help me simplify my money management

[jackson'smama]

is it possible that one could be *too* particular/anal about money management. i've always been very logical and good with math but i've gotten to a point where the money mgt is making me insane.
i work extremely part time, so my money isn't counted - it goes straight to the money market. my dh gets paid every other week. i budget according to two paychecks per month (we get the "extra" paycheck twice a year i think and that's banked as savings or used for something - i.e. november's will be Christmas money). we keep a 2k buffer in the checking account at all times.
that said, i am going NUTS. it drives me crazy to have any money left at the end of the month that didn't go "somewhere" - even if it's off to savings. BUT. that's a big BUT. it freaks me out to take money out of checking to move it to savings *just in case* we might need it. we get penalized for more than 2 withdrawals a month off savings or money market.
also, i've come to this point where i'm making myself so crazy that i'm wishing that we could have all of dh's monthly pay on the first day of the month. pay all the bills (or at least record them - most are autodraft throughout the month). then whatever's left is savings/entertainment spending if we want. you'd think i could just do this in my head BUT I CAN'T, and i'm not sure why i think that would make my life easier?!?!
am i just not cut out to manage the money? how can i make this easier?
plus, i get really tripped up by extra bills. i account for (nearly, i guess) EVERYTHING in the monthly budget (use monthly averages to keep in checking a little every month for things that we only pay once or twice a year). but the problem comes when we go over on the gas budget or have to go to the doctor/veterinarian more than we budgeted for that month and it takes more out than i was ready for. does this make sense? we never go in the red, but it *feels* like we do.
do you have any suggestions for simple budgeting? we have free checking, free savings, and a money market.

[songbird45]

It sounds like your system is fine. It's ok if you go over some months on your budget or under some months. That's what averages are. Sometimes you're over, sometimes you're under. It'll even out by the end of the year.

If you've got a $2k buffer in checking, there's no problem sending anything over that to savings. Most months you will already have your buffer and won't need to withdraw from savings, and if you do need to, it'll be less than twice a month. How much do you normally withdraw from savings?

Are you using any software to make the budgeting easier on yourself? Try using some kind of envelope budgeting software. I use grisbi myself and it works well but you might like some other package, or even just a spreadsheet might work for you to keep track of everything. It's too hard to do it in your head, even if you're smart and a math whiz. There's just too many numbers involved.

[mightymoo]

I take a much much looser view of budgeting and money management. Really I do expense tracking. My goal is just to be sure that overall (for the year) we spend less than we take in. (For us, DH paycheck gets deposited right to our investments, and we pay ourselves a monthly stipend at the beginning of the month, so the income I'm working with always stays the same, even though DH's paycheck may change due to various things like maxing out 401k, taxes or bonus, etc.

So each month I have an excel tab that has the total stipend at the top, all bill deducted (averages for electric & gas), an amoun contributed to the annual budget (large annual allowances for some categories, other things like gifts and mag subs, etc) and then my monthly budget consists of only gas, groceries and commuting. Whatever is left over is for whatever. However, I'm just making sure I do'nt go over, so if gas is $50 over budget and grocery is $50 under, no worries. If I have money left over at the end of the month, I deposit it, if I don't, I carry the negative to next month to make up, or remove money from my short term savings (the savings I put last months extra in)