Budget Review Frequency

[pacergal]

I track my spending pretty much every single day, and then at the end of each month I look at how much I spent in each category and project what my spending will be by the end of the year.

I probably spend too much time on tracking my spending, but it is fun for me.

Same here. I am a pretty detail oriented person, so it is fun for me, too!

 

[RobbieB]

I have never made a budget or tracked spending.

And I never will -

 

[flintnational]

We developed a retirement budget at FIRE, 3.5 years ago. Monthly we auto-transfer the budget amount into checking. We review the budget at the end of the year. Annually, I track the percent spent against starting investable assets, peak assets and current year end assets.

 

[cynicalbuthopeful]

We track ALL expenses in Quicken and have done so for over 25 years.

Start planning our annual budget in December and finalize the first week of January. During the year we make notes on major one-off type expenses or major travel plans that might impact the upcoming budget year. The budgeting also helps to plan our cash flow and IRA distribution needs.

Review monthly (with one of our favorite cocktails). Using Quicken makes this super easy. Also review our portfolio progress at this time. Meet with our financial planner quarterly to keep our portfolio on track. We usually end the year within 1% of our budget goals without any problem.

+1

 

[audreyh1]

I like to know how our spending is stacking up against the amount we budget for ourselves, even if our income is higher than our budget. Especially as the year gets long and we've indulged in an expensive trip or two. I like to project whether it looks like we'll come in under budget, around budget, or it looks like we're going to go over.

Quicken does all the heavy lifting. Downloaded transactions are categorized - most of them automatically, and I check and tweak as necessary when I reconcile our credit card statements. Then it's easy to get a spending report by month, YTD, etc., broken down into relevant categories.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Every Friday DH gives me the 'Friday Report' on investment balances. First of the month I give him the 'State of the Union' report in expenses downloaded from bank and credit card accounts. Budget is done annually but as long as we are close we don't worry too much about it.