Budgeting

[IHaveRegrets]

IHaveRegrets before our financial problems I use to do something very similar and maybe I should start to use our bank accounts differently. We have one checking account at the bank where our mortgage was because that was required and then we have two checking accounts at another bank. One of those accounts was originally used for "saving" for the non-monthly payments, we we had car insurance and few other expenses on payments that might be quarterly or yearly. We also kept some money in there for repairs that might pop up unexpected or the repairs that you know you will need eventually as appliances age or you need a new set of tires.

Even if I can't change it right now I think it's a great idea to go back to those principles and when our BK is over that might really help us stay on track!

I changed banks a little before filing, and my credit union allowed me to open the second checking account for free, though it doesn't have the same perks as my "Spend" account. They also hold my "cushion" account which draws a small but also noticeable (as the balance increases slowly) bit of interest. (A couple dollars here and there is still a couple dollars I didn't have before.)

Regardless, my life has gotten so much easier with this system that I have zero doubt I will continue this sort of thing for the rest of my life.

Even for the yearly payments, when I know they're coming up I start shifting a little extra money each pay period (for a month or two depending on size of payment) towards the "bill pay" account so I ensure the money gets held in reserve. The system is working well for me so far.

[Carmella]

IHaveRegrets before our financial problems I use to do something very similar and maybe I should start to use our bank accounts differently. We have one checking account at the bank where our mortgage was because that was required and then we have two checking accounts at another bank. One of those accounts was originally used for "saving" for the non-monthly payments, we we had car insurance and few other expenses on payments that might be quarterly or yearly. We also kept some money in there for repairs that might pop up unexpected or the repairs that you know you will need eventually as appliances age or you need a new set of tires.

Even if I can't change it right now I think it's a great idea to go back to those principles and when our BK is over that might really help us stay on track!

[IHaveRegrets]

I have not gone so far as to do a budget software, so far I haven't found it necessary.

I did move to a model where I have to checking accounts and one "cusion/savings" account.

Checking account #1 - General spending/non-static bills. (Think gasoline, groceries, the rare takeout or meal at a restaurant, etc)
Checking account #2 - Bills that don't change or change infrequently.
Savings/Cushion account - Any money left over.

Essentially, I ensure that out of each paycheck 50% of my monthly responsibilities gets transferred on payday to the static bills account.
Then i know what's in my "general spending" account is "safe" to use as necessary. (For example, two weeks ago it was badly needed replacement sneakers and a couple other items)

Any 2 week period where I end up with money above a certain threshold means I move that amount above the threshold I set, over to my "cushion" account.

Working out well so far. Before I made the move to having the 2nd checking account I had a lot more trouble keeping track of what was "Safe" to spend if needed. Life has gotten much easier since.

I've just did my first review of this process (and my "static" bills) because my car insurance jumped by $50/month since they clued into my active CH13 bankruptcy. Not unexpected, but very annoying.

Otherwise it doesn't require much upkeep. Budget billing for utilities means they only change once or twice a year, everything else is pretty static.

[Carmella]

For us, I did it the Cro-Magnon way - I used a notepad document to write each payroll date, and which bills to pay, throughout the bankruptcy 60 months: for example:
12/24/2021 - mortage paycheck #1
01/01/2022 - mortgage paycheck #2
01/08/2022 utilities (energy, cell phone, internet, water)
01/15/2022 bk payment
...
...
etc.

We also religiously monitored our bank account. O.C.D. / habitually, we checked it a couple times per day, especially toward the end.

Not a software solution I know, but good enough to get the job done. We knew, based on historical data, what the bills would usually be.

Similar here. I am using a calendar it took me a while to find one I like, it's like a notebook and has a month on one page, but the spiral is on top like a regular calendar so it's easy to flip through.

I write all the bills on the days they are due or approximate for ones that change a day or two. Then I can see which bills are due in relation to the paycheck. And if I have any expenses that are regular, but not necessarily monthly I mark those as well. I have a life insurance policy that is quarterly and I have a few payment plans like QVC pay or Klarna payments and those get marked down as well as the online subscriptions.

When they are paid I check them off and since we have two checking accounts I am playing with color coding.

I am back to checking the online account a few times a week to make sure it's up to date and it helps me not to overspend when buying groceries or other things. For example we need a (portable) dehumidifier for the basement since the old one isn't working right and it's quite old. We have a lot of moisture in the basement and need the dehumidifier or bad things happen. I have an old wooden coffee table that belonged to my parents, the legs are metal V shaped, the top is wood and has a huge drawer in it. The first year we lived here the moisture was so bad aside from mold and anything cardboard getting smelly that table top actually warped. But it went back to normal once we got the humidity under control.

Sorry went off on that tangent. By keeping track of the money I saw that we could afford to get a dehumidifier and will adjust the budget not to get anything out of the ordinary probably through the next paycheck.

Using the calendar can be a bit tedious since I re-write the amounts each month. Once something is paid I pencil the expense in on the next month calendar page. Yes I use pencil in the calendar until it's highlighted/color coded (but I may not continue with the color coding).

In the past before computers I used a ledger and when I had MS Money it was real similar to the ledger.

[newlife13]

I use an elaborate hand-designed Excel spreadsheet (with multiple books). My spreadsheet works for me because it's personalized to the way I view money (budget) out 12-18 months. I looked at Quickbooks Mint and I find it nice, but my spreadsheet works better for me personally.

I look forward to reading the responses.

I am also of the elaborate, self-designed Excel workbook variety! I didn't feel connected enough to my money with Mint and did not like YNAB.

[womanonfire]

I use a spreadsheet and it works fabulously for me.

[bornfree2]

Now the savings is growing again.

I cant wait for this day again. Im so used to living with just paying for absolute essentials, that getting the Fresh Start will surely build up the cash mattress again.

[flashoflight]

The starting point of my budget was the one I submitted to the BK court. It's just a starting point because I can't always put the values I wanted in there. Then I used YNAB to get a snapshot of my budget for a few months. The YNAB documentation isn't very good, but there are some Youtube videos by users that were much better. It's a really good way to find places where you are leaking money bad and correct that behavior. It took too much of my time to keep up with YNAB along with the annoying data outages from various financial institutions. But I got a good idea of what was going on.

I've kinda went with the shipo and zombie plan to not have a budget anymore, but I keep a very tight ship by dedicating as much as possible to savings. Savings goes from 401k up to the match, then Roth, then taxable. 401k money is not good because it's trapped there (401k loan is still borrowing for budgeting purposes) and chapter 13s need all sources of money available to avoid borrowing. I also pay down the credit cards to zero multiple times per month so we're living on a cash budget. You can keep sinking funds for various things like vacations, house maintenance, car maintenance, etc. on YNAB but I found it easier just to have a wad of cash available in the Roth plus taxable.

My trustee doesn't chase after my raises at work, so the amount I've saved grew until I had to modify my plan for the mortgage refinance. Now the savings is growing again.

I watch the taxable account very carefully throughout the month and then siphon off to Roth as I'm able to after all of the bills have been paid.

[Zombie13]

I meant, notepad.exe, the Windows application.
So I guess that counts as 'which software application we used'.
I did print it, and when we got to a payday, and paid those bills, I used a black marker to mark it out.
We didn't actively budget per se either; rather, we just paid the bills, and monitored the bank account as we went.

[shipo]

For us, I did it the Cro-Magnon way - I used a notepad document to write each payroll date, and which bills to pay, throughout the bankruptcy 60 months:

I guess Cro-Magnon kind of describes my budgeting method; except I didn't go to such an extreme as to use a notepad. Said another way, I didn't actively budget.

[bornfree2]

delete

[Zombie13]

For us, I did it the Cro-Magnon way - I used a notepad document to write each payroll date, and which bills to pay, throughout the bankruptcy 60 months: for example:
12/24/2021 - mortage paycheck #1
01/01/2022 - mortgage paycheck #2
01/08/2022 utilities (energy, cell phone, internet, water)
01/15/2022 bk payment
...
...
etc.

We also religiously monitored our bank account. O.C.D. / habitually, we checked it a couple times per day, especially toward the end.

Not a software solution I know, but good enough to get the job done. We knew, based on historical data, what the bills would usually be.

[bornfree2]

If you can find a copy of it, the older version of quicken (98-2000) was very nice. no cloud subscription nonsense, just a plain ol' windows 98 product that did it right. You can run it within a virtual machine.

what worked really well was download the bank csv files and it magically populating the transactions. then i had to go through and categorize stuff. but once done, you get lots of nice graphs. ah the days of seeing positive networth...where did it all go?? (i would have known if i kept using the program hehe)

Ive explored some open source copy cats but nothing that was as well put together as quicken 98-2000.

In fact I need to dig it back out and see if I can get the habit again.

[Carmella]

I haven't found anything I like. Ages ago I used MS Money and really liked it, but then it went away and I never got the hang of quicken. In more recent times I have looked at a few apps, but nothing that seems to do it for me. If anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them also. I really liked having the computer program that I could enter the expenses and it would do all the math for me.

[justbroke]

I use an elaborate hand-designed Excel spreadsheet (with multiple books). My spreadsheet works for me because it's personalized to the way I view money (budget) out 12-18 months. I looked at Quickbooks Mint and I find it nice, but my spreadsheet works better for me personally.

I look forward to reading the responses.