budget plans

[nancydrewrocks]

I have decided to bite the bullet and organise my finances soooooooo

can anyone recommend a decent free budget planner? I have looked at the one on moneysavingsupermarket which is really good but I want one on which I can record everything I spend and it then shows me where all my money is going because I'll be damned if I know!

I have started filling in the spendometer iphone app but fear I may need something a bit more hardcore!

I don't have a planner as such, but i write in my diary everything I spend each day and on what. Bank account has all DDs and I get a monthly statement which I check thoroughly. It works for me and i'm pleased when there are days and days when I spend nothing!!

Just draw up a spreadsheet on excel

If you have online banking you can download bank statements which account for everything except cash. You can usually save them to work in a money programme (if you can find a copy of Microsoft Money - ebay? its very good) or a spreadsheet. You categorise each transaction and as the months go on you can see how much is going on bills, food, cashpoint, car, etc.

I like the diary idea though- I have no idea where all the cashpoint money goes.

I made a spreadsheet to track our spending. It takes a bit of time but worth it.

Columns of date - description - category - amount
Then added up each category.

Filled in our spending (food, entertainment, takeaways, clothes, stuff for the house) for a month and it was very revealing! It gave me some figures and averages to set a budget with.