I am fairly frugal, but it’s my husband who really keeps the budget in order and I am thankful for that. However, he breaks all the budgeting rules as well, because his theory used to be, “If you don’t spend it this week, I’m putting it in savings.” That leaves no room for planning for a big expense the next week etc. So, I asked to put myself on a cash budget. We don’t use it for everything–just for those variable and somewhat discretionary items (birthday gifts, groceries and drugstore items–because you can decide if you have beans or steak–eating out, entertainment, clothes etc). Figure out how much you are spending or want to spend on those things each month and take out the cash each week. When it’s out, it’s out. . . .

I’ve been doing it for about 5 years, and we’ve adapted it in different ways, but I really love it!

I’m horrible with money. But if you just want to track your spending, our online banking will do that, and generate reports. Through Wells Fargo. I pay for all of our bills online (except for rent and tithing) and basically use a debit card for everything else, so it knows where I’m spending stuff. I just try not to pay attention.

We are just going through a budget over haul because we are hoping to move within the next year. We never kept track of anything before. Stupid I know but we are getting on track now. I first kept track of how much we spent for a month (groceries, bills, house/rent, etc) Then I wrote out categories and tried to see which categories we were overspending in. I then left enough money in the bank for bills to be paid by check or online/phone. I took the rest out in cash and split it up for me to use for groceries and the other stuff. That way, when the cash was gone…I wouldn’t over draw or put it on credit. I was just out of cash. It’s hard to do at first but it’s making my life easier after the initial set up. You can just use Excel or some other program to total the month up. I like to use paper because I don’t have to sit at the computer. I can carry it to whatever room the kids are in. We just started a Frugal Group with our Moms group. I will keep you updated with any tips I find out.

My husband handles all the finances in our home. Thankfully -because if it were up to me, we’d probably be in tons of trouble!!! He has recently been using methods from Dave Ramsey (DaveRamsey.com) and has been very happy with the results. We don’t use all the methods, but if you just use some, you may see a big change. He also read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki - it was a huge help in helping him see things differently and changing the way he managed our finances. I don’t know how much help that is for you, but hopefully a little!

I finally, after years of frustration and worry, relinquished the responsibility of family finances to my husband. This was a choice I had to make, otherwise, I would be bitter and antagonistic and resentful. It has been really hard to hide away the debit and credit cards, tell him how much cash I need for the week for groceries, Target(budget buster, that place is!!) and other non-fixed expenses and try to make it work. It has been especially hard to just let it go and not ask if he has reconciled the checking account, paid such and such a bill, etc. I have to trust that he takes care of everything that needs to be taken care of. The benefit is that when things go awry (damn those bank fees!), it is not because of some personal failure or character flaw of mine.

Take a look at the book “Smart Couples Finish Rich” by David Bach. He gives a lot of tools so you don’t just change your money situation, you change your attitude about your money situation.

We just signed up for a paper-less (i.e. no little vinyl notebooks filled with never-knowing-when-they-are going-to-clear, find-me-and-be-thefted-of your identity (yes, I’m paranoid) pieces of paper) checking account through ING Direct with a 4% interest rate. The benefits look really good. We’ve had a money market savings account with them for several years and have been quite happy with them, especially the 4.5% interest rate (you don’t have to have thousands of dollars in your account to get this, btw). We are pretty jazzed about it, but we’ll let you know how it goes.

BTW, we do use Quicken for Mac. It seems to be pretty good. You can directly download all of your bank statements and reconcile them right there without entering everything manually. You can download the program directly, you don’t need to run out and buy software.