Comments on: Zero-Based Budgets for the Home: A Primer

By: Selling Your Life, Careers, Housing, and More

Selling Your Life, Careers, Housing, and More — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:31:29 +0000

[...] Zero-Based Budgets for the Home: A Primer [...]

By: Why We Like Zero-Based Budgets

Why We Like Zero-Based Budgets — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:11:06 +0000

[...] Zero-Based Budgets For The Home: A Primer If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it! [...]

By: Beau

Beau — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 22:53:40 +0000

That’s exactly how you should do it TuxGirl! It’s called a rollover budget. The whole concept of saving up for things and paying cash is so foreign to most people, good on you for not going into debt!

By: Need Some Reading Material? Start Here… — Kingdom First Mom

Need Some Reading Material? Start Here… — Kingdom First Mom — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 00:35:08 +0000

[...] Simple Mom- Zero Based Budgets For the Home: A Primer [...]

By: Financial Baby Steps: Save up $1,000 and Become Debt-Free

Financial Baby Steps: Save up $1,000 and Become Debt-Free — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:43:35 +0000

[...] written budget each month, no matter what baby step you’re on. Our family prefers to use a zero-based budget, based on Dave’s recommendation. Create a new budget each month; don’t make some [...]

By: TuxGirl

TuxGirl — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:51:38 +0000

So, I’m just barely managing to get us on a budget right now, but I have an answer (which my mom taught me) for the question about how to handle the unexpected expenses. My parents, who have been budgeting successfully for at least 26 years have categories such as “auto maintenance” and “home maintenance” in their budget. If they knew they wanted to send me to a summer camp, they would set up a category for “summer camp”. For the summer camp one, they would divide the cost of the camp by the number of months til the camp, and budget that much money for each month. For the maintenance budgets, they would add a set amount each month, at least until they had a reasonably sized buffer there. Once they had a buffer, they would decrease the amount added each month, but still add some each time. That way, if the car suddenly needed repair, or something broke in the house, they had the money in the budget to pull from.

It seems to have worked, because for my entire life, my parents never had debt aside from their home mortgage. My husband so far have been trying to do the same thing, and have managed to keep our debt to just the home as well.

It takes a lot of discipline, but I prefer setting that money aside when we don’t need it over having to steal from savings when we do.

By: George

George — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:24:51 +0000

If you enjoy using Excel, you may want to consider a customized Excel file that includes registers (similar to a checkbook to track your accounts), the ability to create your own categories, split transactions, create a monthly budget and view reports such as budget vs actual in a simple dashboard layout. See:

http://www.georgesbudget.com/

By: Summer Week of Giveaways: Pear Budget

Summer Week of Giveaways: Pear Budget — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:00:36 +0000

[...] It’s completely based on a zero-based budget. [...]

By: why you need an emergency fund | the ¢entsible life

why you need an emergency fund | the ¢entsible life — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:17:37 +0000

[...] in our emergency fund. We use a zero-based budget. If you aren’t familiar with them, here is a great link from SimpleMom. It’s pretty easy, you create a budget where $0 is left. The key is to pay yourself first-by [...]

By: Pam

Pam — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:03:26 +0000

Wow, good article! I tried a bunch of different things for zero based budgeting after listening to Dave Ramsey, and most of them make it too complicated. Doing it on paper is good, but it takes a lot of time! There's a website I use now called Budgety.net. It works great for me. http://budgety.net/ Thanks for the post!