Budgets are cool and all, but I’m not a huge fan of ‘em. Most of you probably budget weekly or monthly. In the Ninja household we are budget rebels and only tweak the thing once a year. Apparently it’s time to do just that. 2012 Ninja budget meet my readers, readers meet my budget….

Click to Make Larger

Like I said before, I’m not a big fan of budgeting and therefore my spreadsheet might seem a little confusing. Let’s see if I can help you make some sense of it…

Gross Income:

Does anyone know why we include Gross Income in our budgets? It’s kind of pointless really. It just reminds me how much of my income I don’t get to keep. I haven’t included Girl Ninja’s gross in this section for a very important reason; I’m lazy.

Below my gross income, I have a section called “Side Hustle”. This pretty much accounts for my blogging income, now that I don’t do much housesitting or tutoring. I like to keep it conservative here by estimating only $500/month in side hustle income. I’ve already made $2,000 this month from PDITF, so I’m hoping I can blow that projection out of the water (Can someone remind me why I get paid for writing this silly blog?).

Investments:

I use to contribute 5% of my gross income to my 401K, but I decided to step things up a bit by kicking it up to 8% for 2012. With the 5% match my employer provides, I’ll have 13% of my gross income going to my 401K plan this year. I’ve also been lucky enough to max out my Roth IRA every year since I graduated college in 2007. Ultimately we want to have about 15-ish% of our gross income going towards retirement. Girl Ninja also has a 401K plan, but she’s asleep so I can’t ask her how much she contributes. This is why I left it off.

Expenses:

Pretty self-explanatory. I include a 10% “random” category at the bottom of the expenses as it seems like most months have unexpected or non-budgeted things come up (household stuff, a weekend trip, birthday parties, etc). Instead of making random guesses how much we spend on cleaning products, clothes, etc we just try to keep all those miscellaneous expenses less than 10% of our net income. We also tithe/donate to charity every month, but I have removed that section from our expenses as we consider that a private matter.

Left Over:

This is the most important part of the budget, as it really gives us a look in to our financial future. According to the spreadsheet, we have the potential to add about $36,000 to our savings account this year. I don’t know how realistic this number actually is, seeing that the $36K estimate doesn’t account for our charitable gifts, but I’m hoping some extra blog income will help offset the loss.

Goals:

In the top right of the spreadsheet you will see a section for my annual financial goals. We have always reached our goals — often earlier than planned — so this year I really decided to shoot for the moon. We are gonna work our butts off to try and reach $100,000 in savings by years end, but as you can tell from our “left over” section, we aren’t suppose to be able to. Maybe I can convince Girl Ninja to start selling drugs? Know anyone that needs some Tylenol PM or Vicks VapoRub?

Do you budget every week, month, or year? Does your budget dictate every dollar you spend like the envelope system would, or is it more of an estimate for what the future might hold? What’s your preferred budgeting tool (Mint, Quicken, Excel, Paper/pencil)? Do you add any additional sections to your budget (like Goals, Payoff dates, etc) that I should consider adding?

Is it just me, or does it seem like Christmas is being shoved down our throats sooner than normal? Don’t get me wrong. I freakin’ love me some Christmas time. The music, the awesome movies, and the overall joyful spirit of most people make it my favorite holiday. But Christmas spirit is for Christmas time, and according to my calendar we still got plenty of time before Santa Clause’s fat butt makes its way down my non-existent chimney (so sad the Ninja abode doesn’t have a fireplace).

Costco started putting their Christmas products out back in mid-October. OCTOBER! That’s insanity. I mean come on, we had two MAJOR holidays to get through, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I think Costco is lame for jumping the gun on the Christmas spirit. I’m a much bigger fan of the way Nordstrom has handled the holiday season. Check it…

Although I don’t like celebrating Xmas before Thanksgiving, it’s important to be mindful of the expenses associated with the season. To the best of my knowledge, Girl Ninja and I have spent exactly $0.00 on Christmas gifts thus far. There are five in my family and six in Girl Ninja’s. That makes eleven total people we will be buying gifts for (counting ourselves). Since it takes a good chunk of time to shop for eleven different people, we sat down last weekend to discuss our Christmas budget.

Last year we spent around $1,000 (don’t remember exactly how much) and felt pretty good about it. We were able to get some solid gifts for the ones we love without losing sight of what the day is really about. Since the budget last year seemed pretty reasonable we decided to keep it the same this go around.

As Girl Ninja and I talked about what our limit was for each other we thought about making it a set dollar amount (like $200 each), but instead decided on a new strategy. After we buy our nine family members gifts, we will split the left-over money between the two of us. If we spend $600 on our family, that leaves $200 for each of us to spend on each other. If we spend $800 on them, we have $100 for each of us. Definitely keeps things interesting.

I have no idea how good of an idea this actually is, but you know what they say ” ‘Tis the season…to totally experiment with a new way of budgeting.” Yeah, that’s exactly what they say. Right?

How much is the Christmas shopping budget in your household? Do you set a specific limit for each family member (like siblings $50, parents $100 etc)? Anyone else notice stores started pushing Christmas way early this year? WHY!?

Happy August 17th!  To some of you that means nothing. To me, it means 5 more days left of summer (unless we are basing it on Seattle weather…which means summer started about 5 days ago).  What have I been filling my time with besides relaxing vacations, catching up with Seattle area friends and family, and decorating our new place? I’m so glad you asked.  I have been experiencing GUILT FREE SPENDING.  It is almost like Christmas.  My school gave me $500 to spend on my classroom as a new teacher to the school.  HALELUJIAH! One of the most freeing aspects of this money? Ninja has no part in it (I mean this in a very loving way).

Five hundred dollars can go faster than you realize.  In efforts to implement some frugal habits I have learned from my husband, I have definitely done some research.

Garage Sales: I’m not a rummager.  If someone labels their stuff as junk, it usually loses appeal to me as well.  Last Saturday was a different story.  I scored good junk.  For only $20, I walked away with a big pile of books, puzzles, a tent, and a desk organizer.  So worth it.

Second Hand Stores: Half-Price Books is my new best friend.  I prefer this to Amazon so I don’t have 5 million shipping charges and I actually get to feel and see the condition of the book before I decide on the purchase.  The goodwill (as you remember from our too cute desk) has also surprised me.  My new teal storage bench ($1.99) for my class library is one of my favorite items this year.

Pinterest: I love Pinterest…and I began to love it even more when I discovered how many teaching ideas are cataloged.  I have gotten so many money saving ideas and tidbits from this website. 

Sunday paper sale advertisements: I have my mom and sister on my side with this one.  We all pay attention to Office Depot, Target, Walmart, and Staples ads and are sure to find the best item at the best price.  I have found folders, binders, pencil boxes, etc. all for less than $1.00 a piece.

I love shopping for my classroom and I love it even more when it doesn’t affect my own finances.  I’m so thankful for my new school and the budget and time I get to use to start the year off (last year I was hired and given one day to prepare before the kids were there).   The best part is I added up all my receipts yesterday and I have only spent $250 so far.  Maybe I’ll actually get to purchase some things off of my “wish list”, not just my “needs”. 

Do you have guilt free money set aside?  How do you spend it?  What would you use a $500 guilt-free budget on?

p.s. If you missed Ninja’s post today, check it out here.

How exciting was yesterday?! Lots of hot comments.  I do have to say, I did kind of love the way everyone stood up for me. 

Being married to a PF blogger, I understand that our financial life is an open book to all of you.  Therefore, our different view on finances will often come up.  To get things straight, I didn’t marry myself…and I am so thankful for that.  Ninja and I are different people, and we have different views. One viewpoint is not better than the other. Through our differences, I am able to learn so much.  This is coming from the girl who only saved after I had boughten my needs/wants for the month. Thanks to Ninja, I learned the importance of paying yourself first…yes, even before shopping. Along with learning new things about PF, I am also challenged – as illustrated by our conversation about the presale. I don’t want to be stubborn, never questioning (or bettering) the way I do things.  Ninja challenges me in a usually healthy way.

During our finance fued, my first thoughts were very similar to some of yours:

• I work too
• I have good judgement
• I did fine with money before we got married (I saved myself a very comfy decorating budget the 8 months prior to combining finances )
• I don’t need rules and regulations.  

Did you notice how many I’s there are? As we took a break from our discussion (My hair desperately needed to be blow-dried), I had that gentle reminder that it’s not all about me.  We got married, and I promised to put the needs of NInja above my own.  Helping him provide for our household, helping him handle our finances in a way that it is responsible, and being a steward of all we have been given, is the kind of wife I want to be. Having that realization, subsided all my selfish “I deserve more” thoughts, and allowed me to come to work towards a mutual compromise.

With a better perspective, I could affirm to Ninja that I want him to feel comfortable with my spending.  I was able to understand that money spent shopping means money not put in savings.  He was able to realize that his initial communication WAS a little overbearing, and he has to be careful with how he talks with me.  As we talked it through, we fought for a solution that was less about us as individuals and more about us as a couple.  

And did you notice, it got me $100 more in my spending budget!? Yay, for compromise  I have one good husband and am so thankful.  We have different commitment levels to our savings – so what? We find a way towards a middle ground, we learn a little lesson in selflessness, and we thank the Lord that He is walking with us through it all.

I’m writing all this, and being raw with you, in hopes that you don’t feel sorry for me, or worry about our financial choices.  Married 11 months, we are still ironing out details, still learning together, and you, readers, are invited along for the ride

P.S. Nordstrom Pre-Sale Day= AMAZING.  I”ll be sharing my finds soon….

For those of us that get paid every two weeks, we face an epic battle that others do not. For us, managing a budget is no easy task. Ten months of the year things are just fine, but when April and October come around, my whole world turns upside down…I get an extra paycheck.

Although it is definitely a good problem to have, it does make things more difficult than other pay schedules. Us bi-weekers really only have two options…

We can break up the two extra paychecks, by twelve, and calculate that in to our budget. Say for example you get $3K every two weeks. That means 10 months of the year your income will be $6K, but for in April and Oct it will be $9K. You can take the extra $6K (from the two extra paychecks) and divide that by twelve, this gives you $500. For budgeting purposes, you can average your monthly pay to be $6,500. In my opinion this method sucks. It’s a lot of work, a lot of planning, and a waste of time, since you actually make LESS than that 83% of the year.

I subscribe to the Booya-extra-money budgeting plan. Instead of breaking up my extra two paychecks over the entire calender year, I simply pretend they don’t exist. If I get $3K every two weeks (which I don’t), then I budget my cash flow around a $6K monthly income. When April and Oct roll around, I get a bonus. I can do whatever the heck I want with that money. Why? Because I have established spending habits around a $6K/mo income.

If you haven’t noticed…it’s almost April, which means I’ll have an extra $2,000 coming my way. And you know what I’m going to do with it!? Save most of it (haha, who didn’t see that one coming?). I’ll probably spend a bit of it this week as Girl Ninja will be joining me in Germany (We’re renting a car and going to France and Luxembourg). It’s nice to have an extra cushion to remind me I don’t have to be so darn frugal all the time.

I know there are others that get paid every two weeks. How do you budget for it? Is there a third another method I haven’t thought of? If you could pick your pay schedule would you do bi-weekly, twice monthly, or monthly?