One of the free home budgeting programs that you could consider using is an online service at www.budgettracker.com. 

This program allows you to enter in your budget information without entering in any of your personal account information – so it is totally secure. It will help you organize your accounts and expenses and really see what you have in your budget.

Additionally, you can use it to track your expenses throughout the month to see if you are sticking to your budget as you planned.

Another great online home budgeting software package can be found at www.expensr.com.  This software requires a quick user registration process, but is completely free to use.  Additionally, it is very user friendly and will help you see at a glance how you are spending your money and tracking against your budget.

With this tool, you can either manually enter in your expenses or import them from your online accounts.  Additionally, you can set a target spending amount for each category and see how you are doing against that amount.  You can also view your spending in either a pie chart or time chart format (both automatically generated) that will help you figure out where to need to cut back on expenses.

The bottom line when making a budget, regardless of which software package you use – or if you use a traditional pen, paper, and calculator – ,is to create a financial spending plan that will work for you and the other members of your household. 

If you are having trouble making your budget balance, check out the next two sections which will provide you with tips for spending less and earning more.

 

To help you stick to the budget once you have created it, here are the top ten tips that will help you actually make your budget work.

1. Write it down.  If it isn’t written, then it is not as powerful.
2. Make it realistic.  If you can’t imagine sticking to the budget, then there’s no way it will actually happen.
3. Use cash to prevent yourself from overspending.
4. Freeze or cut up your credit cards.
5. Start a daily or weekly routine of reviewing your progress against your budget.
6. Set spending limits for the items that you have the most trouble with.
7. Avoid shopping whenever possible – if you aren’t in the store, it is harder to spend money.
8. Choose activities that don’t cost a lot so that you can reduce your spending and stick to your budget.
9. Talk to your significant other about your budget and your spending to ensure you are on the same page.
10. If your current budget isn’t helping, revisit it and revise it until you get one that works for you and your lifestyle.