How do I mine budget?

Gabriel_Pitt

I have never kept a budget before in my life, but I'm about to move to a new place, start a new job, and by my estimation money is going to be tight, so I'm going to want to keep track every dollar coming in and out. Previously, I've always just maintained a general awareness of how much money I had, how much I could afford to spend, and never really felt the need to keep track of the concrete numbers.

So now I'm sitting here trying to figure just how one goes about effectively making and monitoring a budget. Do I just set up a spread sheet and manually enter every paycheck, receipt, and birthday check as they come in, is there some software out there specifically made for tracking home, budgets, what?

Seattle Thread

Quicken.

Improvolone

I would be more than happy to e-mail you the budget I've been tracking since August. I think it's pretty interesting. I broke it down into like, 30 different cateogires into which I input everything that I spend. Then I put some of those thigns into a line graph so that I can see how they change.
tip: keep every receipt and update the budget every day

Daenris

I was setting something up in Excel, but decided to look around for dedicated budgeting programs instead. I found a free one that was alright that I used for a week or two in Windows (forget the name now and it's on my other computer), but then ended up using MyFina ( http://myfina.ridinglinux.org/ ) which is a PHP based budget tracker. It's got a few issues that I haven't gotten around to working on yet -- most notably it uses a single budget instead of month-specific ones. If you don't have a webserver with PHP, it probably isn't for you, but if you do you might want to give it a try.

CrystalMethodist

DUDE

mint.com

seriously. it seems sketchy at first, but I've been using it for a while and it's amazing. It connects and downloads your bank statements, and then automatically categorizes purchases (their database maps "Applebees" -> food, for example) and presents graphs and charts about your budget. Then you can set budgets for food, entertainment, etc. and monitor your progress through the month.

It's awesome, completely hands-free, and works really really well. Try it.

Rhino

Also build a small buffer in your checking account if you can.
I have a 3.00% checking account and keep 2 to 6 weeks extra cash in there for emergencies (and it gains interest too, so why not. It might save you $35 if your cash in/out gets messed up)