[Magpie1972]

I was taking a serious look at ours last night trying to see what we would save switching to a combo cable/phone/interset deal and I realized I think we have been doing a lazy budget. I haven't been utilizing the category feature on our accounting software. (money 2007 home & business)

I did a MUCH better job of tracking money when we were broker.

It really sucks becasue I am trying to trim fat and don't know what's fat. Ugh.

Anyone use money to make a budget and like it? I am going to start a money journal and itemize everything in hopes to track how we spend better. I think I will go from there to see how to best have a plan to save.

Anyone have a program or website they use that they love? I would like to use the MM budget only for our "real" budget so I don't do it wrong and can't change it. Or can you?

 

[rebeccalynn]

Sorry a quicken user here - maybe put help me with MM budget in title.

 

[Thystle]

If you need structure both the "Total Money Makeover" and "Your Money or Your Life" would be a good reads to start with!

 

[rebeccalynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebeccalynn Sorry a quicken user here - maybe put help me with MM budget in title.

I went back and reread your question and realized that I really did not answer it.

can I blame it on reading while being pulled on my 2 kids?

I second pp on the TMM. We are debt free (except for mortgage - 9 more yrs) and contributing to retirement and college savings by following those principles. See if your library has it. It has how to set up a budget. Really a budget is writing down your income and then writing down where you are going to spend that money. If you are unsure about how much money you are really spending on categories then you need to keep a written record of all expenses for a month or two and then you can start trimming fat from there. Every money program that I have used has a way to set up categories for spending and you just need to enter in what that $50 spent at Wal Mart was for (ie $30 food/grocery $20 car maint.).

 

[shelbell]

Money has an automatic budget feature that will take an average of your past X number of months' spending in a specific category and make that your 'budget.' From there, you can tweak the numbers. When I tried to do it, I just would cut whatever numbers I felt needed to be trimmed and track it that way. Unfortunately, I am also a lazy budgeter.

: I just prefer to look at the spending reports and nifty pie chart at the end of the month and make goals for the next month.