What do you do to stay on top of your finances?

I’ll let you know when I get my income back up above expenses. Right now I’m in constant firefighting mode, putting out one brush fire bill while the flames of the next are lapping at my rear end.

This might sound crazy. I’m living off of investments, I haven’t had anything but a few odd jobs in over a year. I’m just cheap as hell and saved everything when I was working so now I live off that.

I cashed my monthly check today. I paid my bills and kept 150 in the bank. I got the rest in cash. I took the cash and divided it and put it twenty-nine envelopes. I will open one envelope per day. What I don’t spend one day gets put away for the days I want to party. But I never take from the next days envelope.

And I write everything down in a moleskin.

I just make a point of spending less than I take in each month.

We carefully track all our expenses and income with a computer program. All the bills are set up for autopay. We also take advantage of all the bank offers for cash in exchange for opening an account. So far our family has earned $700 dollars this last year by simply opening new bank accounts.

I try to automate as many of my expenditures as possible. I know that I’m horrid at remembering due dates, so either scheduling a payment as soon as the bill comes (credit cards or variable utilities) or just automating them in general for standard bills (renter’s insurance, health insurance, internet) are my best options.

Don’t use debit card for anything but ATM withdrawals and bills that have to be paid by that method. Nothing destroys budgets like dealing with NSF fees from the stupid bank.

Try to pay down as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. Paying down people i owe money too and helping my girlfriend out with stuff.

Trying to cut out on unnecessaries and sticking to the financial plan.

@Tenpinmaster While this isn’t an ideal solution, ING offers a line of credit of up to $1200 that is triggered when you use more money than you have in your checking account. The 7.25% rate is actually a lot better than my credit cards and you only have to pay the periodic interest on the amount that you overdraft without a base fee. Here’s a link to where they describe it in more detail: http://home.ingdirect.com/faqs/faqs.asp?s=Overdraft

@suncatnin Thank you :)

Life-long learning maintains and enhances your employability. Always save more than you spend.

When I get my pay, the first few things I do is the transfer some money into another account so I don’t touch it. I then give myself an allowance, pay my bills in full (if possible a little extra to cover next month’s bill) and buy stuff on sale.

I bought most of my wines on sale.

I also tuck some cash (from the allowance I give myself) here and there so if I am a little tight, I can hunt around and rustle some cash up.

I cook most of my home meals from scratch.

I have also set myself a goal of saving x amount of dollars by the end of the year.

I also have an app in my iPhone (which I bought second hand at a very good price – another way to stretch the dollar) where I record my spendings and earnings. It gives me a very good idea of how much I still have to spend and how much I have already spent. It is really helpful.

I track everything in Quicken. I’ve been doing that for over a decade.

I don’t have credit cards.
I keep a 12 month plan on excel of all my outgoings and incomings and I regularly update it once a week.

@johnpowell, I’m intrigued by the envelope idea. I think I’ll start doing that except I’ll divide my money based on categories rather than daily expenditure.

@YARNLADY, that’s really neat! I’m guessing you live in the US. I live in Canada and I haven’t heard of banks doing that, except for one bank that I know of last year (and there were a lot of strings attached to get that $200 they were offering).

@montreality :: The idea came about from living with my mom. We got SSI and she would blow through our check in a week. So then it was three weeks of eating out of food boxes.

So I just started doing the envelope thing so I would at least know I have some money everyday.

Put together a budget which is the foundation to keeping your expenses in check. This way you better know where your money is coming and going.

Also, don’t spend more than you can afford.