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Who teaches budgeting? and when?



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sourstix




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 11:28 am
I would love to do a poll cause I would love to know what pp do. so here is what has been with me. I never learned how to budget. so I dont know how to. till today I just dont know. the question is did your parents teach you to budget and how old were you? what crowd are you from? ( I do think some crowds are more into this then others) would love to know if this is accepted by chasidish pp. versus other crowds. please no bashing. this is just for my information. and whats accepted in my crowd which is chasidish versus others. thanks for the info.
how do you do a budget? is it just common sense or skill that can be learned?
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 11:35 am
I think financial literacy truly goes beyond budgeting and starts at an early age. Financial literacy not just encompasses budgeting and allocating funds but the concept of how money works and how you understand it's uses. We started teaching it to children at an early age and more extensively as they grew and achieved a proficiency in algebra and other math skills. My kids were public schooled and the schools they went to all had life skills courses starting at about age ten to senior year, financial literacy was included those courses.
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OOTforlife




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 11:57 am
My parents never taught me to budget. When I first started working full time at an adult job (age 22 after college), I would occasionally make lists of my fixed expenses or credit card spending to get a basic sense of where I stood. But I have never budgeted seriously, as in setting and enforcing certain spending goals.

I think budgeting things like groceries and clothes in detail can be very important when expenses are too close to income and there's not enough (or nothing) being saved. But my spending has always been far below my income. When single, my approach was to take advantage of every possible tax-advantaged set aside, send a big chunk of the remainder of my paycheck straight to savings, pay down debt, and then spend whatever I want with no budget. Leftovers were invested, except for an emergency fund of cash. Could I have saved more if I enforced a budget? Probably. But I saved plenty and was still able to indulge my wants. No regrets.

Now that we are married, our spending is still quite low relative to income. One of the perks of living OOT. So we max out our set asides, then spend on whatever we want and invest the rest.

ETA: We are MO, but neither of us grew up frum.
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nicole81




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 12:49 pm
I didn't grow up frum and am MO now. I was never formally taught to budget. To me, it was always common sense. If your income isn't unlimited, and you have certain fixed expenses, you need to figure out how you allot your money so that #1, you don't have a deficit every month, #2, you can put money aside in savings for extras and emergencies, and #3, to track your spending habits to inform changes. I remember being bored in college classes and sketching out savings calendars in my notebook to ensure I met certain targets by a given time.

When money was tighter down the line and my now ex-husband couldn't wrap his head around budgeting, I downloaded a spreadsheet I found online that had pre-populated categories and formulas written in so all you had to do was enter amounts and immediately see the impact on your total budget. It made it easier to have a conversation with him and get him on the same page when it was so black and white. Maybe try googling and starting with something like that.

BTW, my ex grew up chassidish, but I don't think that has anything to do with his inability to budget. I'll leave it at that Very Happy
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SRS




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 12:59 pm
My parents drove home a few lessons: spend significantly less than you make, don't inflate your lifestyle unnecessarily, save for a rainy day. Frugality was learned growing up. Skills were learned along the way and spreadsheet budgeting was learned in the workplace. Truth be told, I think most my friend engage in more intensive budgeting than we ever have and hopefully ever will. If you get on the saving bandwagon and have frugal habits and a decent income, you can budget annually instead of weekly or monthly.
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33055




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 1:02 pm
nicole81 wrote:
I didn't grow up frum and am MO now. I was never formally taught to budget. To me, it was always common sense. If your income isn't unlimited, and you have certain fixed expenses, you need to figure out how you allot your money so that #1, you don't have a deficit every month, #2, you can put money aside in savings for extras and emergencies, and #3, to track your spending habits to inform changes. I remember being bored in college classes and sketching out savings calendars in my notebook to ensure I met certain targets by a given time.

When money was tighter down the line and my now ex-husband couldn't wrap his head around budgeting, I downloaded a spreadsheet I found online that had pre-populated categories and formulas written in so all you had to do was enter amounts and immediately see the impact on your total budget. It made it easier to have a conversation with him and get him on the same page when it was so black and white. Maybe try googling and starting with something like that.

BTW, my ex grew up chassidish, but I don't think that has anything to do with his inability to budget. I'll leave it at that Very Happy


I am looking for something like that. Do you remember where you got it?
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LittleDucky




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Jun 19 2015, 2:20 pm
So it was never officially taught. My parents used real life examples and I learned from it. They often said "it isn't in the budget for the month". They asked: How much is it? Do you need another pair of shoes?
I learned to ask myself: want or need? What is your income and then spend on mandatory things first. Needs then wants. Save for rainy days and unexpected surprises. When I got married (and a bit before) I read lots of blogs on frugality, budgeting and things like couponing.

Not chassidish.
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Frumdoc




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Jun 20 2015, 6:34 pm
My parents are BT. We got pennies as weekly childhood allowances, which went up by each year but was v minimal - I got a dollar a week when I was 15, and earned more babysitting.

We learned that if we wanted something like a special pen, or eraser, or whatever cool thing was in fashion, we saved up our allowance. Necessary items, clothes, shoes, essential school stationery we were given. We weren't allowed to buy candy or chocolates with our allowance but got on shabbos.

As I got older I got a travel and clothes allowance, also very limited (nothing like the one on another thread!). This all taught me to budget so that when I left home, at college and after, I automatically considered cost before every purchase and planned my budget carefully. It really isn't so hard to do, it is a mindset rather than a difficult skill. I also think if you earn money rather than have it given to you, you have more of a sense of value - those shoes cost me 10 hours babysitting, for example.

DH was given everything on a plate from his parents and found it hard to adjust to a budgeting mindset, he was used to spending without thinking and didn't get it for a while, but now we are both on the same page.
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amother
Brown


 

Post Sat, Jun 20 2015, 8:07 pm
(Anon so I don't seem like a spoiled brat...)

My parents are well-off, and my mother loves to shop. She spends a fortune on her clothes and spent a ridiculous amount on our clothes as we were growing up. (To the extent that I desperately wanted to wear $10 Old Navy t-shirts like everyone else, but my mother wanted "quality clothing" for us.)

I had everything I wanted as a kid and young adult. I remember buying things for myself only twice - once when I really wanted something that my parents believed I wasn't going to really use (they were sort of right about that, and we split the cost) and once when I broke or lost my third camera in two years.

Needless to say, I was never taught to budget. My parents were wonderfully generous (and still are) and somehow, by some miracle, my siblings and I were not spoiled and didn't ask for much, and certainly nothing outrageous. Money that I earned or received went into my savings account or piggy bank.

Even more miraculously, I turned out to be pretty frugal. My siblings and I are very reasonable when it comes to money. I didn't learn to budget, I was lucky enough to have common sense (and a fairly frugal husband). We've put away a lot of money, bought and renovated a house, invested wisely, and continue to save, b"H, despite growing expenses.

I know that doesn't help you, just sharing my experiences. I do teach my young children about the value of money, and I am a lot more frugal than my mother was when it comes to buying clothes for them! (I practically have to fight her when she wants to buy designer clothes for my two-year-old daughter or $600 shoes for me to wear to take the kids to the park. Honestly, who needs that stuff? And she can't imagine where I come from Very Happy)
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33055




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Jun 20 2015, 8:14 pm
Mesila is a great resource to teach budgeting especially for a frum lifestyle. Mesila is a great organization to help people who get into trouble by not knowing how to budget.
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twogees




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2015, 9:18 pm
I have been using YNAB (you need a budget) and really works in my opinion. PM me if you want more details
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Nov 26 2015, 9:56 am
In Israel, Paamonim teaches fiscal management and responsibility. The clientele ranges from chiloni to charedi; what they all have in common is poverty and massive debt due to lack of fiscal management skills.
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