Does budgeting change how you spend money?

[luckydude]

DW and I faithfully budgeted and tracked expenses during the accumulation phase and it really helped in identifying where money was going and where we could pare back spending.

Now 7 years into retirement, I still budget and track expenses, but mostly it's just a force of habit. At this point, our WR is so low that we could ramp up our spending 10x annually and still not outlive our money, so there's no real value for us in budgeting and expense tracking.

 

[DrRoy]

I have never had a detailed budget. I have lots of self discipline and always had a 20-30% savings rate before RE. Now we spend pretty freely, one year 2X the usual before RE with remodeling and extensive travel. That year was still only a 3% WR. I do track total and travel spending monthly out of curiosity.

 

[MarieIG]

When we first got married, I budgeted via the envelope system. We quickly started a family and depended primarily on DH's income.

After I started working full time, we divided the bills (still do, although we "flow" back and forth as needed).

We live within our means for the routine monthly expenses; discuss major expenses in advance, put money aside for lumpy expenses (car maintenance and such - DH seems to spend a lot on that). I plan a year in advance for my major yearly expenses, i.e. federal and state income taxes, property taxes, home owner's insurance, umbrella insurance, although I spent more last year on income tax that I had initially planned due to Roth conversions.

Before I put anything on my charge card, I think about whether it is within my invisible budget. For example, if I am coming up on the limit, I will pick one thing (i.e. church contributions) and postpone discretionary. I pay off my credit card once or twice a week. (I try to have a 0 statement, although once in a while I can't pay a pending charge, and it gets through to the monthly statement.)

 

[Dash man]

Never had a detailed budget. I have always put a set amount of cash into the checking account with a cushion to start the month. It gives me an idea of how my spending is going without having to track details.

 

[kgtest]

I've tried several times over the years to create a budget, but never really kept it up. I guess I'm wondering what would change if I did. My wife and I generally have a frugal mindset - we look for deals, clip coupons, and don't eat out very often, but really just spend as things come up and don't follow a budget.

Would I really save any money by tracking expenses - I don't think so.

I track core expenses YoY. Insurance, Utilities, Subscription Svcs so I can see how these costs rise vs inflation.

I don't track things like gas, food, activities etc. I try to track travel costs, but I don't always get the complete picture since DW is always "too busy" for me to run through her end of the vacation expenses. She could care less about a budget, but is VERY interested in making big financial decisions together. If I spent a bunch of money on a particular expense each month she would be pretty irritated. We do get together once a month to see how much each of us spent on our credit cards. If it seems alarming or outside our normal amount of spending, we have a quick discussion to understand why.

 

[TripleLindy]

We don’t formally budget, but are very conscious of spending, which has roots back to when we first got married and lived paycheck to paycheck. I created an expense budget when I initially considered early retirement, just to make sure we had enough savings, but I’ve never actually tracked individual expenses.

 

[karen1972]

Sometimes it helps both ways. I'm a bit too frugal and having a budget for going out has helped me say yes to more things which has helped our relationships.

Usually I find it just helps at the margins which is fine, if I can save $2-3k a year thats worth it.