are budgets hard to keep??

Question

i made a budget for the family expencs so we can afford to pay off things but am i just wasting my time?? what is the best way to make a budget?/ any tips on keeping track on how much is spent? like recipts and bills? is it better to write it down or do it on the computer? how do i keep track of it all?

Answer 1

Budgets are hard to keep. But, they are even harder if you aren't honest when you make them up. The key to making a good/honest budget is to take time to actually figure out what a fair amount of money to spend on a given expense is without paying attention to weather you can afford it of not. After that you should then apply your income to see if you can meet the expectations. If you find that you definitely need $2000 a month to live but only make $1500 then you have to increase your income in some way. If you just lower your budget to accommodate your income then you will never be able to keep it since it won't be realistic.

Once you have a realistic budget that you know you can keep you should track your expenses as best you can. What I like to do is have a set of envelopes filled with cash for the main items. If you budget $300 a month for food, you put $300 in the envelope at the beginning of the month and that's it.. if the envelope is empty you starve until the next month, etc.

You will eventually get the hang of it and you will be on your way to better finances in no time..

Oh.. and get rid of all of your credit cards. Even if you have balances, destroy the cards until they are all paid off. No new credit!

Answer 2

I use Microsoft Money and a according folder with all the recepits for the year. Categories the folder to those things that are tax deductiable and things that are not.

MS Money allows me to pull my data from my bank and keep it on one place. I has help me and my family understand where we are at and track monthly expendares and income. The recepts are keep and helps with next years taxes.

I have been using MS Money for about seven months and have had no problems using the software. Check around on the net, you may be able to get the software for about $20-30 bucks.

Answer 3

They are hard to keep for me. I just can't keep a budget!! We do fine but I am just not that kind of person! The rest of my family is though.

Answer 4

I think if you look around a bit online you can find some ideas of how to do that. you can go to openoffice.com and download a spreadsheet and then to http://inpic.net and they will show you in pictures how to set up a spreadsheet for various things, including a budget.