can one of you ladies help me with a budget?

okay, so DH, DD and i neeeeed to get out of this apartment.. its in my parents' house and i am sick and tired of living here. so i am sitting here depressed and trying to come up with a budget of how much things would cost each week or month to see how much we'd have to be making per week or whatever.... would you girls be kind enough to PLEASE give me some tips or a sample budget?? i would love you forever...

TheNest.com has one, but I found it buggy.

We totaled up how much we bring home, and how much our bills are, to figure out how much extra money we should have each month to put towards house expenses.

Then we took our rent payment + our current utilities + a % of the *extra* to figure out how much we could pay towards housing expenses.

I worked really hard to pay off all my CC debt, and its finally gone!

Now we take that extra amount and put it in our money market account to save more towards our down payment, and also to see if we can deal with living on the amount of money we *think* we can live on. We've been doing that for a couple of months now, and doing really well with it.

Hopefully we'll start seriously looking for a house in the next couple of months.

I hope that makes sense

yes it made sense! i guess i am just kind of looking for an idea of how much i should budget for certain things each month.. like i have down car insurance, cell phones, gas, food.. etc.. and i kind of want an idea of how much i should budget for each thing and a list of things i am probably missing.. im gonna check out thenest.com also, thank you

Well, your biggest expense besides the one you mentioned is housing (rent or mortgage)

Are you looking to buy something or to rent?

Its hard to give an estimate on that b/c everyone's price range & budget for that stuff is different. We pay less than $1k for our tiny 1 bedroom apartment ... and are looking at houses where our mortgage payment would be just about double that.

But then for a house, you have to also take into account taxes, insurance and increased utilities for heat, etc.

Rent $
Utilities $
Cable $
Telephone $
Internet Service
Groceries $
Car
Gas/ Transportation fees


hmm those are essentials to keep in mind

right now we would be looking for an apartment.. 2 bedrooms or more. neither of us want to leave NY or the town we are in even.. so i am scared sh*tless of even trying to get a house right now.... aint happening.

Here is a simple budgeting rule of thumb. Its called the 60%-40% rule.

60% of your net pay should cover ALL of your living expenses. This means your rent, debts, utilities, etc. should not equal more than 60%. If they do, its probably because of debts. Pay the debts down as soon as possible.

10% - goes into long term savings in a high yield savings account or long term CD. This is for major emergencies or a crisis - sickness, layoffs, job loss, etc.

10% - short term savings. Smaller big ticket items. Home improvements. Car purchase.

10% - retirement accounts. 401(k) or IRA.

And the final 10% - is your discretionary spending $$$. This covers all clothing, eating out, gifts, vacations, donations, etc.

In my view, this budget works well if you already own a home. In your case you're trying to save for a home (which, is my case as well! ) I think that you need to consolidate long and short term savings into one 20% chunk and put that $$ into a money market or high yield savings account. But, I also think you need to get your living expenses down to about 40% and save the extra 20% from there towards the down payment. This will help you come up with the huge amount of $$ needed for a down payment.

Hope that helps. FM me with any questions.

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Posted by Toots123

Here is a simple budgeting rule of thumb. Its called the 60%-40% rule.

60% of your net pay should cover ALL of your living expenses. This means your rent, debts, utilities, etc. should not equal more than 60%. If they do, its probably because of debts. Pay the debts down as soon as possible.

10% - goes into long term savings in a high yield savings account or long term CD. This is for major emergencies or a crisis - sickness, layoffs, job loss, etc.

10% - short term savings. Smaller big ticket items. Home improvements. Car purchase.

10% - retirement accounts. 401(k) or IRA.

And the final 10% - is your discretionary spending $$$. This covers all clothing, eating out, gifts, vacations, donations, etc.

In my view, this budget works well if you already own a home. In your case you're trying to save for a home (which, is my case as well! ) I think that you need to consolidate long and short term savings into one 20% chunk and put that $$ into a money market or high yield savings account. But, I also think you need to get your living expenses down to about 40% and save the extra 20% from there towards the down payment. This will help you come up with the huge amount of $$ needed for a down payment.

Hope that helps. FM me with any questions.

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Ok Tara that's it I'm going to give you all my money-you'll do a better job with it than me :)

'Budget' is such an ugly word, dontcha think??

I know, I sound like a nerd but DH and i went to a financial planner after the wedding. Now, not only am I a nerd, I am a know-it-all too! But, I like to share this info and I am cheap and easy!

thanks a lot girls i appreciate all the help!