FemiKnitMafia

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• 1. Carolyn  |  September 17, 2007 at 12:25 pm

  RE: Budgeting software - Just started using Mvelopes (www.mvelopes.com) and am so far finding it very cool!

  They let you try it free for a month to rope you in…

• 2. Mel  |  September 17, 2007 at 1:25 pm

  Budgets? We don’t need no stinkin’ budgets!

  Actually, the problem with making a budget for me is that I never stick to it very closely, anyway. I’ve played with Quicken’s budget tool, but mostly I’ve just cobbled something together in Excel and then used it as a *very* rough guidline. My rule is always to pay what needs to be paid first, and then try to be judicious with the rest, which seems to work fairly well. Except for the being judicious part, which is always a challenge.

• 3. Zuzu  |  September 17, 2007 at 1:36 pm

  I was a very bad girl until I discovered a budget form in Real Simple. I have much better control on my monthly finances. I also have a three ring binder where I can keep the forms and throw in bills. Here is the url: http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/gallery/0,21863,1216146-5,00.html
  you will see the pdf for the budget form. This is not on online form, and requires a pencil. If the url doesn’t work, try going to Real Simple, typing budget in the search place, and it is about the 4th of 21.
  I also pay most of my bills on line. I have been much better about paying those bills and it saves postage!
  Good luck. I know money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure make life less worrisome…I really am tired of wondering if I am going to break down every time I get into my car!!!

• 4. Lucia  |  September 17, 2007 at 2:06 pm

  There’s always Crazy Aunt Purl’s budget spreadsheet. I don’t use it, it just came to mind. My husband pays the bills online, and that’s the extent of our financial hightechery.

• 5. Erin  |  September 17, 2007 at 3:24 pm

  I’ve had a number of people suggest Wesabe. It’s web based (so no excuses about not being near the right computer like always thinking to myself) and you can link all your accounts to it, which is appealing. I wish I hadn’t paid for the upgrad to Quicken for Macs- Apparently it’s way less functional than the PC version.

  Good luck!

• 6. knitopia  |  September 17, 2007 at 6:09 pm

  I don’t use any budgeting software, but the free Buddi seems worth a look: http://buddi.thecave.homeunix.org/en/index.php

• 7. mote  |  September 17, 2007 at 9:15 pm

  I would like to enthusiastically second the recommendation for Wesabe. It’s really simple and lightweight (i.e. you’re not likely to get frustrated by extra features that you just don’t need). You tag your purchases, and then once you have a good inventory of tags set up, go through your tags and set spending limits and this functions as a budget. I’ve found it really helpful and I’ve been using it for about three months.

• 8. John  |  September 18, 2007 at 9:58 am

  I’m an analog type of guy- pencil and paper keep me straight. I print out my monthly bank statements, highlight each line item into a category (gas, groceries, eating out, recurring bills etc.). I’ll then tally each category individually than do a total. I’ll make a balance sheet, money coming in vs. going out. I’ll compare the current month spending with past months spending overall and within each category to help me better understand where my money is going and to help create a history of spending habits. The process takes about two hours. I always find that though online tools are nice and do a fairly decent job, none can really be as personalized and detailed as I like. Call me old fashioned but the process really helps me own my financial health. I keep the outcomes in a binder and I have a financial history going back about five years. It’s prettty interesting to look back and see how expenses/habits have changed over time.

  Good luck!

• 9. maryse  |  September 18, 2007 at 12:27 pm

  budgets? what is this budget thing of which you speak?

  seriously though, i pay all of my bills online which definitely helps me keep on track (i hate writing checks and used to procrastinate horribly). and i would check out Crazy Aunt Purl’s excel spreadsheet. it’s pretty good.

• 10. Rhonda the Stitchingnut  |  September 18, 2007 at 1:01 pm

  I use Home Quicken for PCs. It’s an older vision which will have to be updated when I get a new computer. But I love it! As for keeping track of my BUDGET, I use an Excel sheet that I set up monthly and check it against Quicken and my Bank Statement every week/month. I think I might check out what’s online before updating to a new Quicken tho. Just in case there’s another way of doing this every month. I always did it with a pencil and an accounting book, weekly before the age of computers. That keep me pretty straight as long as I used a calculator, LOL.

• 11. Rhonda the Stitchingnut  |  September 18, 2007 at 1:36 pm

  Here’s a free HomeBudget Excel worksheet …
  http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/home-budget-worksheet.html

• 12. pamela wynne  |  September 18, 2007 at 5:18 pm

  What means this “budget?”

  Awesome faves — thanks for including me! xo

• 13. painterwoman  |  September 18, 2007 at 11:40 pm

  I’ve looked at the Real Simple forms and think they’d be good if you use ‘em. Sorry that Quicken Mac isn’t so great… I love the PC version.
  In the meantime I recommend a book called The Money Drunk by Black and Cameron. It compares money attitudes to attitudes about alcohol: bingeing, teetotaling, self-imposed poverty, etc. etc.
  Thanks for the flickr photos. I missed your posts.

• 14. Dorothy  |  September 20, 2007 at 1:24 am

  I use a post-it-note and a pencil along with wine and whine.

  Once the husband spends the paycheque online paying the Frickin’ Bills, we only have enough left over that a post-it-note is more than big enough to write the rest on.

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