I've been trying to find an easy and simple budget to try to work with. This is my first time trying to budget. I tried to search on this board for one but I haven't gotten any luck yet with that. So if you know of where I could get one that would be wonderful! My husband and I are really trying to get out of this horrible hole of debt.

Thanks in advance..

__________________
~~Mikey~~~
-Matt - DH
- Catalina - 8/17/04

Well, everyone has different expenses and incomes. You have to sit down and think of every bill you have to pay, and all the income you get. You also have to figure out what you spend on gas, food, "other", etc. The best bet for that is to look at a few months worth of bank statements. Sometimes, that "other" category gets HUGE. If your expense list is more than your income list, then you need to find places to cut, and cut fast - usually it's that big other category, sometimes it's the food category, sometimes you have to get creative with cutting cable, phones, etc.

The first step is just getting it all on paper though.

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Are you looking for a fill-in budget form? You may not be able to find one that fits your situation exactly, but I believe there are templates in the Dave Ramsey books. Most budget templates I've seen cover some basics, but leave lots of blanks for "other," so it's probably easier to just make your own from scratch.
We do a zero balance budget (Dave Ramsey)--just list your monthly income (or lowball estimate if it fluctuates) at the top, then list bills/expenses and play with them until you come up with "zero" left as a total.
Fill in what you actually spent for each bill/expense each month so you can see what categories need more/less, and spot where you may be able to cut some fat. Don't get discouraged if you're not right on target with your new budget--give it at least a year, and "visit" it each month during that first year.

you can also check the microsoft template site...there are a lot of downloadable templates to choose from..templates

Try: Jim & Kim's webpages

He has a lot of spreadsheets on his site.

Thanks that was just what I was looking for. They have some great ones, now just gotta see which one that would be best for me and my family. Thanks

__________________
~~Mikey~~~
-Matt - DH
- Catalina - 8/17/04