Budget help

[crazydoglady]

Any good sites for free budget planners? I am horrible at setting up my own budget, so if I could find a pre-fabbed form that is efficient, that would be wonderful.

I found one I liked yesterday, but it ended up being in pounds rather than dollars. I'm even worse at monetary exchange conversions than I am at budgeting! LOL

[rolltimer]

You can learn a lot about budgeting by keeping track of all your expenses in a small notebook. At the end of the month, figure out the categories you need: rent or mortgage, electricity, heating oil, water, sewer, groceries and home supplies, eating out, clothes, car maintenance & repairs, gas, bus or subway passes, phone, entertainment, internet, cable, insurance and any other items. Assign each expense to the appropriate category and tally up the totals. Write the totals in a separate notebook or on a separate page from the running expenses. Next month do the same. After about 6 months you'll have a handle on how much you are spending on average in each category. You'll also have an idea of areas to trim, financial or savings goals you want to reach. While a financial or budget creation site can offer suggestions and tips, no one knows your financial situation like you do, where your strengths lie and your weaknesses crop up to trip you just when you think you're on track to meet a goal. It's too easy to drop the whole matter if a site says you should be saving X or spending Y and you are nowhere near the target. Take it a little at a time and you become the master of your finances.

[TexasOaks]

PM me if you still need one. I have one in excel I can send to your email.

[craigtheobald]

go have a look at recommended sites under my blog
You may find what you need

[AlmostFrugal]

Originally Posted by crazydoglady

Any good sites for free budget planners? I am horrible at setting up my own budget, so if I could find a pre-fabbed form that is efficient, that would be wonderful.

I found one I liked yesterday, but it ended up being in pounds rather than dollars. I'm even worse at monetary exchange conversions than I am at budgeting! LOL

It doesn't matter if it's in pounds... just ignore the symbols! All joking aside, I got my budget sheet from Microsoft templates, (search MS templates, excel, budget) and then I tweaked it over time until it was right for me. That said, Pear Budget is REALLY easy to use, and is only $3 a month. The first month is free, so you can decide if you like it or not.

[flipchick1127]

BYU's personal finance site has a good sheet linked to this site: http://personalfinance.byu.edu/?q=node/264. It is even more useful if you personalize it to meet your needs.

[FinanciallySMART]

You can get a Budget planner on our site by clicking on financial tools. All the best.

[leah2255]

Originally Posted by rolltimer

You can learn a lot about budgeting by keeping track of all your expenses in a small notebook. At the end of the month, figure out the categories you need: rent or mortgage, electricity, heating oil, water, sewer, groceries and home supplies, eating out, clothes, car maintenance & repairs, gas, bus or subway passes, phone, entertainment, internet, cable, insurance and any other items. Assign each expense to the appropriate category and tally up the totals. Write the totals in a separate notebook or on a separate page from the running expenses. Next month do the same. After about 6 months you'll have a handle on how much you are spending on average in each category. You'll also have an idea of areas to trim, financial or savings goals you want to reach. While a financial or budget creation site can offer suggestions and tips, no one knows your financial situation like you do, where your strengths lie and your weaknesses crop up to trip you just when you think you're on track to meet a goal. It's too easy to drop the whole matter if a site says you should be saving X or spending Y and you are nowhere near the target. Take it a little at a time and you become the master of your finances.

You are quite. I have the same problem. But people like us often cannot stick to the end. Maybe we can write everything down the first one or two days, however, from the next several days everything will replay AS.

[optwizard]

Dont know if I am going to get in trouble for this but here is a Budget worksheet
http://www.anewhorizon.org/pdf/TheBudgetAnanlyzer.pdf

Hope this helps you....

[Paul Van Lierop]

I think you've got the right idea, start off with a free option and get your stuff in order then you can think about other options. There are ton of budget spreadsheets out there I started my own journey with some templates out at http://vertex42.com and then moved to dedicated budgeting software. I now use You Need a Budget (YNAB) exclusively as it's finance software geared towards budgeting unlike many of the others that are almost entirely focused on tracking your money. If you spend all of your time trying to figure out where it all went your too late.

I ran a 3 part series on zero based budget that covers everything from starting out with a pad and paper to moving up to a system I use with YNAB. You've also come to the right place here at Wisebreads forums.