Budget Planning ....Reccs

[planestrainsautomobiles]

Hope some of you can help and please feel free to link me to an older thread if one already exists....

Really need to put some budget planning into place ..... we seem to have money left every month but its definitely luck more than watching what we spend, etc.

Can anyone recommend a good.....

1. budget planning spreadsheet or app from the app store?

AND

1. monthly spend spreadsheet or app (desperately need to keep track of food shopping!)

Basically, need to figure out what we're spending all our money on and start saving for holidays. Also need to start paying more into a pension, etc. but will need to get a financial advisor around for that. How do we find a good / decent financial advisor?

TIA

Where do you live? (If you live anywhere near Hampshire or Essex I might know the man for you) and do you know anyone that has seen an IFA recently? If someone has seen an IFA recently, can they recommend?

Also I use Excel to do my monthly budget and I treat my savings as a bill. That way you don't dip into them every 5 minutes.

I use MS Money. It's usually available as a free download and you can input your regular outgoings and income, budget forward, anticipate cashflow etc.