justsqueakingby.com » budgeting tools http://justsqueakingby.com Practical financial advice to revitalize your wallet. Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:06:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Getting All My Dollars In A Row http://justsqueakingby.com/2008/budgeting/getting-all-my-dollars-in-a-row/ http://justsqueakingby.com/2008/budgeting/getting-all-my-dollars-in-a-row/#comments Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:49:05 +0000 JSB http://justsqueakingby.com/2008/budgeting/getting-all-my-dollars-in-a-row/ I had some extra time today, so I sat down and put together a budget. Never before had I done this. I guess I didn’t see the point in it. As long as my bills were paid on time, I was happy. Entering 2008 I knew that things needed to change.

The tools I used to assemble my budget were Quicken and Excel. I’m pretty proficient with Excel, but I chose to use the monthly budget template put together by Joseph Sangl. This template is very easy to use – it even gives you the percentage you spend on certain categories.

Putting together the budget opened my eyes to a few things. One of them is that my wife and I have a bunch more money left over at the end of the month than I had previously thought. Now we know how much money we can set aside for savings each week and how much we can increase our 401k contributions. I wish I would have taken an active role in my finances earlier. Ah well, I can’t change the past but I can stick to my new plan and start saving now.

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