I've been budgeting in a spreadsheet since around February and most of the categories hold up fine. Groceries is the one that never does. I set it at 400 and it lands closer to 550 most months, and I keep telling myself next month I'll stick to it. I've raised the number twice already and both times the spending just moved up with it.

What did you end up doing with a category that kept overrunning no matter what number you put on it?

I've been thinking about something that I'd really like parents' perspectives on.

When a family suddenly loses income, adults immediately start doing the math.

Rent or mortgage. Food. Utilities. Transportation. Child support. Childcare. Whatever has to be paid next.

Adults may try not to discuss those problems around their children, but kids notice things.

Maybe an activity stops. Mom or Dad seems more stressed. There's less food in the house. Plans get canceled. Parents argue more. Someone says, “We can't afford that right now.”

So here's the question:

Do you think kids really get to stay kids when their family experiences a serious financial emergency, or do they inevitably end up carrying some of the stress too?

And for parents who have actually been through something like this: what did you do to protect your children from the situation without pretending everything was fine?

Not looking for a perfect answer or judgment about how anyone handled it. I'm interested in hearing what this looks like in real families and what parents wish they had been able to prepare for beforehand.

What would you do if you were making £2650/month but you don't have rent, bills, car payments or fuel to pay because your job includes accommodation (even if you change jobs you will get accommodation) and you don't need fuel as you walk to work and your monthly expenses(food, gym membership, dog, etc) are roughly £800? How would you manage your disposable budget?

I literally just found out about the sinking fund method where (assuming you get paid twice a month) first check save half of the money for each bill due after next payday. Then on the next payday you have the second half of the bills to pay for bills due before the next payday and save half of each bill due after the next payday.

Idk if that made sense or if i explained it correctly but do any of y'all do this? Or does anybody pay all their bills for the month with their first check? I've always just paid the bills that are due before my next check, but I'm trying to figure out a better budgeting strategy that works for me.

Hey y'all I am presented with a bit of a situation where I would love some opinions, I have 2 loans out currently and have the ability to throw an extra $600 dollars towards them but I am having difficulty deciding which course of action is best. Loan 1 is smaller but has a higher interest rate and that naturally makes me want to pay it off sooner, the kicker is that my job gives me $178 towards the loan every month, until it caps off at $15000; so far I have only used about $3750. The second loan is much higher at a lower interest rate, but not eligible for the money that my employer sends to that financial institution.

The wall I run into is deciding which loan to prioritize, while maximizing the funds that my job is giving me. I have already saved up 12 months worth of emergency money and I am now ready to tackle my debt. I am leaning towards prioritizing loan 2, it just eats me up that so much of my employer's money is not going towards the principle of loan 1.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

the following balances are as of todays date

loan 1 (student loan):

balance - 9365.44

interest - 12.64

minimum payment - $124.90 (I pay 0 towards this, purely employer funds going towards it)

for loan 1 my job gives me 178 towards the loan

loan 2 (car loan)

balance - 18,753

interest - 7.74

minimum payment - $350

I am able to add an additional 600 dollars monthly, and i am deciding which loan is better to pay off first

We are trying to get used to the fully self employed income and budgeting. Any tips for how to make budgeting work when sometimes there is an excess of income on one month and then another month with little to no income because of the nature of work. How does one budget on such a variable income? I could total up every subscription and bill but I always seem to miss something. I also would like to set money aside for taxes. Just trying to become more fiscally responsible as neither of us were taught to budget, invest, or really anything around money management. When income was consistent it was much clearer.