Mama_Rana Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I used to track our expenditures religiously. The year after our wedding I was able to keep us on budget and pay off our wedding in that first year. Since then... One of the things I struggle the most with is that I do a lot of shopping at Target. In one cart there might be groceries, clothes, toys, diapers, cleaners, gifts, and pet food. The tedium of trying to split up those receipts sabotaged my tracking efforts. [We also had the problem of those times we'd spend cash on a non-personal expense, and how that so easily messed up the works]. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaTanya Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I used to track our expenditures religiously. The year after our wedding I was able to keep us on budget and pay off our wedding in that first year. Since then... One of the things I struggle the most with is that I do a lot of shopping at Target. In one cart there might be groceries, clothes, toys, diapers, cleaners, gifts, and pet food. The tedium of trying to split up those receipts sabotaged my tracking efforts. [We also had the problem of those times we'd spend cash on a non-personal expense, and how that so easily messed up the works]. Thoughts? I feel your pain! One thing I have done in the past is to put all of one category on the belt first. If I have a couple of items of clothing, I can put those there first and separate it from the groceries. I ask the clerk to give a subtotal before scanning the groceries. Then the subtotal is printed on the receipt for me! Voila! Now, because I can get so OCD that I get bogged down in the tedium and give up, I've decided to just lump it all together. I just do. I know the category expenditures will be out of whack, but at least I'm still recording. Since MOST of the purchases will be groceries, that's what I'll call it. The other incidentals (for us anyway) are much smaller. That's my plan, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgrin Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 One of the things I struggle the most with is that I do a lot of shopping at Target. In one cart there might be groceries, clothes, toys, diapers, cleaners, gifts, and pet food. The tedium of trying to split up those receipts sabotaged my tracking efforts. [We also had the problem of those times we'd spend cash on a non-personal expense, and how that so easily messed up the works]. Thoughts? I have given up separating every. single. thing. on my budget. I was driving myself nuts trying to separate stuff out from my groceries (or the receipts) all the time. I finally lumped together "Groceries/Dogfood/Toiletries/Cleaning supplies" into one category. But I still keep gifts/toys, clothes, and educational supplies in separate categories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kim.4dogs Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I drove myself crazy (and spent so much time) trying to separate categories. I finally just decided to figure out how much money we had to spend each month on *everything* (food, clothes, gifts, etc.). I subtracted our monthly set bills from our income, determined how much we had left to spend (after savings), and then had the amount. I decided really, I don't care where it is going! As long as I don't overspend it's good for us. I also try to withdraw that amount of cash from the bank. It makes it much easier to monitor how much we're spending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Our grocery budget is more like a household budget that includes pet food, cleaning supplies, health & beauty, etc. I do separate clothes, gifts, and other non-household items, but they aren't bought often anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I do like the others and just have a "walmart" amount. It is mostly groceries but some pet food, paper products, health & beauty, and the occ. misc. As long as I don't go over X amount per week, I am happy. If I happen to buy clothes or a bigger gift, etc. then I will put that aside and pay for those with my debit card as I don't have that much cash on me. I am a little freeer though as we have no debt, have a 6+ month emergency fund, etc. I get a set amount of cash for the month--divided into Walmart, me, riding lessons and family fun $. The rest is in the back for bills, taxes, car repairs, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black_midori Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I use Quickbooks to track expenditures and I separate out the categories from the receipt & memory (it really helps if I do it within a week! :D). It doesn't help when using a cash envelope system, but I generally do a major split of "regular bills", "mortgage", and "other" overall and then determine WHERE I am spending that "other" based on the receipts & cut back as needed. It can be a fairly difficult process to budget here, since dh works only a portion of the year and that money has to last us for the whole year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hannah C. Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) I have a category called "Groceries Etc." for this very reason. :D Anything that we regularly need and can be purchased at the grocery store (not Walmart) comes out of this category. (examples: toilet paper, cleaning supplies, deodorant, shampoo...diapers was in this category, but now we buy them from Amazon so they come out of a "dd" category). I don't mix my clothes shopping with grocery shopping usually, so I haven't had that issue. You could always buy your items in separate orders (for instance, if you are buying clothes, have them rung up separately from your groceries etc.). We use YNAB, which allows you to "split" transactions; part of the money comes out of one area of the budget, the rest out of another. If we buy something and are reimbursed, I stick it in the "misc" category, record the reimbursement as "income:available this month", and budget it back into misc. Edited January 6, 2012 by Hannah C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedmom4 Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I would separate the items into categories (groceries, clothing, miscellaneous, etc.) and then purchase them separately. Then I have nice and neat receipts and recording my expenses is a piece of cake. God Bless, Elise in NC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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