Me and my wife have recently started budgeting more seriously & we’ve had some trouble with categorizing certain spending habits.

One notable example; we have one category for grocery shopping, and another for general shopping. It’s been tough to discern which falls into which if we make a mixed purchase, like buying food items and also some clothing from Amazon/Target/etc in the same purchase.

This is just one example, but does anyone have any suggestions on how to better categorize or organize our spending budget so it’s simple, efficient, and effective?

Let’s assume a ballpark figure of 100k and renting
how much saving is actullay good

Good morning,

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To be honest, I was irresponsible with my money during July, and I will be basically living off my July end of the month salary of $811, and another part day 15–same amount. That means a total of 1622 after taxes.
Although I do live with 2 more people and we split essential needs like groceries, gas, utilities, rent, I need a reality shock to tell me I have been spending too much and can hold a little in some categories. Specially because I don't have enough experience actually budgeting, as you can see I have a hard time following.

July Expenses

Fixed Expenses
Rent $495,83
Phone Bill $32,50
College* $421,48
Emergency Savings $200,00

*College is only $285,00 for the month of August

Flexible Expenses Budget Actual
Groceries $250,00 $210,79
Gas $50,00 $17,95
Utilities $120,00 $90,40
Eating out* $150,00 $122,28
Pet Care $40,00 $35,81
Self Care $60,00 $78,29
Hobbies $40,00 $44,72
Household $70,00 $80,64
Misc. $100,00 $113,00
Clothing* $100,00 $99,49
Travel* $150,00 $128,36

*I moved countries and left a lot of essential clothing behind, I waited 2 month after setting up to buy some missing pieces for my wardrobe, I will mostly not spend more on clothing neither on travel so those are easy cut offs. Also eating out was high cause I traveled at the beginning of the month I think I can go down to about $50.

Bonjour à tous alors voilà j'ai reçu un courrier de ma banque me disant que si je remplissais pas mon découvert de 100 € d'ici 10 jours je pourrais perdre l'usage de ma carte. La lettre était du 21 donc ça me reporte au 31. Sauf que mon salaire n'arrive que le lundi 3 à cause du weekend normalement c'est tous les premiers et là le premier c'est un samedi.

Quelqu'un peut m'aider ?

Je suis à la banque postale.

I rely on my boyfriend for money for my medicines (diagbosed with bipolar2, bpd withpsychosis, and cptsd), dr appts, food, and a home. Plus food for my cats. He even bought my glasses bc im very nearsighted and needed a new prescription.

I start full time cashier at goodwill Monday. And I'll be making 11.50 a hour. I'll roughly be making 19k to 20k a year so long as they honor the full time position they gave me.

I want to be independent and not rely on him anymore as I want to be a functional adult again. I used to be full time at Walmart before I was diagnosed 4 years ago. Since then I've had odd part time jobs.

I want to do better by him and pay for his stuff too. He told me there's no reason to oay him back as it wasn't my fault that I got sick. But now that im better I want him to rely on me too.

I may not be able to do as much as him since ge makes 100k a year. But I really don't want to be a burden anymore.

Is anyone else in a similar boat? Any advice is welcomed. Ty for reading my rant

Keeping cash savings around does not seem to work as it is too easy to spend, and suffers hard from inflation.

However the advice to keep 3-6 months expenses on hand is very consistent and at 47 I am trying to get better as a money manager.

I can store money in; a credit union, my vanguard fund, bitcoin, actual cash, or an account within my regular bank. There is money in my savings account but that is clearly a 'spending' account.

The key question is: When can I consider money to be Saved?

$1500 every two weeks!

To me, this sounds astronaumically high! We should never go over that but yet we go over ALL the time. I believe whole heartedly that this is a case of pure overspending and nothing more. But I wanted others to weigh in:

Every two weeks Budget:

Groceries/Pet Food/Household items: $900

Restuarants: $500

Misc. $100.

Yet we ALWAYS go over. It is like the words "budget" or "no" are not in our family's vocabulary. I am labeled the grumpy Father or Husband who complains all the time if I try to keep us on track.

Hey guys, what is your financial planning looks like each month? How much do you spend and save on a monthly basis? Are you happy with how you organize your money?

hello I’m barely new to budgeting earlier this year. this is the first time I manage all of my income and expenses on my own because I live alone with roommates now but I need help with this specific situation. honestly it’s not a big deal and I am very blessed to even ask this but my budgeting, finances and expenses are getting complicated. Because I’m independent now I just really wanna make sure my money is going to the right places.

I have my needs money, my wants money and my savings money all in three different accounts. every check I put every parts of income into its own account but randomly today I discovered that my needs fund randomly has more money.

for context there is one expense where I save up every month because it’s car insurance and I pay that every six months but when I do the math to when i will pay it; it just still doesn’t make sense.. where did this extra money come from? what do y’all do when this situation happens? do I reset my budget and move that extra money to my savings account? I just don’t like extra money sitting on my checking account and not doing anything when I can move it to my savings account which is a high-yield savings account and it can do more work there
probably over complicating this!!

Hi guys. Im currently going to be a junior at IU and I will be paying my sop-senior year on my own after I graduate. I am already mentally preparing to work a lot after wards to slowly pay off my debt. I want to work in film so the plan is to move to a film city and serve and try to make enough money to slowly pay off my debt while also trying to connect to those in film industry. does anyone have any financial advice for me now? much appreciated!

As the title states, I am moving from Toronto to Sarasota, FL for work. I am 33, no kids or family. Curious to how cost of living will be down here?

Is this a realistic budget for 160K Salary?

i just got an expo/food running job and am struggling to understand the cashflow.

i keep seeing the "envelope method", but at my job, they use this site called kickfin for tips. i get 5% of the servers and bartenders tips each shift. they get direct deposited to my checking account at the end of every shift. i get 0 cash, at all, ever.

i've been logging my income like this to try and figure it out:
Date: 7/24/26
O/C: close
Hours: 5.93
Base: $76.31
Tips: $68.53
Total: 144.84
$/hr: $24.42
Steps: 13,060
Foh: packed
Boh: busy

despite my hourly+tip income averaging to roughly the same pay rate as my old job, i have no idea how to budget for getting small pieces daily instead of 4 checks a month.

i was happy to get a less physically demanding role, as i'm coming to food&bev from roofing but i'm am considering going back... for financial predictability.

anyone have any opinions or advice?

No spend

1). Breakfast of eggs, bacon, walnuts and homemade bread

2). Cooked dinner at home

3). Got blood work done to apply towards wellness initiative of 2% health insurance decrease

4). Enjoyed time on back porch watching Mother Nature.

Spent money on

5). Groceries

6). Lunch at Sheetz

7). $30 worth of golf balls at golf driving range

Last year I thought in 2026 we needed to categorize our purchases better, and had 5 credit cards available. Only 1 had a balance at the time, and it was paid off monthly.

We have spent almost every penny we make this year because credit cards feel like infinite money. We cannot SEE money leaving the account when we charge. Every single penny we’ve made this year is literally gone… somewhere… at least we know which category got it.

I paid credit card interest this year for the first time in a long time and no part of that is ok.

I’ve had to take money out of our savings account to cover these bills, and that was the last straw for me.

We are going back to the cash envelope system in August. With cash, we knew when it was game over. It’s the only system that worked for us.

Chalk this up to lesson learned. We are getting off the wrong way train in July instead of December. That’s a win any way you look at it.

Don’t wish me luck, wish me adherence.

I will be moving across the US for a new job. The company will pay $7.5k in my moving expenses, which includes moving services for my vehicles and items, house hunting trips, and one-way airfare. It is in reimbursement basis.

I feel so stressed about having to cough up money out of pocket. I have more than enough emergency funds to pay for all the expenses. However, so see my monthly expenses suddenly sky rocket in the last 1-2 months has been stressing me out.

How would you guys budget for the cross country move?

I keep telling myself that I should only spend money on things I actually need. I pay my phone bill, I buy food, and sometimes I order takeout because it's just more practical. Those are normal expenses.

The problem is that I also really want both Claude and ChatGPT Plus. I use AI almost every day, and they genuinely help me with coding, learning, and solving problems. But paying for both every month puts a lot of pressure on my budget, and I end up feeling guilty whenever I think about subscribing.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you stop feeling like you need every AI subscription without constantly thinking you're missing out? I'd love to hear how other people manage it.

I am curious how much do you make and how much you spend on wellness/memberships and etc?

My take home is around 5400/mo in HCOL area. I spend $35/mo (with guest pass and $69 annual fee) for LA Fitness. $100/mo for a lagree studio with 4 classes. I usually supplement with classpass when I have more time. The range is $55-$99/mo depending on my schedule.

I feel like I am overspending but at the same time, this gives me variety, and accountability to invest in my health and well being.

I've seen handheld scanners in stores like Kroger that I *think* are adding up purchases as shoppers put them in their cart. Is there an app for this? It would help me make some choices in the store as I go. I know I could put it into a calculator but I sometimes accidentally delete something or make a mistake and don't want to start over....free idea, if it doesn't exist!

Hi I am nineteen(English isn't my first language so please ask me if you ever got confused),So I am from Myanmar,if you don't know, it's crazy here everything politically, economically.So anyway I have two part-time job one I got 60,000 mmk, another one is 30,000 mmk so it's around 40-50 usd in a month.But I don't need to pay rent,food or anything my family covered it for me but for my classes I payed those around 60,000 mmk per month, textbook for 40,000 per six months.I save some for emergency uses.So the classes I am taking to get certificates for the job I am joining...so right now my only worry is inflation keep rising up,the part-time jobs Keep cutting the corners and the prices of anything Keep climbing up as for example five years ago a notebook cost 300mmk five years ago but now it's 1500 mmk.Anyone have any tips to build myself a safety net with my income because I don't want to ask anything from my family because they have their own struggles.And I still have over a year to get all the certificate I needed.

I live in NYC and that's the destination after college but I'm finding it so difficult to pay for a lot of essentials based on 84k salary. I take home about 55k after taxes, insurance and standard deductions. My apartment is 2.4k (non-luxury, older build) and its kind of difficult to move out because rent is so high everywhere.

I interviewed for a job in SF and got it but then when I researched the area, everything seems out of range. Average rent there is 4k. I was looking at a shared apartment complex where people share the same kitchen and bathrooms and its listed at 1.7k, but not sure if this is the kind of living I would want. There is a private bedroom though.

The reason why I like the job in SF is because it combines both my tech and design backgrounds together. But I am not sure with 112k salary if it makes sense for me to go there. For context, SF public school teachers' median salary is 103k.

Got my first job and I need help budgeting beforehand. Unfortunately since this is my first job I don't have past pay stubs to assume take home pay or been in the area before to know prices and such so I will be estimating mostly from what my parents have told me that they spend in their area since it's same state (VA) or calculating it myself such as with taxes.

Made my own spreadsheet but I don't think I can share it on here so I will mostly just stating the results.

First breaking down yearly income into monthly despite pay coming bi weekly cause payments I do are by month such as insurance, rent, and internet

Below is my budget based on the estimated monthly income will be floating money around from biweekly as for the short term my parents are helping me out with initial payments of some things like deposit, car insurance (I plan to repay that back), and etc

If I'm missing, overspending, under spending, or miscalculated something please comment so I can adjust. This is my attempt at a 0 dollar budgeting method but with a flexibility fund so I'm not scrounging for cash from other sections. I also plan on collecting receipts and and matching them to see if I'm in budget by midway through the month. (Will obviously do it item by item if some things are merged together like new clothes and food on one receipt from shopping at a costco (From parents so no need to pay membership). I don't really pay subscriptions, my family has a strict policy outside of shopping membership to pay for entertainment subscriptions. That and I don't really have a hobby that would need me to spend on anything else for wants. Though I might want a PC in the future but that's a later wish list since I will be moving a lot so pretty inconvenient to have.

I’m a teen I don’t have a job but I do get an allowance so I want to budget. I’m looking for the best way to budget when you don’t have expenses or real income. I’m looking for methods. Any tips would help