Just filed today - budgeting tips?

[deepinit]

Met with our attorney and filed - he said it looks like it will be a 49 month plan at $500.00 per month and we will be paying back 1%. Now we just have to wait to see the trustee. Our long journey begins now but we hope all our troubles will be in the past now.
I have several concerns about the budget though - we havent used a credit card in over a year but I still am always nervous and try to keep an emergency fund, ny problem is something always happens to wipe it out or almost wipe it out.

Does anyone have any break through budget tips that might help?

[Kuya]

Budgeting during a 13 is hard . . . but not impossible. Hope for the best and spend wisely. I made it through (I completed in January 2011), 5 years of hell. Well, going into it, it felt like hell, but looking back it seemed not that bad really.

As for building a savings or ER fund . . . it's just not always possible. I found myself living from check to check, with little room for savings. But you can learn to make spending cuts where you can. Basic cable plan (here was around $10.00/month). I raised my auto insurance deductible from $250.00 to $1000.00. Risky, because an accident could of put me into a spiral . . .but I made it 5 years with no accident and was able to lower my monthly car insurance plan.

We learned to love RICE and Chicken LOL. And Walmart brand chips. A treat of going out to dinner ALWAYS meant AppleBee's 2 for $20. But we learned to appreciate those nights out very much. We learned to appreciate coupons (especially BOGO), and values. Netflix was one of our best investments. It allowed us to have movies every night (streaming) and microwave popcorn, for entertainment - rather then going out to the theater. We cut back on gas, by always making a weekly shopping list and not going out during the weeks unless it was necessary. We also loved the dollar menus. A saturday drive in the Fall . . and we would limit ourselves to $4.00 each at the dollar menu at Wendys. But, it felt like a treat.

I can't say this enough: Crock Pot Cooking HAHAHAH! cheap cuts of meat work wonders in a crock pot, and you can make large amounts and freeze the leftovers. Turn off lights and appliances around the house when you are not using them (something I took for granted previously). In the summer, we sweat it out. I think we would only turn on our AC about twice a year lol.

It's really all about making decisions. For example . . if we would treat ourselves to Wendy's dollar menu once a week, we would have to make a decision. Turn on the AC and give up wendy's this week? Or sweat it out.

It may seem hard now, but you will adjust and get used to it. You will learn to appreciate the little things in life, and shockingly . . . they are enough to keep you happy. It's not easy . . but it is survivable.

You're gonna be just fine

[RunningMan]

I use a spreadsheet and list all the bills and expenses for each upcoming paycheck. It really helps to keep the impulse spending down because we know we need the money for the bills. We have been able to save some money for emergencies thanks to a bonus in December, but a sick cat just made a big dent in that savings last week.

[lrprn]

You've gotten some great advice so far. Mine would be if you haven't already, sit down together and create a realistic family budget set to the income you actually bring in that everyone agrees to live by. Once the budget is set, then everyone old enough starts keeping a budget diary. For at least a month or two, every member of the family who is old enough to do so writes down every single penny they spend and exactly what they spend it on, including all cash spent. Look that information over together each week looking for trends. This weekly review is also a great time to look for areas where spending can be reduced.

Often this is a very sobering exercise and it can be shocking to see where your money is actually going. I know when we did our budget diaries for the first time it really opened our eyes and helped us cut down on "I want" (as opposed to "I need") spending quite a bit until we got our emergency fund built up. We are now only a few months from discharge and my husband and I still keep budget diaries and review them at least every few weeks to ensure we stay on track. We've been able to save enough to handle several big financial emergencies with cash over our almost-five years in Ch 13.

Another option we've seen mentioned a lot here in the forums is the "envelope" budget system. This is a method that some filers use at the start of their plan to help control their spending, especially when they aren't used to having a budget.

A quick summary - you mark actual envelopes with names for standard spending categories that you typically spend money on each month - entertainment, food, clothing, gas, etc. Create a realistic family budget that calculates how much money you each have available to spend on each category given the net income coming in each month/week and what's left over after secured asset payments and utilities. Go to the bank and actually put the budgeted amounts of cash into the envelopes. Once the budgeted money disappears from an envelope (say entertainment), then all spending for entertainment is over for that designated period of time. Many folks like this system because they can see the cash physically going out of the envelopes and react accordingly as the amount available gets less and less. It also helps couples budget better together because they are both aware of what's left to spend in a category at any given time.

There are a *lot* of excellent budget tracking suggestions and programs out on the internet. It's really a matter of finding the budget tracking system that works for you and sticking to it.