I am a single woman who is quite deeply in debt and does not wish to use credit cards anymore. i am also disabled due to stroke. so i guess the more simple the better. my income is 1400 and i am paying 10.000 dollars in debt. what are the best actions to take, and please can you tell me about the envelope system and its advantages.

Have you cut up your credit cards? Can you cut up your credit cards? Sometimes we use credit cards for things we really need. Do you use them to cover the gaps most of the time with an occasional self indulgence? If that is true, perhaps you need to look at your biggest expenses first.

Can you conceive of moving into a home that costs less? What other expenses do you have that are negotiable. Medicines and food are not so negotiable, you have to take care of yourself.

You might have to make a few changes and get yourself on a budget. Budgets are hard to keep and maintain and you might consider automating your financial management so when you’re feeling fiscally weak, you can’t easily make a damaging purchase.

thanks for the advice, i will cut up my credit cards today, i have just been scared. you know what i mean?

Hi All, My name is Kate and i am 29 years old, married to a great guy named Alex for 7 years (Jan. 15, 2000) and i want to learn how to make a budget. So i hope all of you can help me. I have add, adhd, OCD, and bipolar so saving money for me is hard so i thought i would try to join a blog for help. SO i am open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

i found this web site last night when i was looking for a “simple budget” using google. http://www.thesimpledollar.com/. i was looking for a simple budgeting form or spread sheets.

im checking out “my budget planner” under the “budgeting worksheets” tab at the top. it’s 19 bucs but it looks promising. it looks like it has things that i want for doing my budgeting.

if all else fails, use google to find all kids of info about budgeting, including spreadsheets. it has been my friend lately for finding all kinds of useful information on budgeting, including spreadsheets.

i hate to say this but, microsoft is one place that has downloadable budgeting spreadsheets.

there are tons of spreadsheets on the internet that you can download. be careful, some could contain viruses and other nasty things.

Does any know a good website, not for sheets necessarily although that would be nice, but how decide how much should be budgeted for everything. How much should get to go toward certain things or no more than etc..? Obviously, some things will be worth more to certain people or have to be more (medical bills) or necessary private schooling etc… but they must have some basic ideas. I did find one from crown ministries but wanted to check more also.

One of the hardest things for me and my wife was to maintain the discipline part of a good budget. Some months we would both be working together and other months all it took was one of us to fall short. We created our budget then the next step was to have an automatic transfer to a separate checking account which was set up with bill pay to automatically cover each of the bills. The left over money from each paycheck was ours to spend and if we over spent one month, nothing bad really happened, all the important stuff was taking place somewhere else. I originally called it the Idiots budget. We have been able to save money while my wife stays at home with our kids.

I can relate to this. My husband makes the money and I manage it. Most of the time it works great. However, my husband is in the Navy and away from us 90% of the time. So since he doesn’t keep track and know how much money we have, sometimes he’ll spend it and then we come up short. Things have been better though when we can communicate and he asks before he uses the debit card. He has an “allowance” that he can withdraw and use each payday. (as cash). He is planning on getting out of the Navy soon and it will be a lot easier when we are actually “together”.

Try http://time.com/money/ (Money Magazine)

www.marketwatch.com (Market Watch)

www.suzeorman.com (Suze Orman’s website)

I think all three state guidelines. So does Jean Chatzky (she is on the Today Show a lot) and Melanie Hobson (she is on Good Morning America all the time).