budget system

[hmcart]

I am thinking about trying a new budget system. I kind of want something for my computer but I do love writing it down. Either way I am wanting a change. What do yall suggest?

[mndtrp]

I use Mint.

However, take a gander at the next page, something may click with you. If you like spreadsheets, check out Neil Rothman's entry:

Big List of Free Budgeting Tools and Software My Money Blog

[hmcart]

that seems like a good list! Ill check them out!

[MaryCarney]

I prefer the paper-and-pencil zero sum method Ramsey uses. There's just something about writing it all down every month that fixes it in my mind.

[Wendy99]

I love using microsoft excel. I was able to tailor it to our needs (as you create it). I have serveral sheets in my file that automatically update to the first page which is the 'main budget'

[Handy Andy]

I like to write everything out on paper every month. There is something about investing the time to write it all out and do the math by hand that makes me stay a little more motivated.

Or perhaps I am just weird??

[nessarowdy]

I'm a paper and pen kind of gal, as well. It helps me to visualize where the money goes, and it makes it more real to me to see how much flippin' money I waste on things like eating out....

-Vanessa

[greekislandgirl]

Ι do weekly (rather than monthly) budgeting. I have one page per week on my computer that is just a plain table that I made in a word processing program. It has columns for category, amount budgeted (where there's space to add or subtract what was left at the end of the previous week), sum of previous, amount spent, amount left. The categories started out kind of vague when I started 75 weeks ago, now they are extraordinarily specific (I have a line just for Milk, for example, and another just for Post Office).

So for example my milk line looks like this:
Cat. ... budgeted ... new sum ... spent ... left
Milk ... 2.00 + 3.40 ... 5.40 ... 1.50 ... 3.90

I have tweaked and tweaked and tweaked this since I started in June, 2010. I update after every purchase (using receipts) every day. I do print them out and keep them in a notebook. I like to have the print outs but I could live without them.

This has been ENORMOUSLY helpful to me. I don't use Excel because I like the ability to play with the tables to make them a little more visually appealing and I don't know how to do that on Excel. But if you prefer Excel, go for it. Whatever works for you.

I can tell you exactly where every last penny has gone over the past 75 weeks. It's very empowering.

[cheles2kids]

This is the one that I use & love:

Family Budget Worksheet

You need to spend a little time playing around with it but once you get used to working with it, it's super simple to use.

[kae]

Paper and pen budgeting for me too. There's just something about it that a computer budget doesn't offer.