How do you budget?

First of all, budgeting is annoying. However, there are ways to make it LESS annoying. A lot of times people get overwhelmed at the idea of a budget. I have talked about the importance of a budget, but how do you start the process? I think we can all agree that it is important to keep track of what you spend, but now what? How do you make sure you are doing it right? Are we just supposed to save a million receipts and always have a calculator handy in order to make sure we don't bust our budget?

Those are all questions Stephanie have asked ourselves. We have tried a lot of different methods and are still trying new things! It's important to know that you need to find a system that works for you. If you have a set yearly salary, you will budget differently than someone who works on tips or commission. One size does not fit all when it comes to money. Secondly, you need to try different methods of budgeting. If you feel like what you are using now just isn't working, then change it! There a million different apps and tools you can use for free that can help.

I thought I would share a little bit of exactly how Stephanie and I budget and keep track of our money. When we first got married, we wrote out our budget on a scrap piece of paper at the beginning of every month. Well, we would ALWAYS forget like 10 things because we weren't really keeping track. It would be a different budget every month and we hated it. Some people can do that, we can't. Especially since she gets tips and I work on commission. Our income is so different every month there is no WAY that will work.

After that, we tried using the Dave Ramsey online budgeting system. Now, this was cool, but we got frustrated with it very fast. At the time, it didn't have an App, so we didn't keep close watch on our budget. You had to manually put in everything and it was a little clunky for us. Also, you have a to pay a monthly fee for it. I think for some people, this is perfect as it takes a little bit of time and effort which means you are really analyzing your money. However, for us, we didn't like it. We weren't held accountable as we didn't always know the amount of money we had left for each budget item.

We then tried our Mint.com. This is a free App you can use that actually links up with all of your online banking. So, when you buy something with your debit card, it instantly tracks it on your Mint App. We actually stuck with this one for 2-3 months. We both liked that it tracked everything in real time and we always knew where we were at in the budget. The thing we didn't like, was that it automatically assigned categories for each purchase. Usually, it was WAY off. So, you had to, one by one, change the category to properly reflect where you spent that money. Again, I know people how LOVE this, and it is free, but it just wasn't for us.

Recently, I decided to just start budgeting on an Excel spreadsheet and track it all myself. It makes us look at our bank account every day and actually subtract the amounts. Instead of wondering how much is left, we know! It's tedious, but it really puts keeps those amounts in our heads so we don't lose track. Now, this is very time consuming. I'm trying YNAB.com on the recommendation from my sister, but it's not super user friendly and it costs a monthly fee. I'm on a free trial so we will see if I stick with it. It gives you a full free month which is nice so you can really see if it works.

Anyways, as you can see we are still feeling out our own budgeting method. It's all about doing a budget and finding a method that works for you! What are some Apps or tools you have found helpful? Anything you have been using for a while and would recommend?