This has helped us so much! A few years back I picked up Dave Ramsey's book "Total Money Makeover". I highly recommend reading this book! I borrowed mine from the local library, since I am to cheap to buy it :). Anyway, he recommends the "Zero based budget". You can find an explanation of it here.
For the longest time I would print out a budget sheet each month and fill in the blanks. Once I got use to it, I created a spreadsheet so that I didn't have random budgeting papers all over the house :). But to get you started this is an easy way: The Basic Quicke Budget.
I love budgeting now. I am not sure why, nor do I really know how to explain it. But I love it. I get a kick out of it. I enjoy finding out what our paycheck amount is (this fluctuates because my husband is in Sales). Then I punch in the numbers and make the dollar stretch. Whether or not you are weird like me, a budget really is important.
Making an excel spreadsheet allowed me to make this more specific to our bills as well as easily track how much I put towards debt each month.
This year will certainly test my budgeting skills! I am up for the challenge, are you???
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