Budget - Texarkana,TX

Don't spend the money on software... just use a spread sheet.

You can enter all of your expenses to try to predict and then have an "Actuals" column or page to record what you actually spent during the month. That will let you see where you are spending more or less than what you anticipated as well as let you see what you spent money on that may be an unecessary extra.

For example that $2 a day cup of coffee from whereever is $60 a month or 5 gals of organic milk. It is cheaper to buy an insulated cup and bring your own.

It worked wponders for me, I found that I actually was spend about $150 a month on stuff that I could cut out.

Good luck!

3 moms found this helpful

Dave Ramsey. Read his book, The total money makeover. He also has lots of free budgeting tools. His ideas and wisdom have totally changed my life.

L.

1 mom found this helpful

I've been using mint.com for about 6 months. It is a free online tracker linked to your bank and credit accounts, it has lots of tools to analyze and look at your spending and budget. It is also managed by quicken, I had some customer service questions and it was all directed through quicken online.

1 mom found this helpful

You can get all of Dave Ramsey's worksheets online. The book is good, but I found it a waste of $25, since the worksheets are what we really use. The book is good if you need lots of personal stories and examples, we didn't.