Budgets: Do you have one? If Y, do you do a mid year analysis of your spending?

Yes I try to do a self audit regularly

No never really did, and it worked well for us because we are both frugal.
We just spent reasonably and when surplus built up I'd dump it into taxable brokerage and buy index funds. If we'd have budgeted I think we would have deliberately increased budget and spent considerably more over years

A few years into early retirement and I'm realizing we need to start proactively spending more than we're naturally comfortable with.

My pension and SS goes into 1 account, which covers all the bills. Wife's SS into another account. That's our fun money. If the other account doesn't decrease we're doing fine.

Quarterly review of assets and if they are fine then current spending is fine.

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Or other frequency analysis? We do. Always have. Now, the 1st year of retirement, especially. Use Monarch. Just completed mid year analysis. High level / projected to be on budget. Curious if others do similar.

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I’ve never had one. I sat down last year for the first time to figure out my spend and it was disgusting I was off by a lot on what I thought I had spent.

Wiped that shite from my memory and kept rolling with all my bad habits.

I need to know your yearly spend. 250k?

Never had a rigid budget to abide by. I do more cash flow forecasting with forecasted expenses as a general measure of how to live. I have a standard savings/investments in the forecast, and allocate more to that in the months with higher forecasted income. Knock on wood but we never have had a drop in income but only increases, so the increases would be split between savings and splurges. I have always liked it this way because it takes the nitpicky stress away from day to day living and worrying about money. If I brought in an auditor he would probably show me spreadsheet after spreadsheet of savings if I became a monk, but we enjoy the experiences provided by the fruits of our labor and sacrifice. We would not be where we are today if we had an accountant mindset.

For many, a strict budget is necessary, especially for those with a set income/salary along with a growing family. Not everyone's situation is the same. To each their own.

Wife and i have two kids (17 and 19). SR year and college ages tend to have a few unforeseen expenses come up. Luckily it has never been a problem.

I have never created a budget, but I have savings amounts or levels that we adhere to every month. Where i fall short, in the eyes of the Dave Ramseys of the world, is that I do not have a job for any “extra” cash each month.

Sure I could be more diligent, but as long as we stick to the savings plan, I am comfortable. Just my $.02

I keep and monitor a budget daily but my cashflow is such that I don’t feel the need to change spending behavior. Use it more as a tracker than something to inform future spending.

Spend is about 18k per month give or take a couple grand.

I thought you would be spending much more than $250K.