The holiday shopping season is almost here!  With Black Friday just around the corner, you can use these tips to help you stay out of debt while buying gifts for all your friends and family this year.

Set a budget: Obviously if you have credit card debt now, you don’t want to elevate those numbers. Remember, your credit score depends more now than ever on how high your balances are. Start by setting a holiday spending number you will not exceed and make cash your first priority in paying for those gifts and other goods.

If you haven’t started shopping yet, do some Christmas budgeting and determine how much money you can realistically set aside and stay as close to that number as you can. Commit to avoiding ANY unplanned purchase above a certain threshold, such as $25.

Revamp your gift policy: Does everyone on your gift list over the age of 21 really need a present? The answer is as individual as your family and friends. But, if you think it might be welcome, make a suggestion for a gift drawing, a budget limit, or a moratorium on gifts for adults or some other alternative where you trade off gifts for quality time.

For instance, you might agree to take each other out to dinner during the New Year or find some other fun way to spend time together. You could help a friend or family member with a household project that could save them money. And in the end, children seem to enjoy their holiday gifts the most, so focus on buying presents for them.

Go debit: Debit cards with a bankcard logo are typically welcome at most stores where credit cards are accepted. This way, you pay cash without carrying cash. If you don’t have such a card, you can probably get one from your bank to replace your traditional ATM card, but remember to tell them to limit your buying power to the cash balance in your account. Also, review your bank’s debit card theft policies in case your card is lost or stolen.

Browse online, and then compare at local stores: Whether you plan to shop online is a separate issue, but browsing online can be a very good idea. “Shop-bot” price comparison websites can help you determine general price ranges for gifts you need that are sold online.

Once you have those ranges, get on the phone and determine whether you can buy the same items more affordably at retailers close to home – save gas whenever possible.

Don’t forget the coupons: Coupons aren’t just in newspapers or direct mail anymore. If you know particular stores where you’ll shop, get on their e-mail lists – you’ll start getting coupons and news of specials on a regular basis. Also, sign up at manufacturers’ websites for coupons or discount codes for shopping online.

Don’t forget taxes & shipping when shopping online: Online prices might look like a great deal until you realize you may be spending another 20 percent of the gift’s price to send it to your house or the recipient.  Here are some tips on how you can save money on shipping.

Also, read product descriptions very carefully to make sure what you’re buying contains all the features of the item that you could buy at the store. At the same time, if there is a legal opportunity to avoid paying sales tax, watch for that.

Allocate spending for charity: You can either make charity a separate item in your annual budget or part of your holiday budget, but if there are specific charities you want to support by yearend, it’s a good idea to decide on those amounts before the holiday shopping season gets underway.

This way, you’ll support the organizations you wish to without going outside your budget. Also, don’t forget to check with your employer to see if they’ll match your contribution and consider gifts of appreciated stocks rather than cash if it fits your charitable goals and tax situation.

Give yourself the gift of financial analysis: If you’re trying to get your finances in order, you could buy yourself an hour of time with a financial advisor. This meeting could extend beyond your holiday spending goals to setting targets for saving, investing, extinguishing debt, and setting financial goals for the future.

These holiday shopping tips were produced in association with the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leadership and advocacy organization connecting those who provide, support and benefit from professional financial planning.

Personal budgeting can be a different process for each person.  When I talked about how personal budget tracking can save you money, I used an example of how my employer saves money by tracking each piece of paper we print.

I showed how the act of tracking each job before it’s printed and assigning it to part of the budget causes us to more careful with what we print. I ended my discussion with two questions.

• Are you tracking your spending against your budget?
• What system do you have in place to monitor your expenses?

Personal Budgeting Styles

The example I gave was of a very detailed tracking system and Plonkee brought up the point that such precise tracking wouldn’t work well for her:

“I don’t know – there’s a limit to how much tracking is worthwhile. I’m not very detail oriented and would struggle to keep up with anything that was in depth. I prefer to give myself allowances. I can spend whatever I like, on whatever I like, but the total budget for *frills and frippery* is limited each month.”

I definitely understand where she’s coming from, in a financial confession earlier this year I admitted that I hate budgeting.  Of course ctreit sounds like he feels the opposite when he shared how he budgets and tracks his spending:

“When we track our expenses, we are very diligent. We include every single dollar we spend. After all, even the afternoon candy bar for 75 cents adds up to 20 bucks or so in a month. There is one big benefit when we track our expenses: we become very careful about spending money because we don’t want to face the music at the end of the month if we spend money stupidly. I for one would not want my wife to reprimand me for foolish spending.”

Our Credit Card Tracking System

I think each person has their own personal budgeting style that works best for them.  For example, when I asked, “are you tracking your spending against your budget?” the answer could be that you sit down with your credit card statement at the end of every month and see where you spent your money and how it compares to what you had budgeted.

We charge everything on our credit card, our system for monitoring our expenses is to leverage the technology of American Express and Visa to track and categorize each expenditure.  Then we can can download the transactions into Quicken to categorize anything that was missed and compare it against our budget.

I don’t what makes different budgeting styles fit better with one person or another.  I suppose it’s partly your personality and partly how you were raised to manage and think about money.  So regardless of what system for tracking and monitoring your expenses you use, the important thing is that you have and use a system at all.  If you have one, great.  If not, here are some tools for tracking and monitoring you can play around with to see what fits you best.  Credit cards for spending and tracking and personal finance software for monitoring and analysis.

Credit Cards

• American Express True Earnings
• Discover More Card

Personal Finance Software

• You Need a Budget
• Quicken Online
• Wesabe

Does your personal budget have holes in it, where the money just oozes out without you realizing it?  Do you have a system in place to track how the money in your budget is actually spent?

If not, here’s a story that might convince you to track your money more closely. It begins several years ago at my old job, where it was open season on our office printer.

Out of Control Spending

The cost of paper, ink, and printers was part of the general office overhead budget and kept growing each year.  The creeping costs were understandable, the table next to the printer was always covered with stacks of printed pages.  Some of them were printed and forgotten, they would sit there for a week before being tossed into the recycle bin.  The table was littered with mapquest directions, personal emails, order confirmation pages from Best Buy, all sorts of random things that had been printed.

Organized Spending

Now fast forward to the printer table at my current job and guess how many sheets of printed and forgotten paper there are lying around the printer table. Zero. 

That’s because the new company outsources all of the printing so every page you print has to be billed to a project. Every time you print a document a dialog box pops up and you have to decide which part of the budget the cost of printing will come from.

Tracking Our Spending

Since there’s a system in place to track and account for each piece of paper that’s printed people don’t waste it.  We’re not discouraged in any way from printing. If we need something printed we don’t have to ask or justify it, just simply pick which part of the budget it comes out of.  Of course that act of tracking the expense and tying it to a project budget keeps us accountable and helps avoid waste.

How Do Your Track Your Spending?

So the question is, what areas of spending in your personal finances would you like to improve?  Are you tracking your spending against your budget? What system do you have in place to monitor your expenses?

Until you have one, your actual spending may be more like a scattered heap of unused and wasted paper rather than the clean and organized budget that you strive to follow.

Who doesn’t love love going to the movies? There is something special about watching a great movie at the movie theater for the first time, rather than seeing it on television. There’s something mystical about watching it with a crowd of people, booming sound, and a picture that’s 50 feet long and 20 feet high.

Face it, America loves movies. We embrace great actors, and we talk about classic movies all the time in general conversation. But, I’m sure that you’ve noticed the price of a movie ticket going up quite a bit in the last 10 years. Most nice movie theaters are now $9.00 to $10.00 for a movie ticket. And the food, that’s a whole different story. We know that the food at the movie theater is massively marked up, but people still buy it.

These days it’s tough for a family of four to go see a movie together without paying $60 to $75. That seems ridiculously expensive, so here are some simple tips for saving money at the movies.

Go To a Matinee. This is the most simple way to save money at the movies. Most people like going to the movies at night, but if you choose the matinee, you’ll save $2 to $3 per ticket. If you’re taking your children to the latest kid’s movie, go during the day. They’ll have a better time, and you’ll save some money. Plus, the crowds are usually a little smaller during the day.

Patron Your Locally Owned Movie Theater. Like many industries, the movie theater industry has been taken over by the mega plex movie theater companies such as AMC, Regal, and United Artists. However, there are still locally run movie theaters that offer less movie options and less amenities, but you can still get the movie theater experience for a little cheaper. When we lived in Gainesville, Florida, there was a local movie theater that offered all of the latest movies, but they only charged $6 per ticket at night. It was a great deal, and there were less crowds at this theater.

Join the Rewards Program. Some corporate run theaters such as Regal Cinemas offer a rewards program where you get points every time you buy a ticket. We’ve bought concessions food and received free tickets simply by filling out a form for a free rewards membership.

Check The Local Newspaper For Promotions. In West Palm Beach, Florida, the local newspaper offers free tickets to one of the latest movies out if you go and pick them up at the newspaper’s office. They might try to get you to buy a newspaper subscription, but all you need to do is simply say, “no thanks”.

Eat Before You Go. If you come to the movies on a full stomach, you’ll be less likely to be lured into the magnificent scent of movie theater popcorn. Fresh popcorn is one of the greatest smells on earth, and movie theaters know it. That’s why they jack up the price, because the smell sells itself. if you’re taking your kid to the movies on a special occasion, then go all out and get him or her popcorn and candy, but if it’s just you and your spouse going out to the movies, eat before you go. You’ll save a lot of money by skipping the concessions stand.

My philosophy about saving money is that you don’t need to pay retail for anything in life. If you continue to find ways to save money in every aspect of your life, you’ll start to see a surplus of money in your bank account at the end of the month. Use that surplus to invest and give to others and you’ll become a wealthy person. Don’t pay retail prices for the movies.

These money saving tips are part of the series on saving money on entertainment.  So far we’ve covered how to save money on your television bill.

It’s hard not to break out the credit cards during the holidays when you don’t have any extra money to buy gifts. Budgeting and planning ahead of time for Christmas gift shopping is the key to staying away from getting into holiday debt. However, some of you have budgets that are too tight to save extra money for the holidays.

One option is to simply spend less on gifts, another alternative is to earn some extra income. There are many ways to do this, but many of us want to find the quickest and easiest way to do it. This is tough to accomplish, because as we all know that making money hardly ever comes easy. Here’s a list of ten different ways you can earn some extra cash for the holiday season.

Surveys & Trial Offers You can fill out surveys or trial offers on sites like FusionCash or CashDuck. When I was using Fusion Cash on a daily basis back in 2007, I made $134.50 in three weeks.

Sell on Craigslist. Pick out 10 to 20 items around your house that you can sell for $5.00 or more, and start listing them on Craigslist. It’s free to list stuff for sale, and they give you up to four photos to upload for free. I highly recommend putting photos in your listing. Two years ago, my wife and I sold a ton of furniture and home accessories all on Craigslist, because we didn’t want to move a bunch of stuff that we weren’t in love with.

Resell on eBay. This is a little risky, but I saw that Wal-Mart is selling a playstation 3 for $399 plus a $100 gift card with the purchase. If you bought the playstation, resold it on ebay, you’d only be out the tax. You would have a $100 gift card to spend on gifts at Wal-Mart. Be careful on this one. Only buy something that you know you can resell for the same amount of money.

Do Some Odd Jobs. Do you own a pressure washer? Print out fifty fliers and stick them in the doors around your neighborhood. If you get five jobs out of it, you’ll make a few hundreds bucks for the holidays. Do you love dogs? Put out some fliers to start walking your neighbor’s dogs.

Change W-4 at Work. This sounds weird, but SO many people end up with a surplus of tax dollars withheld at the end of the year. Lower your W-4 withholding number to what it should accurately be, and you’ll start getting more money put in your paycheck. Don’t let the government get a free loan on your money!

House or Pet Sit over Thanksgiving. Many people go out of town for Thanksgiving and they hate knowing that their house is just sitting there. Solicit your services to watch their house or pet. You can also water their plans and take in their mail.

Start Blog Writing Online. It will take too long to start making any money from starting your own blog. Christmas will have come and gone long before you earn a few bucks.  Instead, start writing for someone else’s blog. Check out Problogger Job Board for tons of different paid blog writing jobs. Pick a subject that you are passionate about.

Perform a Research Study. I know, you don’t want to be a lab rat, but if you live near a research university or hospital, they might have chances to make $500 to $2,000 participating in a study. I did three studies when I was in college, and I made a total of $1,900 doing them! I am still here, and I haven’t grown a third arm yet.

Make Crafts for Sale. Christmas time is the peak season for all things involved with crafts. If you are crafty, then start making Christmas ornaments, embroidered kitchen towels, wall hangings, door decorations, and anything else you can think of. You don’t even have to purchase a booth at a local fair or craft expo you can sell your items online at Etsy.com.

Free Money. You can earn an extra $50 when you sign up for a TradeKing account or a ShareBuilder account and make a trade by the end of the month. They give you $50 for trying out their service, although it won’t cover your whole gift budget it should be enough to pay for at least one present.

There are a tons of different ways to make money, but it takes some effort on your part. All you need is a little bit of drive and creativity to earn extra income. Do you have any other ideas to share with everyone? You can leave it in the comments below.

Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is around the corner, and the biggest shopping season of the year is close to follow.  The shopping in November and December is what keeps financial planners and debt counselors employed. 

Budgeting for Christmas Gifts

Many people go nuts with Christmas and holiday shopping.  I know I’m guilty of it; I tend to wait to buy certain items because I know the deals will be so good in the Christmas shopping season.  But, if you want to live a life of building wealth and making wise financial decisions, you need to prepare for Christmas. 

Hopefully, you’ve already started thinking about how much money you will spend this holiday season, and maybe you’ve already started saving for it.  I am a big believer in preparing for Christmas to the point where you don’t need to use your credit cards, so here are four steps for building your shopping fund for the holidays.

Step 1: List out all of the people that you will buy a gift for this season.  Make sure you don’t go overboard on this.  My wife and I have started prioritizing our gift giving to parents, nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters, best friends, and each other.

Step 2: Put a dollar amount next to each name on your list.  This represents the total amount you can spend on them for a gift.  Then, total it up and analyze if the number you came up with is realistic for your budget.  If it’s not, tweak some of your numbers until the total amount looks reasonable for your financial situation.  Once you’ve come up with a total amount, you now have a number for your shopping fund.

Step 3: There are seven weeks until Christmas.  If you haven’t set any money aside for the holidays yet, start putting aside money each week for your Christmas fund.  Also, any extra income that comes in during this time should be thrown in your Christmas fund such as a holiday bonus, quarterly bonus, or side income.  You may also want to consider putting extra money in the fund for Christmas entertainment and family trips that you may take over the holidays.

Step 4: Don’t let your Christmas fund suck the fun out of the holidays.  If you set aside $50 for your brother or sister and you spent $53, don’t freak out.  It won’t break your bank.  Let the budget be your guide.  Just look for a better deal or a coupon on the next gift you purchase.

Trust me, if you’re following these steps, chances are you’ll be doing much better than the majority of the population that has no clue how much they are really spending on the holidays until they get their credit card statement in January.

Making Christmas Special

Remember to give back to others in need during this time of year if you can.  It seems we all run a little short on money during the holidays so the best way to make sure you can donate is to budget in a certain amount for charitable giving ahead of time.  These acts of kindness are what really make the holidays so special. 

Also, don’t get caught up in getting the perfect gift for a loved one.  Instead get caught up in spending quality time with the people you love the most.  Thinking about your finances now will allow you to think about what is most important during the holiday season.

Mobile shopping can save you both time and money.  You can use your cell phone to help you shop around and get the best deal possible or you can use your mobile device to purchase things online.

The use of your cell phone to help you shop and get better deals is quickly catching on with younger and even older generations. Mobile shopping is becoming increasingly popular as cell phone technology and network speeds continue to improve.

There are many tools out there to help you, and we will go over a few different ways to use your cell phone to help you be a better shopper.

Product Research

Doing your research is key if you want to save money when you’re out shopping. Some people do plenty of research before they leave their house about the best deals, but there area always certain products and deals that come up while you are out shopping that you did not research. Epinions is a great website to access from your mobile web browser to help you perform product research on the go. The website is comprised of a social network of users that write product reviews and rate each other’s reviews its usefulness.

Comparison Shopping

One of the hardest parts about shopping is that you get caught up in the moment of a good deal. You may find the LCD TV you want for a given price, and it looks to be a good deal, but you’re unsure if you can get it for a better deal somewhere else. Using your cell phone helps you figure this out right away, not when you get back home after you bought the TV.

Try Price Grabber on your mobile web browser to compare products and prices. FruCall is another great website that gives you three different options for comparing prices and products. You can call their 1-800 number, text them the ISBN number, or check out their mobile website.

Capturing Information and Social Shopping

My first experience with using a cell phone to help me shop was when my wife took a picture of a kitchen appliance that we had been looking at and sent it to my phone to view. Many of you have cell phones that capture photos and videos, but watch out, because many stores don’t like you taking photos or video of their products. They don’t want it getting in the wrong hands, their competitors! So, try to respect the wishes of a retailer when taking photos or videos of a certain product.

Dressing rooms are becoming social networks at places like Bloomingdales and the Gap. This article from Forbes Magazine talks about retailers beginning to offer interactive dressing mirrors that will take a photo of each outfit you put on, so you can look at it again later after you’ve tried everything on. Bloomingdales and Prada are also installing webcams and microphones into the dressing rooms to allow friends or family members to log on to their website and see you in your new outfit in the dressing room. I sure hope those webcams have good security on them!

Shopping On Your Cell Phone

mShopper is a newer web application that you can access from your cell phone to shop online. mShopper will search for the best online deal and help you make a quick purchase straight from your cell phone. You set up your account’s financial information and shipping information and saves it. When you want to buy something, type in your pin number, and your item will be purchased and sent to your door step.

You can also use your mobile web browser to shop online and buy items straight from your cell phone. You may want to check a store’s website first before you purchase it, because many retailers offer web deals to encourage online spending. Retailers save money when you purchase online, because it costs them less to deliver the good or service to you.

Mobile Shopping & Banking

So, are you ready to start shopping on your cell phone? Take the time to learn the ins and outs of mobile shopping and you can save yourself both time and money.  Cell phones aren’t limited to just shopping, you can use them to access your money as well.  For information on mobile banking, check out our mobile banking review.

Whether you are newly married or you’ve been married for 20 years, the debate over joint versus separate bank accounts is a hot topic among married couples. Some couples swear by separate bank accounts, and other couples think joint accounts are the only way to go. I’ll give you my opinion over the debate, the best checking accounts for married couples, and a strategy for making the joint checking account work.

Joint vs. Separate Accounts

I have a strong opinion about this debate. I think that all married couples, new and old, should hold joint checking and savings accounts. I understand the argument for separate accounts, but when you said “I do” at the altar, you made a commitment to become one cohesive unit. You are a team, and you need to act like one. When you choose not to share your finances, you are choosing not to share one of the most important aspects of your lives. You can give me all of the excuses about how it works better with separate accounts, and it’s too confusing to share money. The reality is that you don’t trust each other, and you won’t put the time into sharing your money. Don’t settle for the compromise of spending whatever you make. Your marriage is not a business partnership, and if you weren’t ready to give up control of your money, then you weren’t ready to get married.

Responses To Advocates Of Separate Bank Accounts

“She/He spends too much money, and he/she won’t listen to me when it comes to saving money” The answer to this problem is communication and/or marriage counseling, not separate bank accounts. If your spouse refuses to change their financial habits and they are reckless with money, then you don’t have a financial problem. You have a marriage problem. You need to find common ground as a married couple, and help each other rather than get mad at each other. If you can’t communicate and resolve the problem on your own, see a marriage counselor. There may be a bigger issue that one of you isn’t talking about.

“It’s too confusing to share money. I’m afraid that we’ll overdraft on our account.” This is the excuse of a lazy couple that doesn’t want to communicate and budget money together. The solution to this problem is getting on a budget, and planning how you will spend your money each month. Set aside two hours each month to go over your budget and finances for the month with your spouse.

“She/He brought more debt into the marriage. She/He should pay it off on his/her own.” I’ve actually heard people say this before, and it makes me cringe every time I hear it. When you get married, you are coming together become one person, one flesh. You work as a team, and you help each other no matter what. If your spouse is bringing in a bunch of debt to the marriage, it’s now your debt. I don’t care who’s name is on the debt. You have an obligation as a marriage partner to share that debt.

Strategies for Sharing Bank Accounts

Our Strategy: I married a girl who is more frugal than me. In fact, she makes fun of me for the gadget cravings that I get and my weakness for spending money when we go out at night on a date. I got lucky. I never worry about her going on a spending spree with our money. She follows our budget religiously. There was no question when we got married that we would share a checking and savings account. We have a Bank of America checking account for convenience, and we have an ING savings account for short-term savings. I have a 401k for retirement, and now that she’s working, we’re going to open up Roth IRA’s with Sharebuilder in the coming months. We’ve shared a checking account for three years, and it’s been a great decision. We sit down every two weeks to go over our finances and map out what we’re going to do with OUR money, even though I was the only income producer for the past three years.

Joint Checking Account with Two Separate Checking Accounts: If you simply can’t grasp the concept of having one joint checking account, then try this method. Keep a joint account that feeds all of your income into it, and pay all of your bills through this account. Keep a separate checking account for yourself and for your spouse. Divide up 5 to 10% of your income into the separate accounts. Make a pact that you can do whatever you want with that money and your spouse can’t question you about it (as long as its legal! haha). My wife and I do something similar with cash. We give each other a certain amount of money each month called “mad money”, but instead of putting it in separate accounts, we keep it as cash. I like having some cash on me at all times, because there are still situations in life where you can’t swipe a piece of plastic, and sometimes cash speaks louder than plastic.

Checking Accounts of Interest for Married Couples

• FNBO Direct
• Sun Trust Bank Checking
• Wachovia Checking
• Charles Schwab Checking

I know that i made some bold statements in this article, but I will stand by them. It was not my intention to offend you, but I hope it gets you thinking about your current financial set-up with your spouse. I am sure there are people out there that have separate checking accounts with a healthy marriage, but it is the minority. Think of this is a challenge to get you to think differently, not an attack on your current opinions. You must be on the same page with your finances, and sharing every aspect of it is part of the foundation of a healthy marriage.

For more money tips for couples you can read about budgeting money for newlyweds, tips for finding an apartment after marriage, and a couples guide to buying an affordable house.

This article on joint bank accounts in marriage is part of the Marriage Money Guide.

Do you often wonder where you money goes? Do you struggle to save money after all of your bills are paid? The problem is your budget, or lack of a budget. Less than 5% of the households in the United States keep a consistent household budget, and that is why 95% of the nation struggles with money. The word “budget” has a negative connotation to many people. You don’t want to be constrained by a budget, and you think it will run your life. It could do that, but if you budget correctly, it will actually free you from living paycheck to paycheck.

The Basics of Budgeting for Married Couples

• Start doing it the moment you get married. The more you wait to start a budget, the less likely that it will become a habit in your household.
• Create a budget together. One of you might like maintaining and forming the budget than the other, but you BOTH need to be present to contribute to the budgeting plan for that month or period of time.
• Choose how you will keep your budget organized. You can use a pencil and paper, Microsoft Excel, Quickbooks, MS Money, or you can use an online application such as Mint.com.
• Write down all of your monthly recurring bills such as utilities, mortgage, cable, debt payments, and insurance. Then, estimate your other monthly expenses that tend to fluctuate such as food, gas, entertainment, clothing, and car maintenance.
• Continue to tweak your variable expense allowances over the next three months.

Budgets are not perfect, and they can make life a little frustrating at first. It’s no different than starting an exercise regime. Your body will resist the exercise at first, because it’s not used to doing it, but it will get easier the more you do it. Budgeting is the same way. Here are some common budgeting struggles that newlyweds often face:

One spouse is on board to budget, but the other is not. Talk through it, and try to figure out the root of the issue. Do you share the same goals with money? If you can’t come to a resolution, then seek out marriage counseling. You can’t have one spouse following a budget while the other spends whatever they want. It won’t work.

Neither one of you has the will power to follow the budget. Seek out another couple to keep you accountable. Ask friends of yours to keep you accountable with your budget. They can call you once a week to see how it is going. If you have someone else asking you about it, it will help you follow the budget better, because you’ll feel embarassed if you keep telling them that you busted the budget.

You get easily frustrated that the budget isn’t working. You will not get immediate results with a new budget. It takes three or four months to tweak the budget and start seeing results. Once you get it right, you’ll quickly see how much more money you have at the end of the month.

Here are a couple of free excel files to help you track your plan to get out of debt and create a budget.

• Budget Worksheet
• Debt Elimination Plan

Remember, budgeting is a way of life. You must develop the habit of budgeting, or you’ll drop it like any other fad. Once you see the results and the immediate income boost by spending your money on paper before you spend it, you’ll get excited. So, get excited, and start your budget today.

For many of us college is our first experience with managing our finances completely on our own – and it can be difficult to keep everything straight. There are several cheap and easy ways to manage your money effectively without spending a lot of time on it. Here are some tools and tactics for managing your money while you are in college:

1) Carry cash for everyday purchases - It’s a lot harder to overdraw your checking account when you carry cash. As long as you have money in your wallet or purse, you still have money. When there is no more money in your wallet, then you are broke. When you run out of money then make a withdrawal from your bank in an amount that is easy to remember. Let’s say you take exactly $50 out each time. You will never have to wonder about much of anything. You will know how much is left in your account. If you burn through $50 in the first day or two, then you will know you need to change your spending patterns.

It’s a simple rule, but one that could save you hundreds of dollars in fees to your bank. After all, you are busy working, learning, studying, socializing and generally trying to move forward with your life. If you truly don’t have time to sit down and balance your checkbook each day, then carrying a set amount of cash will keep you from accidentally overdrawing your bank account.

2) Use your bank’s online service to keep track of your accounts - This is usually a free service that comes with your checking account. Make sure you check it every few days to make sure that your records and the bank’s records agree. Be aware that most banks run several days behind when they post your charges – so don’t be tempted to think that you have “extra money” in there somehow. It’s more likely your bank has not posted your last few transactions.

3) Invest in a cheap folder or grab an envelope and keep your receipts in it - This is a habit that will serve you well the rest of your life. It’s very, very common to blow your budget on the little items, not the big ones. Buying three sodas or coffees a day, eating lunch out, etc. can really add up. If you save your receipts then you can sit down at the end of the month and go through them. They will give you a very clear picture of where your money went that month. Reviewing those receipts will also help you to understand what your spending habits are, and teach you to change the expensive or unhealthy habits to better ones.

When you’re ready to move up….

Let’s say you’ve got the basics down, and you’d like to take a more hands-on approach to your money, possibly open up an investing account, keep track of your student loans, manage your credit cards, and make a detailed budget

There are all sorts of personal finance tools out there that can do the job, but many of them are expensive. In my opinion there are two programs out there that outshine the rest. If you put them both together, you have a powerful tool to help you not only manage your complete financial profile, but every detail of your schedule as well.

1) You Need A Budget: The YNAB software will allow you to spend less time managing your finances than ever before. There are three versions of the software that range from $11.95 to $39.99. (Compare that to the cost of a program like Quickbooks that starts at $100 for the basic package).

YNAB let’s you import your transactions directly into the software from you bank – you don’t have to spend time each week updating your financial software to match what your bank account already says. It allows you to make your own categories for things, track anything you want to, and even contains the tax forms you will need to fill out at the end of the year.

With YNAB you can track your spending and debt repayment over time, set goals, and do just about anything you can imagine to design your own budget. It is by far the cheapest, most sophisticated piece of financial software I have seen to date. And it will grow with you – once you are out of college you can use YNAB to keep track of your mortgage, car payments, even retirement accounts.

You can learn more about YNAB by clicking here.

2) BackpackIt - This is an online service that runs about $7 a month. It has a calendar feature that you can set up with the due dates for all of your bills and BackpackIt will email you a reminder the day before they are due (or any day you set it to remind you.) You can use it for your school projects and relatives birthday’s too.

A few additional features:

You can access BackpackIt from anywhere, and create individual private pages for anything you need. You can make pages for your school projects, your financial goals, or anything at all. You do not need to know html to do any of this, everything is drag and drop.

BackpackIt has a To-do list feature, and a “Make a Note” feature. You can also upload files, and email things to the program and they will appear on your pages.

BackpackIt has really become invaluable to me personally – I wish I had it in college. You can keep track of your entire life with it and it’s completely private and easy to use. If you’re curious about it, you can get a free trial of BackpackIt here.

If you were to combine YNAB and BackpackIt I honestly believe you would never need another piece of financial software ever again – they are that powerful a combination. Together they are tools to manage your finances, your projects and your life quickly and seamlessly.

Whether you choose to use either of these programs or not, be sure that you do set up a system for managing your money. As tough as things are to manage while you are in school, they actually get even harder once you’re finished. If you get your basics down now, and have software you can trust, then maybe you will never have to struggle with managing your finances – and that is priceless.

In this series you can also read about a review of student health insurance options and comparing them with eHealthInsurance.  Find the best spot to keep your hard earned money in our review of the best checking accounts for college students.  Check in tomorrow when we’ll discuss the best student credit cards.

This review of software for budgeting and money management for college students is part of the College Student Money Guide.