Today I’m here to talk about one of my favorite subjects, money, and how to save it 😉  The idea for this post came to me when I was listening to the Best of Both Worlds podcast and they were discussing money and spending habits and I thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss here.  I’ve written about my own budgeting as an auxiliar here and here and here and here and here, but today I am going to talk a little more specifically about how Luis and I budget.  Well, actually, it’s more like how we keep track of spending, more than actual budgeting.  We do have loose ‘guidelines’, but we don’t say no to things just because they don’t fit in the budget.  I hope that makes sense.  

Also, before I continue, I am nervous about posting this in fear that it will make me look like a controlling a$$, but again, this ‘budget’ is a GUIDELINE and he/I/we do not turn down things just because it will put us over budget.  Luis is less interested in recording all of this as I am, but he is also a good sport and (I think) he appreciates it.  Anyway, with that warning, let’s get started.

In general, I think I am a ‘saver’ over a ‘spender’.  I try to think about my purchases before I make them, and I don’t enjoy spending unnecessarily.  I also try to purchase things for a reason, and not on a whim (but I will say, clothes and interesting groceries are my weakness).  I do, however, believe in spending on experiences, good meals (as long as they are planned, I hate spending a lot on ‘on the whim’ dinners out), and travel.

Luis, on the other hand, is a little less ‘strict’ than I am (not in a bad, judgemental way- it’s just how it is).  Luis enjoys purchasing ‘extras’ of the things we have, like extra glasses and dishware “in case it breaks”…which it has at times, while I am more in the camp of “we will buy it when we need it”.  Luis also likes to have surplus of food, like canned goods, vegetables, and sauces, whereas I like to buy as we need (for most things, not everything).  Also, if we need something, like chairs and tables for a dinner we are hosting, Luis is more inclined to purchase those things for the rare occasions we will need it, while I prefer to have people eat off of the ironing boards 😉

As you can see, we come from different camps, but we have figured out a way to make it work, primarily through creating a budget.  For me, the budget is not only important for anticipating costs, but also for keeping track of where all the money goes.  I have been tracking my money for about 3 years now, including everything from a coffee purchased from the local bar, to planning trips, but Luis is new to this tracking world.  For the most part, I manage our budget, meaning that I input all of the information and numbers, and at the end of each month, I tally what was spent in each category, what each of us spent individually (deemed ‘personal’) and what we spent in total, and then send it to him.

Now, before you think I’m some controlling money freak, or just a control freak in general, I will say that we don’t set limits on what each of us spends of our own money individually, but more so on the things we spend together (like groceries, travel, restaurants, bars, fun, etc), and then I do put in anything that each of us spends individually if he tells me. Also, those tampoco (either) are limits.  They are just guidelines. 

One more thing: I invented some of these numbers for the purposes of this post.  Also, under the income category, those numbers ARE NOT REAL.

How We Budget Our Money

Google Sheets

First of all, we use Google Sheets to track our spending.  I use their budget template, which is already fixed with formulas to help you set the budget and then record spending on a separate sheet and it automatically updates the first sheet with actual spending vs. expected spending because they are linked.

Expenses

We have various categories in the Expenses column, which I have edited to match our needs.  For example, it used to just day ‘Food’, but now there are categories for groceries and for restaurants and for dinner parties.  There was also a category for pets, but now we have a category for Bruja’s Bakery.

*click any image to enlarge it

There you can see all of our categories including restaurants (all meals out), bars (when we drink or eat in a bar), groceries (from supermarkets), travel (includes flights, trips taken during the month, Airbnb, etc), home (things bought for the apartment, bills), dinner parties (all groceries and drinks for when we have people here), gifts (self explanatory), health/ medical, transportation (includes metro passes, Uber, bus, etc), Personal Luis (his English classes, clothes, what he pays to have his shirts ironed, things he does with friends, etc), Bruja’s Bakery (ingredients, paper products), Personal Tamara (clothes, getting nails done, meals with friends, my school fee, etc), debt (things we owe).

Income

On the income side, I didn’t choose 500 as our deposits- it’s what was there when I started using the program, but it works.  At the end of the month, I will change my deposit based off of what I earned during the month, as it changes from month to month, so again, what you see there IS NOT ACCURATE.

Transactions

At the bottom of the screen shots, you can see ‘Transactions’, which is where I input every single thing we spend.

I include the date of purchase, what was spent (rounding up), a description (with the name of the person who paid) and then I choose the category.  Since the pages are linked, the summary page automatically updates with what we spent.

Summary

As you can see, it’s not a perfect system, but it helps us to keep track of what we spend and to know where our money goes.  For me, budgeting makes me think twice about what I really need, and what I want just because it’s there.  

In the future, I would like to use a system that creates various graphs showing what we spent in each category and also how much each person spent, because as of right now, I manually do it by hand (which I don’t mind).

I think budgeting is an important tool for money management, and helps you to save, plan, and also have some room for fun.

Ok, maybe I am a little bit of a controlling a$$ 😉