Budgeting - Denton,TX

Dave Ramsey offers some great advice. He recommends an envelope system. You can go to Lifeway and get some his books about budgeting and investing. His advice has worked for my husband and me!

We use Dave Ramsey and highly recommend his books and website. Also shop for our consumables from Melaleuca to save money. They pay 51% of their profits back to families that shop with them so it is a real savings. Just the laundry detergent alone saves us $120 a year over what we used to purchase. We save money and make money each month just for buying products we need each month. The average family saves thousands a year with them. You can learn more about shopping with Melaeluca by requesting info at www.LiveTotalWellness.com/TEXAS.

Dave Ramsey!!! You can sign up for his website and budgeting tools for free for the first 30 days. They email you a few days before your trial ends to remind you. You have nothing to loose ... if you don't like it, just end your membership. If you're like me and love it, you'll never look back!

I agree Dave Ramsey is the best way to get started. Find a class near you & get started, it's inexpensive too & once you go to a class you can sign up as many times as you want.

We have my dghtrs child hood friends wedding to go to & this will be our gift to them.

We use the program Quicken. We are very diligent about recording every penny we spend. It helps us easily see where every cent is going. It's helped us save, budget and plan.

I HIGHLY recommend Dave Ramsey's information. We took this class, Financial Peace University, and it changed our lives. Dave's form is thorough and showed us how much we just did not think to add to a budget......great info.

Quicken is well worth the money if you'll keep up with it, and once you get the hang if it it's so easy and quick (you can see what you are ACTUALLY spending as opposd to what you think you are spending on certain things). That along with Dave Ramsey (he has worked out some great percentages) has made a huge improvement on our finances. . . .

Also check out the grocerygame.com to save money on your groceries and we audited all of our blls and cut a few dollars here and there on each which ended up making a big impact monthly all together (like we now have a measured land line b/c so we rarely use it, we adjusted our montly cell plan, ended up changing electric carriers, etc). It takes some time up front and the savings might not seem like much individually but they DO add up!

Check out daveramsey.com for budgeting tips. Read Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover." Dave is awesome!!!

A good way to start is to keep track of all your expenses for one month, and I do mean ALL. Everything from rent, car payments, utility and phone bills, groceries, insurance, gas, movie tickes, eating out, clothing, that quick stop at the conveniece store, hair cuts, etc. Once you know where your money is going, you can determine where you can cut back and start saving for that new house.

If I remember correctly, it's recommended that no more than 35% of your income be spent on housing (rent or mortgage).

Hi A.,

I also agree Dave ramseys program is great, straight forward, and simple.

I don't like his budgeting software that comes with the kit though. I use simpleDbudget.
http://download.cnet.com/SimpleD-Budget/3000-2057_4-10766...

it's free, and it allows me to color coordinate things, keep previous months expenses, and it's, well, simple! (quicken confuses me). :)

If you don't have the money or time to attend a Ramsey class, at the very least buy his book at half price books. Also, listen to his radio show on 570am from 1-4pm. You'll get the general idea pretty quick.
Then of course, you can start couponing (amazing coupon blogs out there), etc.

Budgeting gives you the security and power to have control over your money. It's amazing how much more money you have At the end of the month when you write it down. And rentng isn't all that bad. You don't make any money the first several years you own a house because all you pay is interest and homes barely (if at all) appreciate in dfw). Don't let people fool you saying "your throwing money away", because you aren't. Owning a home Is expensive. Fences, ac units, garage doors, fences, all cost money. We own a few rent homes, and we budet 2% of the homes value just on annual upkeep of things that break.

Good luck!
E.
edenbabyfoods.com

This website: has a lot of great tips on saving money, on groceries etc...

http://moneysavingmom.com/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/moneysa...

Hope it helps!

Start a spending diary. Write down every penny you spend where and on what, for three months work best. This gives you a real idea about where your money goes. After that decide where you can cut back and write out a budget. I like the envelope system for spending. Every paycheck, split the money acroding to catagory (rent, groceries, entertainment, etc.) and don't spend more than what's in the envelope.

Just to consider when you are buying a house... find out about the property taxes and homeowner's insurance. For us, those are almost as much as our mortgage.