I recently read Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires and Retire Inspired. Hogan was associated with Dave Ramsey at the time, and the books mention zero-based budgeting. I did a forum search and found a few mentions here and there, but no in-depth discussion. [I'm only interested in household ZBB, not corporate.]
Here's a link to a Ramsey-associated article explaining ZBB: How to Make a Zero-Based Budget
I'm a fairly detailed and organized person, but ZBB looks like a nightmare to me.
So I put in my expected monthly income and expected expenses for everything. But then I have some overtime and I'm saving X% of after-tax income but I won't know what the after-tax portion is until after I receive the paycheck so I'll have to go back and readjust savings later and then the laptop stops charging and it costs $Y that I didn't anticipate so I adjust... where? maybe from the emergency fund and then next month put a fund backfill expense in or since from the article "Pro tip: Don’t forget to give yourself a miscellaneous category too so you’ve got a little extra cushion in your spending. That way, anything that pops up unexpectedly isn’t a problem—it’s in the budget." it's already covered - wait a minute - in my mind putting a miscellaneous category says up front that you don't know where every dollar is going which of course you don't because life happens and... and... and...
[Head explodes.] Yes, that above sentence was deliberately a run-on.
I don't see an advantage to ZBB over traditional household budgeting. Full disclosure - DW and I don't budget per se - but we do track monthly expenses.
Does anyone here use or used to use ZBB? What was your experience?
Here's a link to a Ramsey-associated article explaining ZBB: How to Make a Zero-Based Budget
I'm a fairly detailed and organized person, but ZBB looks like a nightmare to me.
So I put in my expected monthly income and expected expenses for everything. But then I have some overtime and I'm saving X% of after-tax income but I won't know what the after-tax portion is until after I receive the paycheck so I'll have to go back and readjust savings later and then the laptop stops charging and it costs $Y that I didn't anticipate so I adjust... where? maybe from the emergency fund and then next month put a fund backfill expense in or since from the article "Pro tip: Don’t forget to give yourself a miscellaneous category too so you’ve got a little extra cushion in your spending. That way, anything that pops up unexpectedly isn’t a problem—it’s in the budget." it's already covered - wait a minute - in my mind putting a miscellaneous category says up front that you don't know where every dollar is going which of course you don't because life happens and... and... and...
[Head explodes.] Yes, that above sentence was deliberately a run-on.
I don't see an advantage to ZBB over traditional household budgeting. Full disclosure - DW and I don't budget per se - but we do track monthly expenses.
Does anyone here use or used to use ZBB? What was your experience?