Im not great with budgeting but this is what I do. I just keep a pool of money for ‘whatever’ purchases.
Comment on YSK that you can/should budget yearly for long term purchases
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
What I guess I don’t get with this advice is, if you have the ability to save $X per week, why do you need to know about your headphones, why don’t you just save $X a week?
I understand that people seem to generally use up their money immediately, but for me, I simply saved whenever I didn’t need to buy something. So in the background, without even thinking about it, money just accumulates. And then, when my headphones break, I just use some of that money that accumulated for headphones.
That obviously only works if you have expendable income. But that’s what the original advice requires anyway, it requires this ability of $2 savings per week, so the expendable income is already obviously there.
I just feel like it’s so much work to do this for every single thing, when instead you could just simply save whatever is “over” your survival needs, and then draw from that fund whenever necessary without thinking about each item individually.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
I break my savings down into broad categories. It helps keep me honest. I can’t imagine the overhead of budgeting for every single item I might need to replace someday.
QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
It is a good teaching tool for budgeting though, especially with kids or people who never have budgeted (which is most people I’ve worked with, sadly).
wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 hours ago
I didn’t budget for much of my adult life because I had barely enough money to get by. That changed,.and I had to learn how to budget because I knew I would still be living hand to mouth if I didn’t. No matter how much I made.
GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 18 hours ago
This is my thinking too. I had a housemate who earned the same as me and paid the same rent, and yet every month he managed to spend all his money while I saved a good chunk. Our pay was okay - not loads, but we lived in an area with a relatively low cost of living so the money went much further than it would elsewhere, so at least saving up a safety net should’ve easily been doable. I suppose it didn’t help that he took every opportunity to go on holiday half way around the world… I don’t think I’m miserly, I just don’t buy random stuff I don’t need. I also refuse to use Amazon, which probably makes things easier.
lurch@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
okay, but what if you die in an accident and didn’t use up your money you worked hard for. would be a real shame. the thought alone makes me want to be immortal
GandalftheBlack@feddit.org 3 hours ago
It wouldn’t be a shame, I’d be dead. I can’t worry or be upset about anything then. I get your point though - no point saving up money just for the sake of it. I’d like to buy a house eventually so that’s something meaningful to work towards, but I don’t think I would have any regrets about not accumulating random stuff if I died tomorrow.
fizzle@quokk.au 22 hours ago
This. Budgeting is a nebulous topic which means a lot of different things in different contexts.
For a household, if you don’t have any surplus then skip “budgeting” and go straight to minimising costs and increasing income where possible. If you do have surplus then, well… save it for something.