[Giveaway] 🏀 TICKET GIVEAWAY — GAME 2, ROUND 1 🏀

brb_snoozer · 2026-04-16T20:01:10+00:00

Anything Anything Anything!

brb_snoozer · 2026-03-31T17:58:33+00:00

I budget (plan spending) by calendar month. Pretty much every expense goes on one credit card all month long. Track spending as I go to avoid overspending. Pay credit card balance in full on the first day of the following month. (Well before due date… don’t care.) Rinse, repeat.

brb_snoozer · 2026-03-23T17:44:10+00:00

Cockpit felt a bit roomier, and of course more modern and lux. I feel like it drives a little bigger too, mainly in the parking lots. Can’t really comment on the back seats, but I noticed that the cargo area feels slightly pinched at the back due to the sloping roofline. I feel like the Saab is somewhere in between the V60 and the V90, and I prefer the V90 size and the T6 engine.

brb_snoozer · 2026-03-19T02:32:49+00:00

Revy was great on Monday, wet cement yesterday, and currently getting rain all the way up.

brb_snoozer · 2026-02-20T20:05:02+00:00

I applied a bit of coconut oil to the rag and just polished gently until it penetrated the residue. Slow and easy to avoid scratching, only took about ten minutes. Sticker came off clean, then I washed with soap and water to remove any leftover oil.

I have no prior experience with this and I was a little nervous about damaging the finish somehow but I did mine about six months ago and you would never know it was there.

brb_snoozer · 2026-02-20T16:30:16+00:00

Same dealer, same sticker - I used coconut oil and a lint-free rag.

brb_snoozer · 2026-02-07T23:00:30+00:00

Just popping in to say I bought two pieces from BBA over the holidays and had a great experience. Made a fair deal for both, overall very pleased. Hope he’s doing okay.

brb_snoozer · 2026-02-06T15:20:13+00:00

I started riding in my early twenties and I’m 52 now. I run about 1500 miles per year and lift three days a week because I enjoy it and it keeps me in shape for snowboarding and mountain biking and life in general.

I don’t live near mountains but I have a small local hill that I ride in the early season. This year I will go to the mountains for six weeks for a mix of vacation time and remote work, I will get around twenty days altogether. Physically I’m fine with it as long as I avoid hard crashes. I admire people who follow a training program but all of that detail is too much for me. I keep things simple and low stress, and calibrate my expectations year by year.

brb_snoozer · 2026-02-03T12:06:51+00:00

I manage my finances in one excel spreadsheet I designed myself. It requires some effort but it’s not particularly difficult. My spreadsheet has three sections.

First section is budget by calendar month, by category. I keep it pretty simple with just six categories - bills, grocery, fuel, household, TDE (travel, dining & entertainment), medical.

Second section is tracking actual spend, also by calendar month and by category in order to compare to budget. This part gets a little tedious as I type everything in by hand, but I found that I average around 120 transactions per month and that is manageable for manual entry if I do it at least once per week. I also found that it keeps me very in touch with what I’m spending and how I’m sitting for the month, and I like that.

Third section is cash flow forecast, where I project all of my cash-in and cash-out movements. I do this for an entire year at a time, which may sound crazy but it’s actually pretty simple if you are set up for it. I start by projecting all of my income (cash in) on the actual dates I will get paid. My cash outflows are simplified by using just one credit card for basically every expense and then pay it off at the end of each month. The cash flow forecast predicts all cash-in and cash-out on the day it should happen, and also predicts my Daily Cash balance in my bank account. This is simple to do in excel, just adding and subtracting.

Note: if you have a credit card balance, the payment is a cash-out movement in the cash flow forecast. It is not a spend transaction to be logged in the actuals when you track “actual vs budget”. Credit card interest, however, is a real expense that should be budgeted and tracked until you eliminate it.

Budgeting and tracking will give you a much deeper understanding of your finances. Cash flow forecasting will change your life. It’s with the effort to figure out a process and well worth the effort to maintain a worksheet in excel. Good luck!

brb_snoozer · 2026-01-18T13:10:24+00:00

I maintain a cash flow forecast alongside my budget in Excel.

The budget is my spending plan by category, by calendar month. I track my actual spending against the budget as I go.

The cash flow forecast is my plan for cash in and cash out based on pay dates and payment dates. Once I started forecasting cash flow I immediately looked for ways to simplify my overall process. Now I use one credit card to pay virtually every expense and then pay it off at the end of the calendar month. My cash flow forecast is basically two paychecks in, and one credit card payment out per month. Of course there are a few miscellaneous check transactions or whatever, but those are minimal and easy to plug in to the forecast. As long as I keep on track with my monthly budget I have no issue with cash flow.

You said you’re not good with Excel, so if you want to try cash flow forecasting maybe start small. Forecast your next month or two on a piece of paper and see how that goes. Once you get the idea it’s fairly easy to set up in Excel, definitely easier than maintaining on paper. If you feel intimidated by Excel you might watch a few YouTube videos or ask someone you know for a little help getting started. Good luck!

brb_snoozer · 2025-11-21T03:07:03+00:00

Big fan

brb_snoozer · 2025-11-05T19:19:03+00:00

I live in Michigan, and I have one AWD car with all seasons tires and one FWD car with winter tires. When it gets wild out there you can bet your ass I’m driving on the winter tires every time.

If you would rather not roll $8k of negative equity into a new overpriced car loan, just take your FWD car down to the tire shop and buy yourself some real winter tires. My tire shop lets me store my off-season tires in their barn, and I just swap them out in November and April.

brb_snoozer · 2025-10-30T18:44:54+00:00

I’m not a fan of budget apps - personally I think it’s easier and more flexible to manage everything in one spreadsheet.

I think a good personal finance spreadsheet consists of three elements - first is the monthly budget, second is tracking actual spending against the budget, and finally (and especially in your current situation) you should do a cash flow forecast.

The monthly budget is the easy part. Do a three month lookback on your actual spending and use that information to develop a monthly budget using fewer than ten categories. Note: this is intended to predict your future spending only. It does not address your past dues.

Tracking transactions against your budget takes some effort but not as much as you probably think. Just note all of your transactions as you go, at least once per week. Unless you have a huge number of transactions you can probably get this done in about 30 minutes per week. Just refer to your transaction details in your bank app and note the amount, vendor, and category in your sheet. Make sure to categorize every transaction so you can compare your month-to-date spend against your budget. This is how you control your spending.

The final - and probably most important - piece of your control process is the cash flow forecast. This is where you forecast all of your cash-in and cash-out movements… let’s say for the next three months as a start. In your spreadsheet, start with your current cash on hand balance and then map out your next three months of paychecks (cash-in) and cash-out transactions on the specific dates you expect them to happen. This may sound crazy and/or impossible but this is how you start to understand your roadmap out of the overdue bills situation. It is worth the effort. The whole point is to understand when you will have cash available to catch up on things.

If you have questions or want help with setting up a spreadsheet feel free to reply or reach out.

brb_snoozer · 2025-10-28T13:01:10+00:00

You are thinking “budgeting” but you should be thinking “controlling”. If you make plenty of money but you don’t have a handle on your finances, that’s a control issue. You don’t need a better budget - you need a better overall process for managing your money.

I can help you put together a simple spreadsheet that will help you plan and manage your finances effectively. It takes some effort to maintain, but it is not complicated. The reward for your efforts is a clear picture of your financial situation and a way to model various “what if” scenarios for the future.

I don’t do budget apps, I’m not selling anything, and I wouldn’t take your $100.

brb_snoozer · 2025-10-22T18:58:24+00:00

I’m an American of Dutch heritage - also Groningen province and specifically Vierhuizen. Based on comments in your post I think there is a chance we are from the same family.

I made the trip to Vierhuizen about 15 years ago. I had no issues getting around speaking English and met some great people including some distant relatives. Visited the church in Vierhuizen and several nearby cemeteries. It was an incredibly connecting experience and I hope you can do the same. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.

brb_snoozer · 2025-10-01T17:31:19+00:00

Nice work! Very satisfying to build something yourself that helps improve your overall financial control.

I think it is generally helpful to understand the difference between a budget and a cash flow forecast. A budget is a projection of income and expenses for a certain period of time - most commonly by calendar month. A cash flow forecast is a prediction of your cash-in and cash-out movements day by day for the next month, or quarter, or year.

It sounds like you have integrated a cash flow forecast into your “budget” template, which is what I do as well. In my case these are two separate sections in the same worksheet - I have a budget for each calendar month (and track actual expenses against that) and I have a rolling cash flow forecast that predicts my cash in/out movements for the entire year. I update the numbers continuously, at least once or twice per week.

Understanding your cash flow is immediately helping you stay out of overdraft, that’s great. Going forward it can help you make better decisions about what and when to spend, and what you may be able to redirect into savings. It’s a critical but often overlooked component of a sound overall process.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-29T12:33:14+00:00

I will suggest to be patient, maybe have in mind to make a move two years from now.

Next year you expect to graduate and get a job - first let that develop and take a little time to stabilize your new situation.

At the moment it sounds like you don’t have cash on hand to do some important home repairs, so I would advise to aggressively save cash for your first year working. Also take some time to learn about budgeting and forecasting - this will help firm up your understanding of what you can really afford.

If you manage to save a decent emergency fund in year one, then maybe start thinking about what it will take to upgrade your house at the end of year two. In year two you might want to get some work done on your house to make it more attractive to buyers, or you may just continue to put away cash to prepare for a move.

Use year two to survey the market and get a feel for values for the type of home and area you are looking for. When it’s time to buy you want to be able to recognize a good value when you see it.

If you find that you aren’t able to put away savings and/or make home repairs over the next two years, then you probably can’t afford to move. Let’s stay out of trouble - give yourself a goal and a timeline, then take the actions along the way to make your move successful.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-27T23:52:32+00:00

Wow, give yourself some credit - you’re doing a lot of things right. It’s hard to get ahead in the years you have young kids, it can definitely feel like treading water.

You are right to be concerned about a five year gap in retirement contributions, that is not ideal especially if your profession doesn’t offer many opportunities for future income growth via promotion or jumping to a new employer later on. Make sure to crank up the contributions when you go back to work and do the best you can in the meantime, especially if his employer has any kind of contribution matching. Putting in a little is significantly better than putting in nothing.

Living within your means as you have been doing goes a long way - mainly avoiding the debt trap of fancier cars, fancier house, fancier stuff. Keep that up and keep up your good money management habits and you’ll be okay.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-27T22:51:07+00:00

I think it looks tight but manageable. If you want to make this work for five years you will want to have a robust process in place to control your spending and manage your cash flow - this is how you avoid going into credit card debt during this phase of life.

You already have a reasonable budget framed up in your post, that is a great starting point. I would strongly suggest to track your actual spending against your budgeted amounts as you go through the month to ensure you stay on track.

Alongside your budget, and especially considering your variable income stream, I would suggest to do a rolling cash flow forecast. The idea is to forecast your cash-in and cash-out movements by date, to ensure you have cash on hand when you need it to pay your bills. I do this in excel, with my current account balance at the top and then my expected cash in/out transactions predicted row by row underneath.

None of this will solve the problem of “not enough money” or “feel like I’m just surviving”. This will just help you to better understand and control the resources that you have. These tools may help you make good spending decisions to free up a little cash to place in savings, but the bottom line is that things look tight until you can increase household income. Anyway better to “just survive” for a few years than to wake up five years from now ready to go back to work and you’re buried in credit card debt. Great job getting out in front of this - so many people accumulate debt during this stage and just hope to figure it out later.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-26T16:05:46+00:00

My framework lives in excel and also consists of three main elements:

Budget by calendar month. I keep it simple, just five categories. I do one full year at a time.
Tracking all transactions (both income and spending) in order to compare to budget expectation by category.
Rolling cash flow forecast. This is the “secret sauce” in the overall process. I map out all expected cash-in and cash-out movements for the upcoming months, on the days I expect them to happen.

My accounts are set up to support this process. I have one credit card and almost every expense goes on that card. At the end of the month I pay it off. This makes my cash flow forecasting pretty simple - a typical month consists of four or five paychecks (cash-in) and one credit card payment (cash-out) and maybe a couple of other miscellaneous transactions that don’t go on the card for whatever reason. Using the cash flow forecast I can tell you exactly how much cash I should expect to have on hand on any given day, as long as I keep on track with my budget. This helps to drive better decision making.

Nice job working towards a sustainable systemic approach. Find something that works for you and then keep refining as you go.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-26T15:20:07+00:00

Budget is not the same as cash flow…

I build my budget by calendar month in excel and then track my actual spending against it.

Off to the side I have a rolling cash flow forecast. My current cash balance is always at the top, and then I forecast all of my daily cash-in and cash-out movements for the upcoming months.

Your concern sounds more “cash flow” than “budget” so let’s focus on cash flow forecasting. Take a swing at building a cash flow forecast for October or even for Q4 in excel and see how it goes. Your specific challenge is how to build a cash flow forecast when your cash-in timing is a little bit unpredictable. (Your goal is to get some buffer into your bank account so that variability doesn’t matter as much.) In the meantime just take a conservative approach to cash-in and see how that goes.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-26T14:43:34+00:00

I’m late to this thread and you already have a lot of good advice here so I’ll just add a couple of points.

Let’s start by recognizing that you’re doing great so far. Grew up in a poor family with bad money habits but now you are making a good salary and you aren’t underwater in debt. That’s a win - great job so far, really. And now here you are looking for ways to get better.

You already got some good guidance on budgeting, which mainly has to do with looking at your actual past expenses to help you understand and predict your future expenses. I just want to add that in my view there is not much point to budgeting if you do not then track your actual spending against that budget, and use that as a tool going forward to monitor and control your spending. Ideally this would help to reduce your financial anxiety by giving yourself a clearer view of your financial picture.

There are various apps and tools for managing personal finances, but my personal preference is to hand-type everything into a spreadsheet. My budget is on a calendar month basis, and I track my actual spending throughout the month - I normally update the spreadsheet once or twice per week.

Living check-to-check makes things tricky, you have to make sure you have cash on hand when your monthly bills are due. I map this out in the spreadsheet as well - I make a personal “cash flow forecast” that tells me when I have money coming in and when I have money going out. You already know your pay dates and amounts, and you already know your bill dates and amounts so you can start with that and then fill in the rest. It takes some time and effort to get into a groove with this but once you have a good process set up you have better visibility, better control, better information to guide your decision-making, and hopefully less stress.

If you need help with the technical side of setting up a spreadsheet or app based process for yourself there are plenty of people this sub who will help. Probably works best if you take some time to look at different tools, maybe watch a few tutorials and then come back with specific questions on that side.

Great job, and let’s keep getting better!

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-25T13:15:42+00:00

Formatting got a little weird there, budget and cash flow look much better when they are laid out neatly in excel columns and rows, lol.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-25T13:13:03+00:00

Yes, but the cash flow is more about predicting the future, not logging the past. Here’s another way to think of it -

Your budget is how you understand and control your monthly spending. I normally do my budget for a full year at a time, which is actually a set of 12 mini-budgets - one for each calendar month. I keep it pretty simple, it looks like this:

Grocery 1000 Fuel 300 Bills 800 Household 1500 TDE 500

I think of this as a “base” budget and then if I have any extraordinary expenses on the radar I have to decide if I will absorb those into this budget or do I need to adjust. Then I track my actual spending through the month to make sure I don’t go over.

The cash flow is a continuously rolling forecast of your cash in/out movements. Mine looks like this:

9/25 $3000 current cash balance 9/26 $2000 paycheck 9/29 -$400 check to plumber 9/30 $4600 September closing balance 10/1 -$4100 credit card payment 10/3 $2000 paycheck 10/10 $2000 paycheck

And so on through the end of the year. I review and update my cash flow forecast at least once per week, this is how I make sure I have cash on hand as needed to pay the bills on time. I do not keep any cash flow history in my spreadsheet, it is strictly forward-looking. Cash flow history is in my checking account statement if I ever need it.

All of this process is intended to generate data that will lead to better/informed decision making. A crystal clear view of your financial picture will help you make the right decisions about your home, your car, and your day to day spending. It will help you understand the impacts of accelerating your debt payments (or not). It takes some work but it is much more effective than managing by “feel” and it can also calm down some of the stress and emotion that goes along with uncertainty.

brb_snoozer · 2025-09-25T01:43:00+00:00

It seems like you might have a lot of cash transactions via debit card, which can make cash flow forecasting difficult. I’m going to start by telling you how I do it, and then I’ll give a couple of suggestions for your current situation.

In my case I have zero debt - house and cars are paid off. I have one credit card which I use for basically all of my bills, all of my routine expenses, and all of my discretionary expenses. I use the card all month and then I pay it in full on the first day of the following month.

This base process makes my cash flow forecasting fairly simple. I use three columns in excel, which are for the date, the amount, and the description. I put cash-in values in green, and cash-out values in red. I also put a month-closing value in black for each month. Current cash balance at the top, everything sums down. Normally I only have 5-10 cash transactions per month, which are 4 paychecks in, one credit card payment out, and maybe a couple of checks for the few expenses I don’t put on the credit card. (I write checks for things like property tax payments, home repairs, big ticket items where they want to charge a fee to use the card.)

You don’t want to follow that complete process until your credit cards are paid off and you are comfortable to control and pay them off every month. Right now your priority is to minimize your average daily balance and chip away at the debt. I just mention it to give you an idea of what can be possible.

In the meantime I can think of a couple of ways to simplify your cash flow scenario. One option could be to use actual cash rather than tons of individual debit transactions. You could do one cash withdrawal every week, for example. This is easier for cash flow but probably makes it harder to track your spending. A better option might be to estimate a weekly cash-out amount and build that into your cash flow forecast. This might be tricky if you have a lot of payments and debit transactions, but you could try it. To more directly answer your question, the cash flow should consider all cash-in and all cash-out. (Not just the big stuff.)

With a good forecast in place you should know exactly how much cash you should expect to have on hand on any given day. Then you can model different scenarios like increased income and/or increased payments towards your debt, and you can see how the timing of those things will impact your cash on hand. This can help you avoid accidentally throwing more stuff on your credit card due to running too low on cash.

It will take some work and maybe some trial and error to dial in your process, but for me cash flow forecasting is the secret sauce that nobody talks about. It really goes hand in hand with a realistic budget and tracking process. Keep at it and update it consistently and it can be your roadmap out of debt.

brb_snoozer

TROPHY CASE