Help! Budgeting?

[HeatherKS]

Okay, here it is. I'm coming here because I don't want this on FB, would rather not discuss it with my IRL friends, and I trust you ladies since you welcome me even if I haven't scrapped a page in months.

We spend money like water. Dh has a good job, I work part-time, and we definitely don't struggle on a monthly basis. But with as good as life is, it seems like we're not getting anywhere with our money, kwim? We're just treading water. It comes in, it goes out, and where is it going? We have some credit card debt that I want to whittle down and we NEED to do a better job about putting money in the savings account and not relying on dh to "remember" to do it. What's even worse is that dh is a CPA and while he gets paid to tell other people how to handle their money, when it comes to ours, he's apparently out of steam. What's that about the cobbler's children not having shoes? Yeah, that's us.

So, my control-freak nature can't stand it any longer and we've (I've) got to get things under control. Problem is, money and numbers is out of my comfort zone and I'm absolutely overwhelmed (and a bit scared) about how and where to start with all of it.

So link me up, give me suggestions, point me in the right direction. I honestly don't even know where to start. I know there are budgeting programs out there but I don't know what I'm looking for or how to begin. Does anyone out there have anything that they use and love? I'm talking ground floor up type stuff with instructions and everything. LOL Help!

[Julie Billingsley]

I can't tell you how much I LOVE Dave Ramsey's program. It has really helped us. What I would recommend is seeing if there is a class near you. It's a 9 week long program with a video and homework like setting up a budget, which he totally walks you through. (You don't share your homework with the class or turn anything in.) Here is his website, see if there is a class in your area!
http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/?ictid=lmbb_fpu

[taracotta7]

Originally Posted by Julie Billingsley

I can't tell you how much I LOVE Dave Ramsey's program. It has really helped us. What I would recommend is seeing if there is a class near you. It's a 9 week long program with a video and homework like setting up a budget, which he totally walks you through. (You don't share your homework with the class or turn anything in.) Here is his website, see if there is a class in your area!
http://www.daveramsey.com/fpu/home/?ictid=lmbb_fpu

Totally agree with this! We did it. We are Ramsey debt free(only owe on mortgage). I can't even begin to tell you the freedom we have because of it. We are not a slave to the dollar anymore. No more worry. AMAZING. We spend less, save more but it also equals dreaming more. Planning our first big family vacation that we will not have to finanace. It will be paid for in cash. Paid for Christmas in cash. Paid for my new fancy camera in cash. The list goes on...........it is amazing being able to guilt free spend every so often. Good luck!

[scrapmommaof3]

I was going to say Dave Ramsey too, so I guess I am in good company.

[KateD]

We did the Crown Financial program, which I think is very similar to Dave Ramsey. It was great for us! As far as number-crunching goes, we use YNAB (thanks to some of the gals from SSD!) and it's sooo easy to use. I have it on my computer and do the main planning/reconciling there, plus I have the app on my phone so that I can enter transactions as they occur. It's wonderful!!

[glumirk]

I was going to suggest Dave Ramsey and YNAB (You Need a Budget). Simply tracking money in and out can help a lot. And paying cash for everything (we still use a credit card, but pay it off every week or so). Total Money Makeover by Ramsey was really inspiring. We got it as a graduation present and it helped us start out on the right foot.

[BrattyMeg]

Another Dave Ramsey AND YNAB fan..

[scrap2day]

I was also going to suggest Dave Ramsey.

[Darcy Baldwin]

Dave Ramsey.

But in true Dave Ramsey style - I wouldn't bother paying to take the university courses. I'd get the older books from the library - and use these forums and forum.

Financial Peace and Financial Peace Planner are usually both available at local libraries.

[YepBrook]

Dave Ramsey is awesome. We also took the Crown Financial class at our church a few months before we got married. I'd say start by NOT going shopping unless it's something you have planned to buy and maybe even discuss with each other. The big thing for me was cutting out spontaneous purchases and only going to the store for the things I needed. If I saw something I liked that I wanted to buy, I took a picture with my cellphone or jotted a note to get it next time. It's amazing how I hardly even thought of whateveritwas again, and if I did, we planned to buy it another trip.

[Libby Pritchett]

Hey Heather, I know you're in Medicine Lodge, so I'm not sure how far a drive it is for you into Wichita, but our church is doing the Dave Ramsey class starting either this week or next . If you're interested, I can get you some info!

[Sherri Tierney]

Another Dave Ramsey fan here! He has saved our sanity! We have struggled for years with the same issues. Even when we had a budget we didn't always stick to it and ended up making some pretty stupid decisions with our money. Thanks to Dave we are working on our final two debts before being debt free. Our goal is to get them paid off by 11/12/13 and we are right on track for meeting that goal (ahead actually, as every little penny extra goes straight towards the bill we are snowballing to). We haven't been this excited in a long time!

[Stacey42]

Like Darcy we got the Dave Ramsey books from the library as we couldn't afford the classes. Plus we don't belong to any church so we felt odd about going to a class at one.

We paid off everything but the house & car & switched to cash only for everything else except bill paying. I track my budget old school - with a pen & paper. Every time we spend money I write how much & what/where. I've tried a bunch of apps, they just don't work for me. I don't remember to use them but I don't have a problem with the pen & paper.

We spent 2 months writing down everything we spent & then back through it, added it up, grouped things & created a budget from there. We also set up auto transfers to regular bank to our ING account so we save money without having to remember to do it.

It was all going well until last year when unexpected expenses wiped out all the money we'd managed to save plus a bit more. But at least we had that money in the first place. Now we're back to square one

[Julie Billingsley]

The class costs $99 in my area for all the materials, book, audio CDs of the video series, an envelope wallet (this is part of the budgeting), online access to his interactive materials during the class, and to watch all the videos with the class. Even if you aren't a member of a church, they totally wouldn't mind AT ALL if you just went for the classes. The first class is free to try, by the way. And once you pay for the materials, you can start the class as many times as you want. We did it years ago, and just this last Sunday started it the class again because we want to "refresh" our budget and heard Dave has new videos. (Same principles, new videos)

[ripal]

I didn't take the class but started with reading Total Money Makeover book and his forums that Darcy linked. Also, listening to his podcasts helped me too! If you don't want to invest in YNAB software (which I LOVE), you can start with budget tool on Dave Ramsey's site to get you started. That's what I did for 3 months before getting YNAB.

[Nettio]

Another Dave Ramsey/YNAB fan here. Dave Ramsey is a great place to start, especially the $1000 emergency fund and using the debt snowball to get your debt paid off. (There's info about both of those for free here on their site.)

Budgeting-wise, I'm a huge fan of YNAB's 4 Rule Methodology since it builds on some of the Dave Ramsey principles (like giving every dollar a job) but also adds in enough flexibility that it makes budgeting doable for real life.

[HeatherKS]

Thank you ladies!!! I knew you'd know which direction to point me in! I've been checking out Dave Ramsey's site and printing off his quick-start budget forms so I can get going. I'm going to pick his first book up also.

Libby, thanks for the offer! I noticed there are a ton of his classes offered in Wichita and there is actually one starting early in March in Anthony, which is even closer to me. I'm going to keep those in mind but for now, am going to get started with what I can do online, etc., because with our schedules the classes don't seem like a likely possibility.

[Sherri Tierney]

For tracking budget I use Microsoft Money. I've used it since it first came out and while it is no longer a supported program you can still download it and use it for free. I can download my bank transactions directly from the bank site to Money and balance my bank account that way. We put in our budget categories as expenses and using the Cash Flow Review we can look and see how our spending today will affect our financial future. It is a great way to know if that 'extra' money in the bank is truly extra or if we will need it for something in the future.

[joelsgirl]

Another Dave Ramsey fan. But actually Joel's mom was practicing the money in envelopes system before we got married and taught it to us. It doesn't actually WORK for us, lol, but it does for a lot of people.

Joel and I just started committing to our budget this year, and it's been REALLY hard. It's made me see why we're out of money before the end of the month...a litlte here, a little there, and it's gone before you know it!

[jessica31876]

Read a little about Dave Ramsey. Great place to start.

[Sherri Tierney]

I love seeing that so many of us here have 'drank the kool-aid'