Budgeting
Setting amounts, pacing a month, planning for bills that are not monthly, and what to do with what you did not spend
Getting started
- Should I budget using gross pay or take-home pay?
- Fixed versus variable expenses, and why the split decides your budget
- How much to budget for groceries, and how to find your own number
- How to budget when you're paid every two weeks
- What percentage of your income should go to rent, food, and savings
- How to set budget amounts when you have no idea what you spend
- Which categories a budget should have, and how to customize them
- Your first budget after college, with rent, loans and the subscriptions you forgot
Budget methods
- How do I budget weekly when my bills are monthly?
- How do I start a budget halfway through the month?
- Can I combine groceries, dining out, and entertainment into one budget?
- A budget that only tracks the categories you overspend
- How to use the envelope system with a debit card instead of cash
- How zero-based budgeting works, with a worked month
- Pay-yourself-first budgeting, and when it beats a category budget
- Envelope vs. zero-based vs. 50/30/20 budgeting, for people who hate spreadsheets
Bills & irregular expenses
- How do I budget for bills in a foreign currency?
- How much should I set aside for insurance deductibles?
- How to budget for a vacation without paying for it into next year
- How to budget for car repairs and other expenses with no schedule
- How to budget for the holidays starting in January
- How to build a sinking fund, and how many to keep
- How to save for a big purchase inside your budget instead of on a card
- How to budget for bills that aren't monthly
Income changes
- Can I afford to work fewer hours?
- How do I budget when I get paid in cash?
- How do I budget when my pay changes from every two weeks to monthly?
- Why is my take-home pay lower when my salary hasn't changed?
- How do I budget when I don't get paid during the summer?
- How do I compare job offers with different salaries and benefits?
- How to budget after a pay cut or a job loss
- How to budget with a side income or a second job
- How to pay yourself a salary from freelance income
- What to do with a tax refund, and how to budget it
- How to budget a raise or bonus without lifestyle creep
- How to budget on irregular or variable income
Staying on track
- How to budget with a credit card without overspending
- How to fix a budget that is always over
- How to stick to a budget for more than two months
- What to do when you go over budget in a category
- Why your budget never matches your bank balance
- How to stop credit card payments and transfers from double-counting in your budget
- What to do with the money you didn't spend this month
- Why you're over budget on the 15th, and how to pace spending through a month
Saving & debt
- How do I make sure an extra loan payment goes toward principal?
- How do I pay off a credit card before its promotional rate ends?
- How do I budget while paying off old credit card debt?
- When should I use my emergency fund?
- Should I save money or pay off debt first?
- Debt snowball versus debt avalanche, with a worked example
- How to budget for several savings goals at once
- How to build an emergency fund inside a monthly budget
- How to save for a down payment while renting
Life changes
- How do I budget for the end of my car lease?
- How do I budget for a home renovation without running out of money halfway through?
- How do I budget for going back to school as an adult?
- How do I budget for a new job before my first paycheck?
- How do I budget for adopting a pet?
- How to budget for a baby's first year
- How to budget for a move, from deposits to the month of overlap
- How to budget for a wedding without starting married life in debt
- How to budget in retirement on a fixed income