenses (housing and food). We direct deposit the expense amount 50/50 from our paychecks. We don't have a joint savings though. We should probably start one for big shared expenses like vacations (he paid) and furniture (I paid). It hasn't been 50/50 on these shared expenses though; he's paid a lot more $$ than I did, though I make slightly more than he does now since he quit one of his full-time jobs.

[Icemodeled]

I keep every receipt and we rarely use cash so between the receipts, my checkbook and our credit card statement it is easy to account for every penny. I have one of the folder organizer binders.. It's the kind that opens and has lots of slots. I labeled each one 'January' 'February' ect and place receipts for that month in each slot. Then after the month is done I will do the adding/categorize and put on a spreadsheet. It really doesn't take much time at all. Also, sometimes i will check it through the month to see where we're at on grocery spending or other categories.

We also keep all receipts in case we ever need them for returns or something. Were self employed to and are use to keeping receipts.