Budget purging and budget pruning

This is not an article about bulimia or growing fruit trees.
As we all consider our financial futures and commit ourselves to more prudent use of our resources, be sure to go through your budget line by line. Spend a few moments on each item to brainstorm on ways to reduce or eliminate that cost. Here [...]

Budget for 2010: 4 Moves to Achieve your Financial Goals

I think it is important to review your personal finances at least once a year. At the beginning of each year, I sit down at my kitchen table and talk about finance with my wife. We update our balance sheet to determine our net worth, we look at our previous year’s balance sheet to see [...]

Chase Blueprint: Manage Your Money Wisely and Pay Down Your Debts Faster

In recent times, I have been receiving email from Chase and their “fabulous” new concept: Chase Blueprint. I was a bit reluctant to look into this “new concept” as I wondered how it could really help a person to manage his debt better… especially since the idea came from a bank
However, I have [...]

Talking Money with your (future) wife

As I had written a few weeks ago, a good friend of mine is getting married in early 2010. Being a financial planner, I always find it interesting to see how couples deal with money. It is often overlooked but it shouldn’t be. Studies have shown that financial corners and disputes rank at the top [...]

A fragrant aroma

This passage is one of the most instructive passages regarding money in the New Testament. The end of this letter is more or less a simple thank you note to the Philippian church, but it throws back the curtains to show the secret of Paul’s contentment in Christ. The passage does not need a great [...]

Stuck in the Midst of Debt

Debt is perhaps one of the most pernicious things known to modern mankind. As nobody likes to own someone something (not even a kind remark), we soon become obsessed to pay back our due. Some do it by spending less, cutting back on their lifestyles through frugal habits, others will get a second job or [...]

What are your budget habits?

Do you save all your credit card reciepts and then enter them in a spreadsheet at the end of the month?
Do you enter the spending from a particular day every day?
Do you use You Need a Budget?
Are you a cash and envelope user? Once the envelope is empty, your spending stops.
Do you have a particular [...]

Live 30 days on a budget – I dare you!

If I had to name just two personal finance techniques that have literally changed by financial life around they would be: Budgeting and the Debt Snowball.  Budgeting because it’s allowed me to control my money rather than my money controlling me.  The debt snowball because for years I struggled to try and get caught up [...]

Budget Categories – Less is more

Every so often we spend a weekend and just clean house.  I don’t mean just sweeping, dusting, vacuuming etc.  We literally, clean house.  We look for stuff we are no longer using, things on shelves collecting dust, etc and sell them.   I’m always amazed at how much more relaxed I feel about our home when [...]

5 Common budgeting myths

My wife and I have been living on a budget for a little over two years now.  The first few months were a little frustrating as we got used to the process and learned a few things but since then we don’t even really think about it that much.  As a result, we don’t overdraft [...]

You Need a Budget (YNAB) Reader Testimonial

I received a comment on one of my guest articles the other day from a frequent commentator here on Gather Little by Little named David.  David is a user of You Need A Budget Pro and had this to say about it:
If you want budget software that really shows you the real truth about budgeting, [...]

Personal budget categories – the key to tracking your money

Creating and maintaining a personal budget isn’t hard.  There are many different options including the old tried and true paper and pen method, using a spreadsheet, and even specialized software packages like You Need a Budget (my personal favorite).  Regardless of which option you choose to use, all options require selecting categories.
What are personal budget [...]

Getting started with the envelope budget method

This is a guest post from Luke the guy behind Neobudget.  NeoBudget is an online budget manager that uses the envelope method to help you track your spending habits and stick to a budget. You don’t need to be an accountant, and you don’t need to be good with numbers to use NeoBudget. It is [...]

Budget for the recession now

Photo by: mugley
While the economists debate whether we are in a recession or not, I don’t think anyone can argue that we’re in a down economy. I also think that things are probably going to get worse before they get better. With the rising cost of goods, record high gas prices, a down [...]

Revised version of My Excel Budget Spreadsheet

As an IT manager, I should have known better, but I didn’t effectively test my spreadsheet before releasing it.  See, the problem was I made some last minute changes and assumed they wouldn’t cause any problems.  Fortunately few of my readers quickly made me aware of the problems.
I’ve fixed the issues reported thus far, which [...]


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