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Thread: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

  1. #1
    Senior Member PaulG's Avatar
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    Default Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    How do most of you do your budgets so that you will hopefully have the cash you need for all the bills and expenses when you need it?

    Obviously you have to have some cash in the first place. When I was at Uni years ago I could live on next to nothing and I kept a diary of projected income and knew how much I had to save to meet specific bills by their due dates.

    With family these days plus running a business I think everyone's finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. My budgeting system of old has gone out the window and I never know what expense is around the corner any more.

    A friend and fellow Lawnie put me onto the website for Simply Budgets. It costs $129 and looks/sounds a bit corny but he swears by it.

    http://simplybudgets.com.au/

    Do any of you use anything like this or have other systems that you would be prepared to share?

  2. #2
    Dedicated Member Cranbourne Lawnmowing's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    I sure as well would not be paying someone to show me how to budget.
    16 years ago, my wife and I were trying to survive on about $300 a week with a child and one on the way.

    We used to put money in envolopes with the bill written on it, even if it meant $2 a week went into it.

    It was hard but we got through it and learnt to be tight if we had to.

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    Senior Member Mrs HMS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    Don't pay for a budget Paul. I will send you the one I used for our clients for free! pm me your email and I'll send it through to you.

    Glenn has a great idea with the putting money aside. Back when I was a uni student and Timmy earned bugger all, BPay had just begun. To this day we still BPay X amount to every single bill each fortnight (my pay cycle) but you can do it at whatever interval you like...mine is automatic every second Friday. I have built up decent sized credits on many of our bills so that we were able to turn those BPays off and redirect the payments to other, larger bills or to a separate account we use for things that can't be paid that way, such as vehicle registration etc.

    If you contact your billers that don't seem to have BPay you can often make arrangements with them to pay X amount on a regular basis. You don't necessarily pay off the entire account before it's due but at least when it does come in it's not such a huge amount to find in one lump sum as you've already paid some in advance.

    Also if things are really tight...get to know what Centrelink entitlements you may be eligible for as well as family tax benefit etc. They won't go out of their way to give you money and we find so often people have missed out on things they are entitled to simply because they didn't know about it.
    ~ Joanne ~

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    Senior Member PaulG's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    I used to do the same as you Glenno. A certain amount into an envelope each week and it worked well but these days money just seems to go back out quicker than it comes in. I can't even manage to keep money in the boys' piggy-banks. I put some change and a few dollars in them every week and when I go to count it with them the money is gone, pilfered by Amanda for who knows what....

    Been trying to get her to see that we don't need half the stuff she buys, ie live fairly basically (which is all I've ever been used to), but she just says she's not prepared to live like that. We still apportion money for larger bills but most times we are still paying things off after the due date. It's the smaller day to day things where I think we could save a lot and with larger education expenses this year with Henry starting Prep I'm trying to do all I can to watch every cent we spend.

    Even things like buying newspapers, which I do religiously I'm cutting out. I tallied up there's an easy $350 to $400 to be saved just there. An iced-coffed flavoured milk or a soft-drink most days is over $1000 per year! There's a lot of money to be saved if you don't buy these odds and ends all the time.

    I've been down to Centrelink too Jo. We get the Govt childcare assistance but that is halved now that Henry starts school and despite my medical requirements re my ilness there's nothing there for me. Amanda works three day per week teaching and even that puts us just over the threshold for any extra help. I keep asking her to consider going back to work 5 days but she won't.

    I'm still working at growing the business account (including putting aside money for new equipment) which I guess we all are, and put money into personal savings and Super which is why I started this topic - to hopefully get some tips from everyone else.

  5. #5
    Senior Member St George's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    You have to get your wife on the same track as you otherwise your back where you started.you need to set a budget for your wife's spending and she needs to agree.

  6. #6
    Senior Member simo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    I have a budget envelope, I fill it up the wife empty`s it... I fill it up again..
    ....Nothing like a good whipper....

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    Senior Member bb1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    Quote Originally Posted by simo View Post
    I have a budget envelope, I fill it up the wife empty`s it... I fill it up again..
    I fixed that problem, easy solution, get rid off the wife

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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    Quote Originally Posted by bb1 View Post
    I fixed that problem, easy solution, get rid off the wife
    and by the time she's finished you haven't got the envelope let alone anything to go in it
    Anything Ian says may or may not be garbage, it may also be his own opinion or it may not be his opinion at all, it may just be something he felt like stating anyone following his advice does so at their own risk and may be doing something Ian would actually advise against.
    And if you don't like what Ian has to say use the ignore function if you don't know how ask i will gladly tell you

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    Senior Member bb1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Budgeting (For Business and For Daily Life)

    Quote Originally Posted by ian View Post
    and by the time she's finished you haven't got the envelope let alone anything to go in it
    Another lesson there, it sounds strange and I was reluctant at first, but have a female as your solicitor, They actually know how the womans mind works, but in most instances look after the hubby. Worked for me.

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