Are you someone that spends money like it is going out of style and you know this is going to get you in trouble? Maybe it already has gotten you into trouble and you are just to the point where you can no longer take it anymore. There are ways to get yourself out of those debts and you can use a budgeting program to help you get back on track. Here are some tips to help you right off the bat with your budget.

First, you need to be able to admit whether or not you are good with money. If you really want to prove this to yourself, just do one simple test over the next month. Every single time you make a purchase, whether for 10 cents or $1,000 get a receipt. Save all of these receipts in a shoebox for one month. At the end of the month add these up into categories like food, drink, gas, bills, rent, needs, and wants. You will see where you really spend your money and how much. This will open your eyes.

Second, now you will realize that you need a budgeting program to help you get on track. You probably have some discipline and you can build on that. You need to make sure you use a budgeting program and always plan for less income than you will probably make and more expenses than you will probably have to pay. This will allow you to over and under exaggerate, which means your budget will be better for you at the end of the month.

Last, if you cannot do this on your own get some professional help. Especially if you are working on getting out of debt because having a professional on the team can only help you get there faster and easier. They will set up the plan for you and tell you where your money needs to go instead of leaving you blind to figure it out on your own.

Creating a home budget system is a sure fire way to get your money to go further, and it costs nothing. Once you have all your expenses and your income laid out in front of you, it becomes a lot easier to see where your money is disappearing to, which enables you to do something about it.

If you have a computer, creating a home budget system is really easy. (Even if you don’t have a computer, it is still a very good idea.) If you don’t have a program like Word or Excel on your computer, you can download a lookalike compatible office suite of programs from Openoffice dot org absolutely free, which will do the job perfectly. I use them myself. If you don’t know how to use these programs that’s also OK; then you just type all your budget items into any wordprocessor or notepad.

OK, to start you need to split the page into 2 columns and put all your income in the one column. List everything so that you know exactly where the money is coming from.

Then, in the other column, list all your expenses, even the tiny ones. If necessary, keep all your slips and receipts from shopping, and enter them into the expenses side. Don’t forget to also enter unseen things like debit orders and insurance deductions that the bank automatically takes out of your account each month.

Also list stuff like tips and donations that you may have made.

Once you have all the info entered, then add up the two sides and check if your income is more or less than your expenses. If it’s more (Hallelujah!) then try and save the excess (or at least some of it) in a high interest account, or pay off some high interest debt with it.

If the expenses are more than the income, then you need to go through the list of expenses and see what you can remove. What we do is we budget in advance for the month ahead. For example, we budget say $15 for newspapers: we take the $15 in cash, and put it in a little plastic zip lock bag, and we keep it in a cash box until we use it. And we do the same with other stuff like Friends birthday presents, Postage stamps, Petty cash (ie emergency money) and so on. But if it’s a bad month, we would leave out certain things. In other words, we prioritize our needs, and do away with things we can live without. So we would leave the Newspapers bag empty, for example, and just get our news off the radio or TV. It’s not always pleasant, but at least we stay out of debt.

If you are using a Word processor like Word or Openoffice, you can create a table, and add some formula, and the program will add up the columns for you, so that as you change things, you can see how it’s affecting your bottom line. This makes it a lot easier to work things out. Also, each month you just copy the last months budget document, change the date at the top and about half of the figures (a lot stay the same each month, like rent, insurance, etc) and you get the budget done in half an hour less time.

It normally takes about 1-2 hours to do this budget, and it’s time well spent.

Duncan Kelly

Sometimes debt can seem overwhelming. In those instances, or even before things get that far out of hand, get back to basics and try some of these debt handling solutions.

BASICS – Lower insurance deductibles for your homeowners, renters and vehicles policies where appropriate and save money. Don’t take chances on bouncing checks; instead get covered with overdraft protection and pay about the same as what it would cost for one bounced check to cover our account for an entire year. Ask your banker about packaged account services. Many offer free savings and checking accounts with free overdraft protection and checks, free online bill paying and more. When you shop, check your receipts, even for groceries. Many times items ring up at incorrect prices. Sometimes store policy allows for no errors, meaning you get the items free if it wrings up wrong. So carry along a handheld calculator or pencil with small notepad to tally up your charges.

REACH OUT- If you have medical debt, the first thing healthcare offices try to do is get you to charge the bills or refinance your home, etc. STOP. Before you take such a drastic step, check with legal counsel. There are often other steps to take first. For example, notify the billing parties and tell them you need to apply for financial aid. Many have forms to complete, and although they may be lengthy, remember they’re for free money to pay your bills. Reach out, take forms and fill them out. Then set up minimum payment arrangements for the remaining balances, even if it’s just $10 a month for 30 years. Healthcare bills are not like credit card debt and do not need to be reported to the credit bureau in the same manner.

Also reach out with merchandise and return any recently purchased items that you can for a refund. Credit cards and mail order companies generally allow you 30 days to inspect your purchase. Return any you can for refunds. If purchases are beyond the 30 days and for various reasons don’t hold up to their end of the “bargain;” i.e. they broke already or never worked right to begin with, get on a letter writing campaign pronto. Write the place of purchase and copy the manufacturer, the distributor, the Better Business Bureau and your state Attorney General’s Office. State the reasons our product is faulty and that you want a refund. It’s often rewarding to get help with other entities like these. No need to go it alone!

So before your debt gets out of hand, take charge and get back to basics. Put some of these debt handling solutions into practice and make the most out of what you have.

Have you ever felt that your hard-earned cash is slipping through your fingers? Are you genuinely surprised by how much money you and your family spend? Do you regularly run out of money before the end of the month? Are you racking up credit card debts to fund the difference between what you earn and what you spend? Do you wish that you had more control over your personal budget or your household budget?

An envelope online budgeting program provides the answers to all these questions. Unlike conventional budgeting software, you do not have to collect receipts and spend hours at the computer entering and categorizing all of your transactions. An envelope online budgeting system does this for you automatically because it links electronically to all of your bank accounts, credit cards, store cards and other financial accounts at thousands of financial institutions throughout the USA. Each transaction that you make is automatically registered by your online budgeting account, so that you always know the current status of your finances.

An envelope online budgeting system enables you to manage your personal budget effectively because you can allocate portions of your monthly income to different areas, each of which has its own separate “envelope”. For example, you could allocate $500 per month to the groceries envelope. Each time you spend money on groceries, the total amount in this envelope will be reduced so that you always know how much more you have available to spend on groceries before the end of the month. Such a system helps you to be in control and to minimize unnecessary spending on impulse purchases.

Your household budget can also be effectively managed using an envelope online budgeting program. You can pay all of your bills online using the system, saving you valuable time and eliminating postage costs. You and your spouse can both access your household account wherever you have access to the Internet, so that you can both know how much money you have left to spend each month whether you are at home, at work or on the move with your cell phone.

It is also easy to use an envelope online budgeting system to plan for future expenditure. For example, the system enables you to easily set aside a regular amount each month so that you can save for your annual vacation. Instead of using credit cards to fund the vacation, you will be able to pay for it outright and get rid of the debt-related worry that often follows carefree vacations.

Research has shown that the average user of an envelope online budgeting system saves approximately 10% of their income each month, because they are more aware of how they are spending their money and are less likely to make unwise spending decisions if they are keeping their finances under such tight control. Just think how you could use all of that extra money – you may wish to put it towards paying off your mortgage several years early or you may even be able to retire at a younger age than you expected.

In addition, an envelope online budgeting system is generally user-friendly, very secure, well-designed and cost-effective. This method was voted one of the top 100 products of 2006 by a well known publication. You don’t have to take their word for it, however, as most online budgeting services will allow you to try their service completely free of charge and without obligation for one month. Why not give it a go and see if it helps you to improve your financial situation in just one month? You have nothing to lose and who knows how much you could gain. Good luck in your quest for success in managing your personal budget or your household budget.

When you start working with making a household budget it is extremely important to track your spending and all your expense both on a weekly and monthly basis. Many people dread tracking their expenses and recording every receipt but this is by far the best way to gain control over your spending. There is always a huge gap between what people think they spend and what they actually spend each month. So, tracking your spending is the only way to establish a working budget.

In order to track you spending you will need the following two budget worksheets:

#1 Weekly Expenses Report Worksheet – On this worksheet you will record all the spending for a given week. You will want to have four copies of this worksheet for a given month. Carry it with you to record expenses or make a habit of recording expenses at the end of the day with your daily receipts. Make sure to include a description of the item, the date purchased, the amount and the expense category. You will also want to write down how you paid for the item whether by cash, check, or credit card. This will give you a very detailed report of your weekly spending.

#2 Monthly Expense Record Worksheet – After you have filled out your weekly worksheet for a given week, you will want to transfer all spending and expenses over to the monthly expense record worksheet. It is very helpful to first fill out the weekly expenses report worksheet because people forget to record certain spending when just using the monthly expense record worksheet along.

After filling out these two worksheets you will have effectively tracked your spending for the month. Using the monthly expense record worksheet, you will now have the information you need to create a working budget for next month.