What does your budget physically look like? - Page 2

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I really like the idea of a calendar to look at to see a big picture all at once. I am a very visual person, so I think this would help me a ton. I actually responded about using a calendar yesterday, but my post disappeared...not sure what happened there.

I am actually feeling really positive about my budget right now, I just need to get it into a system that is easy to use and can help me to see the big picture quickly and easily. Tomorrow is payday, and I know exactly what needs to be paid, how much, and what should be left over. I am giving myself a pretty big buffer so that I can start saving right away in case of an emergency too. I can't wait to get going on a system that will actually work for me.

[jkpmomtoboys]

Quicken, Quicken, Quicken. I am lucky in that Dh is an Econ major and loves working with $$ and investments so he has our Quicken spending tracked back to 1997. Every expense. Every time. It helps so much in that we can pull it up at any time and look to see where we're spending and where we can let out the budget a little bit. But you have to be diligent about inputing your expenses every week. It's amazing, though...

[paxye]

Originally Posted by jkpmomtoboys

Quicken, Quicken, Quicken. I am lucky in that Dh is an Econ major and loves working with $$ and investments so he has our Quicken spending tracked back to 1997. Every expense. Every time. It helps so much in that we can pull it up at any time and look to see where we're spending and where we can let out the budget a little bit. But you have to be diligent about inputing your expenses every week. It's amazing, though...

I only pay things with my checking account, mostly with Interac so I just download the file from my online banking and it is all inputed into Quicken that way...

I agree, great software...

[*MamaJen*]

I went back to grad school this year and I'm on a pretty strict budget, so I just started using mint.com. I love love love it. I use my debit card for everything, and I love how it syncs with your bank accounts you don't have to input anything, except for tweaking things into the right category. It's pretty cool seeing the expenses in a pie chart (that "kids" category is pretty big, lol).
I also have a spending budget written out in excel.

[SubliminalDarkness]

I made a Google spreadsheet.

[carouselrider]

Originally Posted by *MamaJen*

I went back to grad school this year and I'm on a pretty strict budget, so I just started using mint.com. I love love love it. I use my debit card for everything, and I love how it syncs with your bank accounts you don't have to input anything, except for tweaking things into the right category. It's pretty cool seeing the expenses in a pie chart (that "kids" category is pretty big, lol).
I also have a spending budget written out in excel.

Ditto. I just started using this a few weeks ago and I am in love. It seems like I've used a zillion budget methods over the years - excel, quicken, envelopes - this has been by far the easiest. For the first time EVER, my dh is on the budget band wagon because we all have immediate capacity to pull up our spending. Before, I think he was not sure if whatever system we had was updated, and also, saw it as MY system so didn't have a lot of buy-in, no matter how much I tried to involve him. Mint.com is something we can both access and use with ease. I cannot believe it is free - I keep trying to figure out what the catch is.

[phathui5]

Ours' has varied. In the past, dh has done it in excel. This month, we used one of Dave Ramsey's budget forms because we're taking the Financial Peace University class at church.