I dont keep a budget. But my algorithm is basically dont buy anything except food.

That's me. It's simple. You live a cheap life with a good career

I never had an official budget. I knew how much I made and made sure I spent significantly less than that.

At what age are we supposed to stop doing this?

Long time ago I had the benefit of spending a couple years in banking. Bankers have a very different attitude about money than most people since for a bank, money is the "product."

The most valuable thing I learned from that experience was that in order to be in control of my finances, I had to have a clear understanding of what my money is "doing." Just being able to get that insight has been enough to keep me relatively on top of my book keeping.

I squeeze pennies so hard they need therapy and always have. I remember loaning money to my older siblings to buy game systems and fund dates.

Ever since I saw a documentary on the great depression and spoke to my grandmother about what it was like to live through it I started noticing that we as a country we're not doing so great. I've been working and saving most of my money since I was in first grade, but by middle school I just decided to abstain from almost every kind of expense I could.

I've never struggled financially but that's because I learned that you don't need to buy much stuff if you make your own, can live on less, and have a pervasive crippling anxiety about the collapse of western civilization.

So yeah I've been running on the vibe "The Great depression is coming again and there's no way I can save enough to be prepared"

This has earned me a meager modest lifestyle, but my family eats very well, has a clean home, and has plenty of modern luxuries and toys even if some of them might be a bit worn, rough around the edges, or unfashionable.

I didn't have to learn to live on lentils but I did have to give up on things my parents found very accessible like restaurants, travel, new things, packaged food, college, free time, bars, weekends, my own room, cars, movie theaters, most museums and non-critical medical care.

So yeah, I guess compared to my peers I'm crushing it because in all of my frugality I managed to avoid racking up six figures of college debt! I'll never own a house though.

I have a budget. I regularly ignore it.

I've fallen back on putting the bills due for the next week on my calendar every payday. Just to remind myself to do that before I spend the remainder irresponsibly.

I'm 45 and I've spent more time on my diet (in the form of sodium and calorie budget(s)) than any sort of financial budget.

That said, my vices are relatively inexpensive, my jobs have generally paid very well, and I do check my various accounts without being prompted.

I think personal budgets (including my dieting) are best thought of as attempts to solve specific problems, not some sort of mandatory / expected behavior.

If you are getting dinged with overdraft fees or CC interest etc., a budget might get you to a better place than you are on "just vibes".

Who needs budgets when you have terrible anxiety about spending money

My budget has been "don't spend too much" for the last 10 years and it's worked out wonderfully. You don't need a clever laid out plan, you just need to ask yourself "how can I spend even less ?"

Cancel every subscription immediately unless you actually need it. Pirate everything. Get everything on sale or thrift it. Either buy the cheapest thing you can, or spend enough to buy the indestructible version you'll keep for 15-20 years. Fix problems immediately for cheap before they get expensive.

As a result I'm still managing to save up money while my income is under 10K a year.

there's no point to a budget if you minimize all costs anyways, and it means i get a surprise amount left over at the end of every month which i can do whatever i want with.

Which is usually just letting it pile up because i don't know if my welfare will be denied at some point and having that buffer means i can afford to replace things every now and then.

I spent late 20s and early 30s living on 25k a year. I now make 4x that, I still live like I make 25k. My budget plan is to live like I'm pore

What do you mean "budget"?

Iol, is it supposed to be done in any other way than vibes?

You don't need a budget, just a crippling sense of guilt about spending money on anything other than the absolute essentials...

Basically my financial situation is:
Me work. Me get paid. Banana purchase. Repeat.

I'm frugal by nature. For most of my life I've always had enough savings to buy almost anything I want. Whenever I get a "bonus" from somewhere, I'm not even tempted to go on a spending spree - it doesn't enable me to buy anything I couldn't have already bought anyway. I'm way more excited about seeing the value of my investments go up than I would be about a new iPhone or whatever.

I live in an old house, wear old clothes, drive an old truck, never travel, never eat out, etc. I guess I just value different things than some other people. I'd rather be financially secure and look poor than the other way around.

I have a math brain; I do not, however, have a brain that can make plans or follow them consistently

I feel like there's a certain minimum income level/social safety net you need to have to be able to live like this. Like at some point the desire to keep having food/shelter becomes enough of a motivating factor that you have to work out what you need to do.

I pretented I just had less money than i actually had.

God no. I got in so much debt with ADHD and no budget. Finding YNAB saved my ass and allowed me to buy a house right before it became impossible to do so. Now I won't pay YNABs insane prices but I still use the same methods.

But obviously I have ADHD so I've had to restart that budget many many times. I've forgotten about it multiple times over the last 13 years. But I'm finally consistent with it. I check it when I'm going to make a big purchase, I know my general what I need weekly, and I fully review it every pay day (or you know, 2 days later shhh).

I frequently check my bank account and use vibes to largely take care of my finances. It isn't completely optimized or strict, but it works since my bills are predictable.

Putting longer term savings into CDs is something I've found to be helpful. I can get to the money if an emergency came up, but otherwise I treat that as my untouchable savings, so i get some artificial scarcity in the mix.

I don't think I even check my account enough. My coworkers look at me in horror when I tell them that I just sort of eyeball the bank account every now and then to see that the approximate amount was put in.

...and, honestly? Fuck their thinking anyway. I know they aren't breaking out calculator, pen&paper, or even chatfuckpt to ensure the pennies are exactly matching. Knowing that I can spend $5 once a month on a game, or pay for a prescription, isn't exactly hard. I just always keep way under what any budget would tell me anyway. I don't need a budget to tell me how much to put away for retirement, that shit is going the way of the dodo here soon.

I’m a mathematician. My math brain shuts off when the units are in currency.

Theres loads of ways to manage your spending without a budget, more effective for most people too.