you can never go wrong with cutting out coupons from all the ads you find in your mail

go on the net and find more discount coupons


cook at home and stop overspending at restaurants that dont taste as good as home cooked food anyway

learn to cook in bulk and refrigerate the left over for the next day

I use a program called YNAB. It allows me to give every dollar of income a job. For large expenses like car insurance and life insurance I budget enough each month so that when the bill is due the money is available. I also have a 1 month buffer.

It works real well for me. After I budget all the necessary bills and have funded the 401K I put the rest to my emergency fund.

If you have more specific questions I would be more than happy to try and answer them.

Regards,

PMMM

Just having a budget is a great thing....I have heard numbers that say 58 to 65% of Americans do not have a budget. Many people say they don't know where to start. I have found that collecting your receipts for a month before your start your budget can help you create a more realistic sheet. Also you need to know that budgets don't always work the first time it may take a few months of adjusting to get things zeroed out....leading me to my favorite budget the Zero Budget. Spend everything you have on paper before the month starts.

Lighthouse

About 12 years ago, I started using Excel to track my Bills and Income. I had just taken a computer class and knew how to use all the formulas. Things were pretty bad for me back then, but once I was able to see all of my bills lined up and what income I had each month, I was able to start making some changes.

My budget 'technique' only works for a single person - or a couple that is like minded. Kids throw too many monkey wrenches in my way of doing it.

I listed all of my bills, including the ones that just come once or twice a year. Each month I tracked them, then at the end of the year, I just created the next year's budget from the old one. It gave me a rough idea of what my bills would be. I plug in my monthly income, subtract the amount of bills and I am left with cash that is left over.

Now, what I did not have on the budget are what I call the 'fundamental four'. Gasoline, groceries, Wal-Mart and cigarettes (nasty habit, I know).

For those four items, I knew I needed $500 a month (now it is more like $700 a month for me).

So, if I made $3000 a month, and my bills (rent, car payment, electric, cable, phone, etc) came to $1600, I would have $1400 leftover.

From that $1400 I would subtract the $500 needed for my fundamentals.

That left $900 to go for entertainment and to the credit card Gods.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

very nice Giwu;
tracking previous bills and income is very helpful to plan the next budget.
we can track where the money wastage and how to avoid it.

David for the normal grocery stuff we need a 3 month total on all food purchases... then we divide it out on a per week basis (keeping in mind that every year you'll need to confirm your 3 month total is still close to the original figure)... eating out has to be a set amount... if we take the family for a meal once a week we can't go fancy on the monthly budget... if we hit a nice restaurant once a month the same budget amount covers that expense... the problem is that the younger kids like to eat out frequently while the older kids are more interested in the 'EVENT'

Thanks for all the feedback.

Honesty I wasn't asking for my self.. Although I do go over the food budget a little bit.

I was really asking if anyone had different ways of doing their budget.

David Beairsto's idea of getting a THREE month total on food and dividing it by the week makes sense to me.. because sometime we 3 paychecks in a month an other times it's just two.

For my own personal budgeting method.. I like to try to allocate every dollar before I spend it.

Thanks for all the responses guys! I appreciate it.

Well, for my budgeting method, I do a lot of planning. That way impulse-spending can be avoided.
Here are a couple of tips that I wish to share with you.

• We can save a lot of money when we plan our trip to the groceries. Always make a list. Keep it in the kitchen and add to it as needed. Don’t shop often. Do at least one week's groceries with each visit. In the store, don't buy on impulse.

• To save money, we must beware of convenience foods. Pre-made meals are fine in an emergency, but most of this kind of food is not very healthy and very expensive for what we get.