ok so are monthly bills come to about $1200, and my husband brings in $2000 mth. we are a family of 3, and not sure how to start a budget, or ways to save, we always seem to live paycheck to paycheck with nuthin to show. ive tried writing what we buy down but we always forget or lose track. any ideas would be great!!!

Do you use cash or a debit card? I ask b'c though some people swear by using cash to keep from spending money, I can't tell where it goes (cause I can spend $1 here and $5 there and next week I have no clue where I spent it). We use our debit card for all of our expenses, and we have free online banking, so I can look on the computer and find out where every dime goes. I love online banking - it helps b'c I totally HATE (and subsequently, am terrible at) balancing a checkbook. You could always try to immediately transfer $700-$800 into a savings account, giving yourself a little wiggle money in your main account. Then, before you transfer money from savings to checking to spend on something, you'll start to realize what you're buying with the non-bill money. Save your receipts (even if you ball 'em up and shove 'em in your purse). If DH is terrible to save receipts (like mine is), ask him the SECOND he gets home how much he spent that day, and what he spent it on. Or if he has a cell phone, have him call after he spends something, so you can log it. I know it sounds kinda juvenile, but it's something you guys have to work on TOGETHER or your head will explode trying to do it on your own. I save the most money when I immediately take money out of the account and stow it away and then force myself to work with what I have left. If I desperately need that money I took away in the beginning, I'll get it, but most times we learn to do without or tweak a little to make up for it. Good luck. If you want my budget layout, I don't mind sharing.

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~~Amanda~~ Mommy to one Little Man (3 1/2 yrs old), TTC #2

well if your bills are around 1200 and your dh makes about 2000 then you should have 800 left for the month so that would be 200 a week. also if your regular bills did not include gas for the cars then you would need to deduct that from the 200 a week. maybe weekly would be easier for you guys to keep track of and maybe start by saving 10 or 20 of that a week for savings if at all possible.

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Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.

YEA i would like to see ur budget layout thanx and i was tryin to pay with cash, i thought that was a smarter thing to do, but now that i do think back it was harder to keep track!

I think the biggest trick is to Track everything. Once we had a few months of tracking I could make educated choices on what needs to be cut back. For us it was food we spend far too much on food for just the two of us.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

I googled "budget sheet" and found a savable Excel document that you just plug in your numbers and it calculates how much money you have left over. They call it "disposable income" and it should be between 5% and 10%. So every month I change to numbers to reflect my bills, i.e. changes in electricity use, and then make sure I have enough disposable income. I will add and deduct where I need to to get that number. Check it out.

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Soon to be married and learning to stretch a dollar!