We really need some help....

[chkpea]

Please give me some quick tips....we are always broke and always have credit card balances, and we can't seem to keep with the basics!

How do you track your spending? where can I save money? we don't keep treats/junk in the house and groceries are still way too high, and clothing...our baby has lots of clothes (*hand me downs) but myself, my 3 year old and my husband....need clothes but after bills are paid there isn't much left for that. Help.

[mightymoo]

I track spending in excel - just very simply you could do it on a piece of paper, you don't need sophisticated stuff, just need to keep up with it.

At the top of the spreadsheet, I have DH's take home pay for the month. Then I have a section for bills where I put all our bills for the month (I count the bills I paid this month against next month, so I start the month knowing how much extra I have to spend. Then I write in every expense and have a field that subtracts the bills and expenses from the total take home pay. So I know at any point during the month just where we are in relation to our spending. It helps me look closely at what I spent and see where I'm overspending.

Making a vow to yourself to not buy anything this month that you don't absolutely need. I don't mean can use - I mean if you can possibly get by without it until tomorrow, don't buy it today. I find if I don't keep myself in check, I buy a lot of things I think i need, but I don't really need them, they are just useful, not necessary. For example, a new storage container to keep something in - I'll use it, its not like its a huge expenditure, but could a cardboard box I have already work? Yes, so I don't buy it. Once you've paid off your debt and start saving, then you can look at those things differently. When you reach the end of the month and have $200 left over you can say 'okay, should I spend some of this money on one of those things I deferred?' It helps you get into into a 'save up for it' mindset.

[Godaime]

I do my tracking on Access. Its a very simple database, and I like it because you can quickly pull up information like "how much did I spend on groceries this month" or "How much money have I spent this month so far"

I would start looking at your take home income/s and subtracting rent/utilities/internet/insurance/phone/any other set monthly bill. With the things like groceries...see if you can cut down a little more if you have no money left after paying the bills. Try to avoid using credit cards and use more cash because I think when using cash...people are more aware of how money is leaving them.

[chkpea]

are there any programs that are free to download to do tracking on?

[GoddessKristie]

Rather than tracking what we spend, we look at what we need and conciously decide what we want to spend and work our budget from there. The best advice I can give you is to create a budget and stick to it, sounds simple, but a lot of people fail because they don't make room for the fun things they want to do. I would love to create more room in my budget but not at the cost of my quality of life. For us that means 4 magazine subscriptions and a $90 budget each month for going out/entertainment. We still feel like we're living and having fun, but we know we have money to pay our bills each month because we take that 90 out in 4 incriments of cash. Then if we go out to eat we budget our meal to have enough to cover dinner, drinks, and tip all with the cash we have. Going to the movies is great fun too, but we go for the movie, not the popcorn and soda. Don't get me wrong we love both! But, we'd rather be able to pay our water bill next month.
Try to live conciously, think before you buy, and if you're a impulse shopper (like me!) or an emotional shopper (also me!) keep cash for the purchases you need and leave your checkbook/debit card at home.
Good luck!

[Ruthla]

Wow- $90 a month for entertainment? We can't afford nearly that much!

The point is to make a budget that works for you and your family- the actual numbers in a budget are going to vary from one family to another, depending a lot on the income they're working with, how many family members, etc.

One technique that works well for me is to only spend cash, rather than use my debit card. It's way too easy to sign the credit/debit card slip and not really look at the price, but when you actually take the cash out of your wallet, you SEE how much is left. I used my debit card a lot this past month and ended up overdrawing my account.

For family clothes, especially for growing children, try shopping in thrift stores rather than department stores.

[Om Girl]

Originally Posted by chkpea

are there any programs that are free to download to do tracking on?

If you have online banking access it usually has a function that does this automatically. Wells Fargo online banking has a "track your spending" function that we use.
(We use our checking account to pay all of our bills and we each get a "cash allowance" for the rest of our excess spending.)