stick to a budget

I currently am trying to figure out a budget via spreadsheet, because, in my opinion, when it works out on paper, it can generally stick pretty well. Here’s what I got so far, it’s public – so if you think there’s a better way to spend, play with it :)

http://www.tinyurl.com/dx-budget

SRP has some great online tools to help manage your electricity bill and predict what next month’s bill will look like. it even has the option now to send you alerts whenever it seems like your bill is going to exceed your desired amount.

Finally got my student loans and will be starting my winter job. But now the challenge begins. Will follow advice from those that have accomplished this goal.

I’ve started working towards this goal by setting up an account on Mint.com to see not just how much I have income vs. expenses, but to see also where the money is going to know where to trim back and where I can afford to spend.

Right now it’s just more set up as a learning tool to see where the money has been going—at the start of November, I’m going to set a realistic budget for the month and see if I can do it. Then at the end of the month, I’ll evaluate my results and adjust my budget as necessary. I’ll need to consider that I’ll be spending money for winter holidays, but ultimately I’m trying to save more than I spend.

I write a new budget for my family before every paycheck, but we RARELY stick to it. Most of the time the fault is ours, for giving in to a fastfood urge, running out of new books or just boredom shopping. Sometimes it’s a force of nature (or karma…), like how this past month we had to replace the lawnmower and the vacuum, buy a new insurance policy, AND spend almost $900 having our car repaired. But I make the damn budgets for a REASON, and I’d like to get better at stickin’ to ‘em.

I want to get this started. I want to be able to buy a house and well not worry about money…

i dont even know where to start.. what categories to use? grr!

Started by listing my monthly income/expenses in a simple excel spreadsheet, then enlisted some help to estimate the household spending allowances.

Budget5000.com is helping with the accountability factor… it takes some work to set up the initial budget but it does most of the work for you afterwards and it features a daily spending tracker – every little thing really adds up. It’s hard to justify that pumpkin latte when the report says you’ve already spent $57.63 on coffee!

Create a Budget using Dave Ramsey guidelines

I need to do this if I ever want to buy a home or invest or anything I wanna do that requires more than $200 once. I am going to have a hard time of it, especially since I essentially cover two people. Me and my best friend (who’s yet to find a job).

Yet, I know we can do it. A particularly helpful website I found for this endeavor is https://wwws.mint.com as it tracks expenses after linking directly to your bank accounts, credit cards, stock portfolios, etc etc.

I found out that I’ve been spending more than $1,000 a month on food and gas per month. I was shocked. My goal right now is to reduce spending in both areas by $100 per month, and have added a budget for saving $400 a month. I doubt I will succeed right away, but I have a plan of action and a tool to help me keep track and point out my mistakes (texts my phone if I go over budget or have a low balance).

So I think this will help me achieve my goals. That, and my drive to do so! Since no tool can help the man who would use it so he doesn’t need it practice the related skill.

Reading other people’s success stories, clearly I need to write down everything I spend.

I have a payrise due in Sept thanks to a recent promotion, so I am aiming to actually be able to save something every month. I won’t wait till then to track my spending though. I’ll try and make a start on that straight away…

Daunting prospect.