I'm guessing that most people here have problems budgeting other we wouldn't be in so much debt. (Not always true though)

We have a hard time budgeting. We don't like the idea of tracking every single penny, and I'm not good with numbers and I get confused very easily. Anyone have success in transitioning into a budget.

Last month we started a cash only budget for things like fuel, dining, groceries, liquor, and gifts. Those are the areas that we tend to spend more than we realize. We added up the money we were willing to spend on all those categories combined and lumped it into one sum.  It seemed to help a lot. This way if we spent to much on groceries, it came out of our gifts money and not out of our checking, etc.  I guess it's a type of budget. We did pretty well and didn't have any overdrafts this month (which is rare).

How do you budget??

Huh, interesting about the gas.  We'll have to try that. As for adding 25% , etc, we'll have to do that down the road since right now we're "paycheck to paycheck" with loan payments taking up almost all our money, but we'll use it when we can.

Thanks!

Very interesting.  I always wondered why that second half of the gas disappeared faster than the first.  I thought it was my imagination. 

I'm a total computer geek.  So to answer the budget question, I use Microsoft Money for everything.  It has an automatic budget tool that gets you started and you can tweak it from there.  I can also forcast out my due bill payments so I know when I'm gonna run into trouble.

ITs hard to budget but i try. Every timei get paid, I always put money up out of my check. and just let it sit there. That way I alwasy have money on the side.

Budgeting is very important, and to write it down in one way or another and tracking it is the only way to truly create a budget.  I use Quicken to budget my money.  I do know how to sit and do a paper budget too, as I am in the accounting field.     Lazywife, you are on the right track to budgeting.  Keep it up and you will find other ways to balance your money.  As far as putting money aside, have you heard the quote "pay yourself first"?  It is a true statement.  The payment should be to a savings of some kind.

I guess I found budgeting easier after I learned to separate the "absolute MUST pay" priorities from the "really should pay" things and the "might like that thing fund" comes in last place.

The "absolute MUST pay" fund is always debt payments, small savings amount and important living expenses (utilities, fuel, groceries).

The "Really should pay" things are ay kind of expense that could be put off for a week or a month or put aside in the savings fund for later.

The "might like that thing" fund includes clothes, shoes, gadgets, treats, restaurants, movies - and is usually paid for if I've been diligent with the savings.