Anyone else need a budget?

Question

I can not control my spending. ugh

Answer 1

Me too! I've been trying to save money because I should have way more than I do. This growing up thing kinda sucks. I even went as far as putting a sticker on my debit card saying not to eat out and only buy if I need somthing. It's been helping a little bit. Another trick my aunt did was put your credit/debit card in a pail with water and stick it in the freezer that way inorder to buy something you need to wait for it to defrost, that way you need to really need it. If you should decide to do it you might want to take out a little emergency money just incase.

Answer 2

It's difficult to live on a budget if you don't have the discipline. To me it sounds like you need to get control of yourself. Don't bother buying any new software, use Excel or some version similar to that. All you have to do is track all your expenses for at least one month. Rent, utilities, phone, cable, groceries, eating out, entertainment, insurance, the list goes on... From there you will see what you spend and what it is spent on. Next, make sure the necessities are paid. Luxuries such as cable, internet, eating out, clothes, etc will need to be cut down to control your spending. You are clearly living beyond your means and you need to learn to live off of your income and not credit cards. Go to http://www.oprah.com and go to her Debt Diet section. There are some great tools you can utilize, even a monthly expense sheet you can go by.

Answer 3

If you are a little technical savvy use a spreadsheet (i.e. Microsoft Excel). QuickBooks and Quicken are good, but I prefer to customize my finances using spreadsheets. Each credit card I have had a place for the due date, balance, customer service number, account number, usage percentage, amount due, date established, and my personal rating of the credit card. With this information, I can create a total balance off all my finances, my total credit usage, and specific category balances (i.e. student loans, credit, car loans, and mortgages).

I have another section of monthly expenses (spanning 6 months). This has every monthly expense such as credit, loans, utilities, cable, cell, insurance, gas, necessities, rent/mortgages, and allowances. Using this section, I can play with the numbers if I want to pay off accounts, factor in vacation expenses, or other additional expenses.

Answer 4

No. Thankfully I am used to budgeting at work and analyzing financial data, so that has helped me in my personal life. You can try Quicken.

Answer 5

I just set my sister up with Microsoft Money and she loves it. I've been using it for years. You can download a free 90 day trial from Microsoft, try it out.

Answer 6

I sooooo need a budget, I'm broke right now because I can't manage my money! I used to be so good at it...good luck!

Answer 7

i totally understand I'm so bad that i have to give my money to my boyfriend he looks after it and i get it only as i ask for it it really does help , even though i sound pathetic