MVelopes vs Mint?

[cpals]

I know there was a recent post about starting a budget, but my question is a little more specific.

My wife and I are at the point where we realize we need a budget or else we'll never have any savings or money for unforeseen expenses. Right now we pretty much spent 100% or more of our income. She bought me a book for Christmas that goes into budgeting, etc and the first thing we're going to do is track all of our expenses (no matter how small) for two months. After we do that we should have a good idea of how much to budget for food, clothing, entertainment, gas, etc...

Sound like a good plan?

So a few questions:

1. We're planning on trying the 'envelopes' type budgeting. Would MVelopes or Mint fill this need and is one superior than the other? I realize one is free and the other is not.

2. My wife gets paid weekly, but I get paid biweekly. How do you do a monthly budget for this? Say my paycheck is $1000 every two weeks... would I do $1000 x 2 or $1000 x 26 / 12 for my monthly income.

3. How do you keep track of spending... use a credit or debit card and then import them into a program and then categorize them accordingly? If you go to walmart and buy clothes, food, housing supplies would you just lump them all into 'food' or would you actually split the receipt into three categories?

4. What kind of brought this on was we were looking at buying a car for Christmas and realized that due to how our current spending is we couldn't afford it. How do you typically save up for a car... try and put down 20%,50%,100% of the car in cash? Is it smart to try and pay 100% in cash if you can get a very low interest rate? What would the maximum loan term you would go for?


Thanks for the insight!

 

[Wonderful Pork]

I use Mint and generally purchase everything via credit card, even gum etc. Occasionally I'll take out $100 in cash but I don't track those purchases as tightly (only that the cash came out) since its usually for going out or vacation misc expenses or something.

Mint is really good at budgeting once you have a couple months of data in it, it basically says, OK historically you spent $50/month on gas, should we make that your budget? You can tweak the numbers up and down and refine the categories as you please. Like $150 month groceries and $80/month restaurants. You can even create custom categories like Cafeteria or whatever.

Yes, I do split up receipts as required, and if I buy movie tickets and people pay me back with cash I make sure to deposit that into the bank so its tracked and doesn't blow my entertainment budget.

Mint just rolled out a new budgeting feature for cars, etc. I'm using it for a vacation, so I said $2000 by next March and it calculated saving $300/month to meet that goal. If you link a separate savings account like ING or whatever it gives you a good picture of where you are in regards to the goal. (That said, no idea on purchasing a new car; personally I'd go late model used and 50%+ cash down unless 0% APR)

Also, you can see exactly how much you spend where...I found that I spend way too much at the cafeteria at work.

 

[rcpratt]

As far as you getting paid biweekly, I would budget for two paychecks a month and then just treat those two months you get an extra paycheck as automatic savings.

I put everything on my credit card for easier tracking. As for as buying things besides food at Walmart, I just group it all under "groceries," but I don't spend that much on that kind of stuff.

How much you put down on a car just depends on how much cash you have, the rate on the loan, and the rate you can earn on your savings. Need more specific numbers to answer that.

I've never used MVelopes, but Mint works well for me.

 

[iGas]

I get paid weekly and I use monthly budgeting scheme. My CC statement contain most of my spending, and there will be an occasion cash width draw from debit (I considered all cash width draw falls under entertainment.)

 

[kranky]

Tracking every penny spent for two months will be a very valuable start to developing a good budget.

1. If I was going to do the envelope method, I would do it with actual envelopes and cash.
2. It's easier to set aside money for emergencies if you figure your paychecks as $1000 x 2 per month.
3. If you do the envelopes with cash method, your tracking is automatic. If you want to use credit/debit cards, then you should be very meticulous about tracking accurately by category, or else you're just wasting your time.
4. It might be too ambitious to shoot for paying 100% in cash if you are just getting started. And it depends on how much you're spending for a car. Max loan term should be 3 years IMHO. Are you looking to buy a new or used car?

 

[iGas]

Tracking every penny spent for two months will be a very valuable start to developing a good budget.

1. If I was going to do the envelope method, I would do it with actual envelopes and cash.
2. It's easier to set aside money for emergencies if you figure your paychecks as $1000 x 2 per month.
3. If you do the envelopes with cash method, your tracking is automatic. If you want to use credit/debit cards, then you should be very meticulous about tracking accurately by category, or else you're just wasting your time.
4. It might be too ambitious to shoot for paying 100% in cash if you are just getting started. And it depends on how much you're spending for a car. Max loan term should be 3 years IMHO. Are you looking to buy a new or used car?

Electronic statement and spread sheet work well for me.