[nabs-l] Budgeting

Sun Oct 14 01:29:31 UTC 2012

Koby,
A correction it is positive  468. This is the amount of money you have to 
spend on daily stuff.
I imagine this is not much if you live at home; I assume your mom pays for 
food, utilities and
other house expenses such as a mortgage. This is quite a bit of money for 
the month. As long as you don't spend over $100 a week, you should be fine. 
Even if you spent $50 a week, this is only $200 monthly which gives you
a few hundred left over.

So you should be in good shape.
Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Koby Cox
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2012 5:30 PM
To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Budgeting

Arielle,
So I would put In the doctors bill which Is $110 then I would put in
$120 for transportation and that would give me a total of 230 then I
would subtract that total which Is 230 from my SSI income which Is $698
and that would give me a total of negative 468 Is that right or didI do
something wrong during the process?
Right back soon,
Koby.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
Silverman
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2012 4:15 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Budgeting

Hi Koby,
You would need to figure out how much the doctor's bill is and how
much you pay each month for transportation. Then add those two amounts
and subtract the total from your total income. The rest is
discretionary money you can spend on whatever. Every time you buy
something that is not part of transportation or your doctor's bill,
subtract it from your total discretionary money.
Arielle

On 10/13/12, Koby Cox <kobycox at gmail.com> wrote:
> Arielle,
> How would you do this budget If you only have a doctors bill and also
> transportation that you have to pay for?
> Right back soon,
> Koby.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Arielle
> Silverman
> Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2012 3:51 PM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [nabs-l] Budgeting
>
> Hi all,
> I think keeping a monthly budget is a good skill for all students to
> learn. I will describe the method I use for my own budget. You don't
> have to do it this way, but I do think it is important to have some
> formal way of tracking how much money you have and how much you can
> afford to spend on a weekly or monthly basis. I think this is
> especially critical for those of us on fixed incomes. Once you have a
> budget, you will be able to tell not only when you need to cut back on
> your spending, but also when you are "ahead of the game" and can
> afford to spend a little more.
>
> Before creating your budget, I suggest looking at your past three bank
> statements and noting a few things. First, note exactly how much money
> you get per month, from all regular sources such as wages from a job,
> SSI, checks from family, scholarship funds, etc. Also, note all
> expenses you have that are mandatory or non-negotiable that come up
> every month, such as rent and bills.
> I keep my budget as an Excel spreadsheet and when I used to have a
> Braille Note, I kept it on that. First create an entry titled "income"
> and enter your total monthly income into that cell. If for example,
> you earn $500 each month from wages, and an additional $500 from
> Social Security, and this happens every single month, you would put
> 1000 into the income box.
> Below that make an entry called "fixed expenses" and add up all of
> your bills and other non-negotiable expenses you have to pay every
> month. Examples might include: rent, utilities, Internet charges, cell
> phone bill, doctor and pharmacy bills, etc. Note I don't count
> groceries as a fixed expense because even though buying groceries is
> required for survival, the actual amount you spend on groceries is
> flexible and can be changed from month to month, whereas the amount
> you spend on your cell phone bill is generally the same from month to
> month. You might want to designate a minimum grocery payment as a
> fixed expense to make sure you've set aside some money for groceries,
> and then allow yourself to spend more than that minimum on groceries
> if you have extra discretionary money (see below). For our
> hypothetical example of the person getting $1000 per month, suppose
> that person pays $400 monthly rent, $50 utilities, a $75 cell phone
> bill, $50 Internet bill and $25 to refill a prescription medication.
> That person has a total of $600 in fixed expenses per month.
> Once you have carefully added up all your fixed expenses, subtract the
> fixed expense total from your total income. What you have left is
> "discretionary money" which you can spend on anything you want. Our
> hypothetical person has $400 per month in discretionary money that
> he/she can spend on whatever. You might choose to further divide your
> discretionary money into more categories, for example, giving yourself
> $100 to spend on clothes, $100 for groceries, $100 for transportation
> and $100 for other stuff. It is really up to you and only you know
> what kinds of things you like to spend your money on. The big key is
> just to make sure that in a month you don't spend more than what you
> have available for discretionary spending, so this person should not
> spend more than $400 per month on optional or discretionary things.
> Now, this next part is really important. Once you have your budget and
> know how much leftover money you have for discretionary expenses,
> every time you buy something, even if it's just a $5 lunch, go back to
> your budget and subtract that amount from what you have designated as
> discretionary money. That way, you will be able to see right away if
> your funds are getting low and can make a decision not to buy that new
> party outfit, etc. If, however, it's almost the end of the month and
> you still have quite a bit of discretionary money left over, you can
> treat yourself to something nice without feeling guilty, because you
> will know that you will still have enough money left to get through
> the rest of the month.
> If I have discretionary money left over at the end of the month, I
> will put that extra money into a category called "savings". Once my
> savings adds up, I can use it for bigger expenses, like taking a trip.
> If you have money saved from previous months, you won't have to dip
> into your discretionary fund for the current month when an occasional
> big expense, like a trip, comes up.
> The budget is also really helpful for making decisions, like whether
> to move out of one's family home or whether to move to a cheaper
> place. If you are putting lots of extra money into savings each month,
> then you can probably afford to pay more rent, but if you are
> perpetually running out of discretionary funds before the end of the
> month, then it might be time to cut back either on the discretionary
> expenses (i.e. not buying a coffee every day) or on the fixed expenses
> (i.e. by moving to a cheaper apartment or cutting back on the cell
> phone plan).
> In order to make the budget work, it is important to be good about
> setting it up on the first day of each month (or whenever your payday
> is) and then recording each and every time you spend money. Keeping
> regular tabs on your checking account and any credit cards you have
> will ensure you don't miss an expense.
> I know this sounds complicated, so I'd be happy to talk more off-list
> or by phone. I do think it is a worthwhile thing to do in spite of the
> minor hassle.
> Best,
> Arielle
>
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