How do you budget money/ stay within your budget. I am trying to save to buy a new vehicle and eventually a house. But I’m struggling because it seems like the more money I have the more I spend and if I have money saved I spend it.

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Setting up direct deposit to go to specific savings accounts/investment accounts helped me a lot. Also figuring out why I was spending money, if I truly needed what I was purchasing, and reminding myself what I was saving for.

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This is also where the Dave Ramsay method of only paying for things with cash really helps mentally. Swiping a card is much less painful than seeing the money you hand over and only having a certain amount you can spend with you.

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f dave ramsay

It helps me a lot to have "buckets" for money.

All my income goes into an account called "income savings"

At the beginning of the month, I take my "income savings" earned in the prior month, and first move whatever I want to save into my actual savings account, I have sperate savings for vacation, car, home improvement, etc. So I may put 2k into savings, $500 into auto, then Whatever is left I put into checking.

From there, I tell myself that I'm limited to spend whatever is in my checking account for that month.

If I start with 6k in my checking, and by the 20th I'm at $500, then I'm eating leftovers / clearing out my pantry as opposed to shopping or eating out

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I've also found realistic goals to be helpful. I spend around $600/month in groceries for two.

If I try to budget that down to $400, I end up going over and then I open to door to pull from my savings. Slippery slope from there. Rather, I'd like to "round up" for my budget and set realistic goals, that way I'm in the mindset that I never need to pull from savings. If it ends up I spend less than I allocated, I put that money into savings at the end of the month

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What is the breakdown of what you’re buying? For clothes or household items, I never buy when I think of something - I wait for 3 days to see if I really want it or it was an impulse. For takeout/restaurants, I have blue apron so I get variety from there rather than feeling like I need to get takeout for variety

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A lot of it is impulse buying, I’ll wait to buy something but when I go back I add other stuff impulsively in addition to what I had waited to buy.

Direct deposit, and using cash has been tremendously helpful.

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YNAB was an absolute game changer for me. I knew the concepts but actually using the app has helped me save $15000 in 4 months. I always had the income to do this but god damn did I piss it away fast.

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Side note: I have synchronization set up but still manually enter. The sync is a safety net just in case I miss, and it never duplicates.

Most people have this inability to control their actions though we all consider ourselves rational decision makers. At least youre aware. Congratulations.

Whats helped me was shifting what I want now to what I will have wanted. The question "Will this make me happy two weeks from now?" may help you. Also never buy anything extra on credit.

smart

On pay day, I transfer everything for Amex + bills + small buffer to an secondary account where I probably have a debit card linked but have never activated it so it’s just holding until the direct debits take it away. Then with the excess cash I go through my social/holiday calendar and think about a realistic amount I’d need for that in the month. Then I keep an extra hundred or two just in case and transfer everything else into my portfolio account. Even if I don’t invest it right away, it’s harder to access instantaneously and I pretend I have no money. Visuals in my bank account is my best weapon against spending.

Also doing a lot of online shopping and then exacerbating my commitment issues by going all the way to checkout but finding a thread of resolve and not hitting the buy now button.

This is going to sound crazy, but if you’re not already married, try to get a spouse who is decent with numbers and has a good job. Financial advisors generally aren’t worth their costs, but a spouse can double your household income, share your interest in buying a house/ car and manage your investments and budget for free. I told mine recently that I wanted to get solar panels for the house by EOY and she said can do it this month since we’re 20k in the green post tax from trading during earnings.

If you are married, set up a side account and do direct deposits of a finite amount to it every month.

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