Welcome to Family Budgeting Basics - class starts May 5
Hi everyone, Joyce here. Glad you're signed up. Week 1 we're building your first budget by hand, on paper, line by line, the way I've done it since a legal pad and a bank statement caught Rodney's forgotten magazine subscription years ago. Before May 5, introduce yourself below and tell me why you signed up. I read every one and I remember who follows through.
Ok but can we talk ABOUT how every "family budget template" ever made assumes two teenagers cost the same as toddlers. Aaliyah and Mason are 17 and between gas money, senior activities, and the fact that they both apparently need new everything for graduation, our "miscellaneous" category has eaten the whole spreadsheet three months running. I built a whole tracker with categories and color coding and it is USELESS right now. Sooo not what I expected walking into this class.
Quick question before we start on the 5th - is this class more geared toward like, single-income household budgeting or does it also cover stuff for single people trying to figure out how much of their paycheck should even be "discretionary"? I do the spreadsheet thing already for myself (categories, sinking funds, the whole deal 😭) but I genuinely don't know if I'm overcomplicating it or if there's a smarter framework I'm missing. Anyone know if the curriculum assumes a certain starting point?
SIGNED up for this mostly because a guy at work, Derek, has BEEN doing the envelope thing but DIGITAL - some app that splits his paycheck into categories automatically. He showed me his phone during lunch and the way he tracks landscaping-supply-level detail on his OWN groceries KIND of impressed me. I'VE been tracking soil pH and fertilizer costs for two years and somehow never applied that same brain to our actual household BUDGET, which feels backwards when I think about it.
Watched a VIDEO last night on zero-based budgeting while Sadie was putting Briggs down and I liked the LOGIC of it, EVERY DOLLAR gets a job, but I feel like the real test is whether it survives four kids and unplanned COSTCO runs! Curious if the class gets into that gap between the clean spreadsheet version and WHAT happens when Paisley needs new shoes the same week the car needs an oil change.
Okay signing up but Howard and I have redone this same budget spreadsheet four times since January and it falls apart by week three every single time... something always comes up, tires, Chase needed cleats, whatever. Not sure a class is gonna fix that part
Sooo excited for this one, Carole and I have been meaning to sit down and do a budget for ages, lol! Quick question though - is this the kind where you need to bring in actual bank statements and numbers, or is it more general talk the first night?? We've got some old check ledgers (yes, I'm that old, I still balance a checkbook!) but nothing on a computer, and I don't want to show up unprepared... Anybody know?
joyce this was good ngl, didnt expect a budgeting class to stick but here we are, still using the envelope thing weeks later 🙈 hope theres a fall session 🙈 Thanks guys
Envelope thing actually works, annoying how simple it is 😂 hoping for a fall session too, Joyce ruined spreadsheets for me forever
That's exactly the kind of comment I hope for and don't always get. Envelopes still working weeks out means the habit took, not just the information, and that's the whole point. I'm sitting here at my own kitchen table tonight missing the Tuesday check-ins, . Rodney says the house is quieter without me narrating other people's line items. No promises on fall, that's not mine to decide, but I'd love to see you both back if it happens. Matt