Do you have a beer budget?

[Matt Up North]

I just was talking with SWMBO and said that I should figure out how much I am spending on brewing. I think that it's a good idea, I just don't want to get a set amount I figure that I spend about $50 a month on beer drinking, so if I brew that I should get about 10 gallons a month. If I buy it then I am getting about 2 cases max.

So does anyone have a budget or is it when you have some extra cash?

 

[Coastarine]

I have us keeping track of every dollar we spend on a neato excel sheet that I made, and everything falls in to a category. Beer and Brewing is a category and I think I have $300 per month budgeted for that, but I go over and SWMBO doesn't care. I just put it in the misc category.

 

[ArcaneXor]

I probably should, but I don't at this time. Right now I am spending about $100 per month on ingredients and equipment and "research".

 

[Matt Up North]

You know, I lied

I just figured out that I have already spent about $400 this month...that's between us though ok.

I also have a spreadsheet that lays out what I spend on brewing and I don't do actual costs, rather expected costs. For example, I did up my Belgian Barleywine and plan on bottling it up in 750ml bottles that are going to run me about $15 a case, so I add that into the cost. Also I have a really good price on grain sometimes, but not always, so I put in the price that it costs at the LHBS rather than the good cost. It means that if I am out of grain and the LHBS is all that there is then I know what it will cost me to make the same recipe.

 

[Parker36]

Yes, its called the "How ever much is in my bank account" budget

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Sure I have a beer budget.

It's limit is set on a floating scale of how irritated the wife gets by the purchases. I know I have busted my budget when she looks at me like this;

 

[caver95]

I guess the moon, and uranus are properly aligned. I was asked what I have been spending. I told her I would spend $75 a month, for ingredents(under my breath). But I am pretty triffty.

 

[Marko73]

I don't really keep a budget , but I do try to stick to a 'plan.' I usually try to limit things to 1 beer a month, 1 piece of equipment every 3 months, 1 book every 6 months or something like that. It helps keep things in check for me. Believe it or not, I think I appreciate it a lot more this way. The beers become long projects and that is half the fun for me.

 

[BrewDey]

Yes, its called the "How ever much is in my bank account" budget

Amen to that. SWMBO and I have our own accounts, as well as our joint one. I try to only spend 'my own' money on brewing, but at times that just doesn't work out, especially this time of year when I'm brewing a lot. I don't stock up too much, but when I can, I'll buy a few extra ounces of hops or a few extra sachets of yeast...a normal gravity, modestly hopped AG with dry yeast is around $20 or so.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I guess the moon, and uranus are properly aligned. I was asked what I have been spending. I told her I would spend $75 a month, for ingredents(under my breath). But I am pretty triffty.

So you pulled that number from uranus? (TeeHee)

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Setting up our budget was the best thing that happened to my brewing. My wife an I each get our own separate spending accounts to do with whatever we want. Now my wife never gets upset about my purchases and is MUCH more supportive of my hobby.

I get 5% of our total spending money (after mortgage and car payments) to do with as I please. Then any of my personal items I sell I get that money directly. I probably get about 100-150 a month usually. I also buy all of Danika's gifts and stuff out of that money too. Anything that is for me comes out of there, it just happens to be 95% brewing stuff.

 

[caver95]

So you pulled that number from uranus? (TeeHee)

Good thing I am learning accounting and how to cook the books.
;-}

 

[IrregularPulse]

Amen to that. SWMBO and I have our own accounts, as well as our joint one. I try to only spend 'my own' money on brewing,

This is how we work as well, but we are currently on a freeze of depositing to our own accounts due to scariness at my job. Everything extra goes into savings.
Her presents for holidays also come from this account. luckily I'm free until Christmas on buying her anything. January b-day is a blessing until Christmas time, then it sucks.

I would like to start averaging 1 10G brew a month, but we'll see how the job goes and also i have a 6 month old who is going to start crawling any minute so free time (still takes me ~ 7-8 hours to brew with my one pot) is scarce as well. God help me!

 

[RedIrocZ-28]

I have all but stopped buying commercial brew because I have cut down on the drinking and I am just drinking my own when I am around the house. Its actually saving me money to brew my own. I don't know what I am going to do with this extra money but I do believe that there are some projects that need to be done around the house- related to my brewery of course.

No SWMBO for me, just started dating this girl 3 and a half weeks ago though, so for now I have free reign of my money.

 

[Edcculus]

I have us keeping track of every dollar we spend on a neato excel sheet that I made, and everything falls in to a category. Beer and Brewing is a category and I think I have $300 per month budgeted for that, but I go over and SWMBO doesn't care. I just put it in the misc category.

Would a cleaned up (one without your personal info) version be something you cold share? I'm pretty good with excel, but I always appreciate having a starting point.

 

[Coastarine]

Sure thing, here's a screenshot of some fictional data for anyone else who might be interested:

Top row of numbers (just under the category lables) is how much you intend to spend on each category, and you set that. Red numbers are how much you've actually spent in that month on that category, and the remaining balance is the difference for that category. "Expenditures" on the far right does not count bills, only money that you decided to spend on things, and you'll also notice that the budget for bills is just set to equal the amount spent on bills since they generally stay the same from month to month. Just put purchases/incomes on the day you receive them and I've also left a small place to put a little blurb to remind yourself what that purchase was if you need to reference it later. I recommend allowing excel to sum your purchases if you have more than one on the same day in the same category, that way when you come back and look at it you can tell one purchase from another. At the end of the month you can actually look back and decide where you might have been able to cut back. I also recommend logging a purchase whenever you actually buy the item. This means that ATM withdrawls are not logged, and paying the credit card bill is not logged, because with the ATM the money is not yet spent on anything and with the credit card the money was already spent and logged. You will need to log any interest paid or gained, but you can work that out because I don't pay interest on credit cards. Screw that noise.

That's all I can think of for now. I had a hell of a time getting that pie chart to come out right so good luck to anyone wishing to change it, you hopefully have a better working knowledge of excel than I do.

View attachment Budget.zip

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I can get Excel to calculate a time space continuum using Avagadro's Number squared.


But for the life of me I can't get it to do a dang pie chart with the proper labels.

 

[nealf]

The wife and I are on a very tightened down budget which we both agreed to together. Every month we get together and write down what we are going to spend on everything. My brewing budget is $50... her shopping/etc budget is $50. It sucks, but I've made it work. I must say it'll be a while until I get my B3 sculpture on 50/month.

Coastarine, I like your budget!! Ours is much more simplistic than that, we just do it on a week by week basis.

 

[farmbrewernw]

Thanks for the spreadsheet, SWMBO and I where just talking today about starting one and now I don't have to do all of the busy work to make one.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

The wife handles the money. We both pay into a joint account that pays for everything (mortgage, food, kids clothes, gas, eating out, vacations, etc.) then we each get an allowance per month that we're allowed to spend on whatever we want to.

I always end up spending mine on beer, or ingredients for beer, or beer making equipment.

 

[TexasSpartan]

The wife handles the money. We both pay into a joint account that pays for everything (mortgage, food, kids clothes, gas, eating out, vacations, etc.) then we each get an allowance per month that we're allowed to spend on whatever we want to.

I always end up spending mine on beer, or ingredients for beer, or beer making equipment.

Sounds like my house. Right now I don't spend that much on beer since I just opened my own business at the new year, so we're waiting to see how that goes.

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

I need water to brew, so if the beer budget goes over, I just won't pay the electric or phone bill.

Wait... The kegerator needs electricity. Who needs a phone anyway?

 

[Matt Up North]

That starting a business thing is tough isn't it. I am trying to get something going right now on a five year plan. In other words put a dollar in today, put 5 in next year, 10 the year after, 25 the next year and then 50. Now just turn that into a couple more zeros and you got it buster!

 

[vfinch]

Sounds like most of us are doing the same thing. My wife and I share a joint account, which pays for all the bills and joint expenses, then we also have our personal accounts. We looked at all the expenses for the whole year (EVERYTHING), and then break it down to a dollar figure for each item per paycheck. All I have to do is see what each of our paychecks is for that period, punch it in and we know what we can transfer to our play accounts. Works out great, and we always have money for bills.

Now if I could only convince my wife that a couple of stainless conical fermenters was a joint expense....

 

[Runyanka]

Mine was around $50-$100 a month until this little recession trickled down to the wonderful world of structural engineering. Now my budget (along with wifes) are cut down to the bare minimum.
However, my birthday is March 9th and I see a big box from Austin Homebrew in her closet, and another came via ups today. :rockin:

 

[Matt Up North]

Ugh...after starting this thread I got into it in more depth with the SWMBO. Turns out she is all unhappy with the quantity of brewing I have been doing. "I don't even drink beer that often" she says. Of course I make wine too and she helps out with both the drinking and paying for that. Man I wish she drank more beer.

"You have fun drinking beer with your friends, going to beer parties, and the guys love your beer". That is SWMBO speak for don't brew 20 gallons a month and tell her about how you and the guys drank 5 in a week and the second 5 is nearly gone. And then mention that the 5 you brewed for her is sitting elsewhere and you don't know how to bottle so that the carbonation stays proper. Essentially, don't mention that life ain't perfect and you are going to continue brewing at least 10 gallons a month. Or that you budget in $50 a month for beer even though you would drink at least $100 if you bought commercial.

solihsd fosg poigu [email protected]$%$#^@P$U&^$%P_&(*$%82546

PS...don't even mention the fact that I have an Imperial IPA planned that is going to cost well over $200. That and the fact that even though I love me some mild, there are times to brew a 6% beer that costs $40-$50 for 5 gallons.

 

[Snyder]

We're doing the Dave Ramsey program. For those who don't know, it's basically a cash only system. We have several envelopes with money for groceries, Christmas, clothing, etc. We keep track of everything to the penny. I tried to slip in a brewing envelope, but SWMBO busted me. She says it should be in the grocery budget, and whatever is left after the trip to the grocery store is mine. Good thing I'm the only one who does the grocery shopping!!

 

[Matt Up North]

Hah, I like that Snyder. I said that the absolute minimum I will ever spend on food a month is $200 and broke it down to a cup of coffee, a sandwich and then some top ramen for food for a month costing more than $200. Man is that a crappy food schedule.

 

[Roman Brewer]

I get $20.00 a week from my paycheck deposited to a seperate checking account. I don't brew as often as some of the crazies on HBT (though I would like to!!) So it adds up over the weeks/months that I don't brew. I always have the $$ I need to make the brew I want when I want. That's budget enought for me. :rockin:

Cherrs
Roman Brewer

 

[JPicasso]

I think starting a budget is the best thing one can do to control and have more money for brewing. I fought tooth and nail to being "under the thumb" of a budget fro the longest time, but I find that I now have MORE money to spend on what I want. (or at least it feels that way)

I like that budget spreadsheet BTW, thanks.

Wife and I have $50 per week to do with whatever we want. This includes everything that is not necessity. (Starbucks, shoes, extra phone minutes, and eating out for lunch) We both have control over our own allowance and $50/week can add up fast.

I charge any brewing *equipment* to this discretionary budget. However I charge any brewing *ingredients* to the grocery bill. Since, if I don't have homebrew, I'm going to spend money on beer. (She is still not sure about this one. ) However, I probably only brew 1-2/month so I'm only spending $30 per brew session.

 

[Homercidal]

Sure I have a beer budget.

It's limit is set on a floating scale of how irritated the wife gets by the purchases. I know I have busted my budget when she looks at me like this;

Ha Ha! I watched that movie with the kids and we could not stop playing MST3K along with it!! What a classic!

 

[conpewter]

The wife handles the money. We both pay into a joint account that pays for everything (mortgage, food, kids clothes, gas, eating out, vacations, etc.) then we each get an allowance per month that we're allowed to spend on whatever we want to.

I always end up spending mine on beer, or ingredients for beer, or beer making equipment.

Pretty much the same here. I handle all the money but both of us get "blow" money that we can spend on whatever we want (thought not actual blow... as that's illegal and horrible stuff).

So my monthly blow money is mostly spent on beer stuff, we also have budget lines for restaurant and grocery, both of which we do in cash that really helps us keep a handle on how much we are spending in those categories.

 

[david_42]

Not really. When I was buying equipment, my income was high enough that it didn't matter. Now the real limit is personal capacity. I hate it when a beer goes sour or loses its nose before I can finish the keg, so I don't backlog much.

 

[conpewter]

Sure thing, here's a screenshot of some fictional data for anyone else who might be interested:

Heya thanks for the spreadsheet. I added it to my budget sheet and now have a place to update and calculate out my budget, and also record what I've spent per month. I use your spreadsheet differently (Since things such as my mortgage/taxes/savings all sort of stay the same) but I think it may be useful.

I faked in data as well to upload it here, The budget sheet looks complicated but just fill in the gray squares and everything else calculates.

View attachment blank budget.zip

 

[dmob29]

You guys crack me up with the spread sheets and especially the SWMBO stuff! My WIFE bought this for me at some pottery place and whenever I pull money out of the money spitter, I try to put a few bucks in it. So far it's been working really good. I think the wife also adds some even though she doesn't even like beer...ooof!

 

[BrianTheBrewer]

Yes I have a beer budget...I just cant stick to it.

 

[BlackDogBrewing]

I set aside $40/paycheck, $80/month.

 

[Christian]

I'm lucky, the wife doesn't care how much i spend, she just says it's my hobby and i can spend what i want but i do keep it in reason. She does care however about how much i drink, that she does get on my case about from time to time.

 

[SeamusMac]

My beer budget was $40 twice a month, which would get me a 24 every other week with a bit of change. That was with commercial beer; now I can spend a little bit less than $40 every other week and start a BrewHouse kit and get nearly 3 times the amount of beer! It works out to be about 4 beer a day if I were to consume them all by myself, but somehow my room mates always seem to find there way into my beer fridge...