I was wondering what system do you use to track your budget and what is your secret to sticking to it? My DH and I want to make 2007 our year to get our finances in order but really are unsure where to start. I have all of our debts listed in Excel with the balance, due date and min payment but where do we go from there? What does everyone do?

A budget is a spending PLAN. Your Excel spreadsheet is your specific plan.

As you start spending, compare your actual spending to the plan. Make adjustments as you go.

For instance, you may budget $50 a month for the electricity bill. Turns out December was a really cold month and when your bill arrives it is $65. You look at your plan and decide where you're going to get the $15. Will you skip eating out? Will you not buy an article of clothing? Will you decide to work a little more to bring in the extra cash?

Keep tracking how you're doing. Some people track daily. Some weekly and some monthly (which makes it hard to make adjustments). At first, it helps to track daily so you develop some discipline and don't get out of control before it is too difficult to make a correction.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Just stay away from temptation! stay out of the mall and store,s spend the time at home with the kids, live as cheaply as possible. always look to cut corners in spending.
It takes time, but every month you can duduct the amount you pay off your debts and watch them go down. I use the internet banking a lot, so I watch my account daily and that keeps me on top of things and away from temptation. Also I use excel to manage my budget and what bills are due when.
Good Luck!

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We buy things we dont need,
with money we dont have,
in order to impress people
we dont like?
(Ramsey, D)

I am going to start using Quicken in February.

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“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”

I do exactly what Cookie2 posted. I have my monthly utilities, debt, mortgage on a spreadsheet and follow closely to it. If one bill comes out a little more one month, I figure out where the money is going to come from. Also, I track my spending and accounts daily or weekly. It is really working for me this year.

1) Equalized payment plans. For no charge our property tax bill, natural gas, car insurance, home insurance, water & hydro bills are 'equalized'. We pay the same rate every month, no matter what time of year it is. It doesn't cost any more to do this. We often over-pay a bit this way and then once a year we get a credit and our payment is reduced for the month for those bills that tend to change. Call your billing companies and ask if it's an option. It is great on the budget!

2) I keep a record on google spreadsheets (similar to excel but free and IMHO better). I record everything I buy in each category. I only have a few categories to make it easier, ie
house (includes all repair, mortgage, property tax, phone, utilities - anything to do with the house)
consumables (anything that gets used up - food, diapers, cleaning supplies, TP, etc),
tithes (all charitable giving),
car (all gas, insurance - would include car payments if we had any) and
misc (anything else, ie, entertainment, clothing, toys, gifts). When the category fills up (when I've spent all that is alloted for the month) then I stop buying. If I have extra from one month to the next, it can carry over so for Christmas I would have saved extra in misc funds or on consumables and I would have left over in misc for my Christmas spending.

3) Accountability When the credit card bill comes in, I show it to dh. If I know someone else is going to see exactly what I spent, down the the penny, I am a lot less likely to buy something impulsively.

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