rocket finance » budget http://www.rocketfinance.net Finance is not rocket science, unless it is government finance. Sun, 02 May 2010 17:20:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 When is payday?http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/08/03/when-is-payday/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/08/03/when-is-payday/#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:46:17 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/?p=397 How often do you get paid and does it affect how you spend and budget? I have been working a more or less full-time since 1997. The other day, I was thinking about all of the different paydays that I have had over the last decade: Paper check every Friday afternoon – kind of an [...]

When is payday?

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/08/03/when-is-payday/feed/ 12 Does a windfall cause you to overspend?http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/06/30/does-a-windfall-cause-you-to-overspend/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/06/30/does-a-windfall-cause-you-to-overspend/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:00:38 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/?p=398 Do you lose track of “un-budgeted” income? Sometimes our plans for extra money don’t add up. When we anticipate a tax refund or a stimulus rebate or a job bonus or other side income, we start to spend it before it actually arrives – and many times the math does not come out right. Let [...]

Does a windfall cause you to overspend?

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/06/30/does-a-windfall-cause-you-to-overspend/feed/ 7 Mrs. Rocket on grocerieshttp://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/05/11/mrs-rocket-on-groceries/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/05/11/mrs-rocket-on-groceries/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 04:30:13 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/?p=370 Mrs. Rocket has posted here before and I am trying to convince her to guest post on Rocket Finance at least once a week. I think it would be great for this blog if we heard from her regularly. (Yes, it has taken me almost a year to figure this out.) It is difficult to [...]

Mrs. Rocket on groceries

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/05/11/mrs-rocket-on-groceries/feed/ 6 How do you deal with a budget deficit?http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/05/02/how-do-you-deal-with-a-budget-deficit/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/05/02/how-do-you-deal-with-a-budget-deficit/#comments Fri, 02 May 2008 05:38:23 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/?p=308 Earlier this week I shared that I use Excel for our family budget. In the spreadsheet I have set the formula in one particular cell to show our average monthly surplus or deficit as we move through the year. Since we are currently making a fairly large rent payment in our new location on top [...]

How do you deal with a budget deficit?

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/05/02/how-do-you-deal-with-a-budget-deficit/feed/ 9 I am a spreadsheet budgeterhttp://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/04/30/i-am-a-spreadsheet-budgeter/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/04/30/i-am-a-spreadsheet-budgeter/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:12:57 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/?p=304 I first started tracking our family budget in 2005. Some of you will remember that our budget deficit that year was in the neighborhood of $25,000. I had taken a class in Microsoft Excel and decided to start plugging our numbers into a spreadsheet and see what happened. I continue to use a spreadsheet for [...]

I am a spreadsheet budgeter

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/04/30/i-am-a-spreadsheet-budgeter/feed/ 1 I thought I had a 3/4″ wood bithttp://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/03/04/i-thought-i-had-a-34-wood-bit/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/03/04/i-thought-i-had-a-34-wood-bit/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:00:33 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/03/04/i-thought-i-had-a-34-wood-bit/ I have shared on numerous occasions that we put our family at financial risk with bad money decisions early in our marriage. As we start to pack for our upcoming cross-country move, I was reminded of another habit of mine that has cost us a lot of money over the years. You see, I have [...]

I thought I had a 3/4″ wood bit

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/03/04/i-thought-i-had-a-34-wood-bit/feed/ 6 Time the market? I use timing to pay my billshttp://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/02/11/time-the-market-i-use-timing-to-pay-my-bills/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/02/11/time-the-market-i-use-timing-to-pay-my-bills/#comments Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:00:10 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/02/11/time-the-market-i-use-timing-to-pay-my-bills/ At our house, we try to make extra money wherever we can. Bank bonuses and credit card bonuses made us almost $3,000 last year. A much riskier strategy, credit card arbitrage, made us another thousand dollars. I admit that making money this way is not for everyone. I don’t plan to always use these methods [...]

Time the market? I use timing to pay my bills

]]> http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/02/11/time-the-market-i-use-timing-to-pay-my-bills/feed/ 7 We are heading in the right direction (I think)http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/01/29/we-are-heading-in-the-right-direction-i-think/ http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/01/29/we-are-heading-in-the-right-direction-i-think/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:00:00 +0000 rocketc http://www.rocketfinance.net/2008/01/29/we-are-heading-in-the-right-direction-i-think/ So, I was looking through my Excel budgeting workbook the other night. . . (I know, I know, there are better ways of keeping track of one’s finances, but I like tinkering in Excel, plus it makes it easy to set the budget for the next year, just copy, paste and edit any changes. For [...]

We are heading in the right direction (I think)

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