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Budgeting
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Budgets And Eating - Can They Co-exist?
By Shirley Bullington
Whatever your reason for having a tight budget, the truth is that going to the grocery store without a plan is a BIG budget breaker. And sadly all that cash ends up vanishing into our stomachs and Read more...
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Budgeting Software
Below, you'll
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The First Rule Of Making A Personal Budget – Keep It Simple
By Thomas Berten
Rules. No-one likes rules. But we all realize that if we didn’t follow traffic rules and stop at a red light, our streets would be chaos. If you want to have a successful personal budget, you have to follow the rules (in this case one simple rule).
Many people believe that there are a lot of rules to follow when making a personal budget. People believe you must work on your budget every day, and keep track of every penny you spend, or else your budget won’t work. Most people think budgets are a lot of work.
Most people also believe that budgets are hard. They think you need to be an accountant to be able to create and maintain a personal budget.
Budgets can be a lot of work, but they don’t need to be, if you follow the First Rule of Making a Personal Budget: Keep it Simple. Yes, like a lot of things in life, the KISS rule applies to your personal budget.
Don’t try to create a complicated series of linked spreadsheets with fancy graphs and tables. Don’t try to master the most complicated personal budgeting software. Don’t believe that you have to go to school and study bookkeeping and accounting to make your budget work for you. Keep it simple.
Start with a blank piece of paper, or a blank spreadsheet, and make a list of what you spend money on every month.
Holiday destinations where the pound is still strong
With the dollar and and the euro flexing their muscles, perhaps it's time to rub the old favourites off the holiday list. Benji Lanyado recommends five destinations where sterling is still faring well
Rough Luxe Hotel London
Rough Luxe hotel delivers precisely what the name implies - a little bit of luxury in a rough part of town. The surprise, however, is the interior, where this combination of extravagance and scabrousness continues
Le Cool: an eccentric's guide to London
A boutique run by an ex-member of The Fall, a scooter shop that doubles as a a cafe and a bargain tea-shop on Bond Street - these are just some of the secrets in London's quirkiest guide
My city secret: a blog-chain of tips to the world's cities
We're starting a chain of city tips across the blogs... follow us down the rabbit hole
A guide to the best insider blogs to the world's cities
From cult guides to quirky enthusiasts, Benji Lanyado roots out the finest blogs on some of the world's top cities
Budget holiday: Beach
A round-up of the best budget beach holidays
Holidays that won't break the bank
Benji Lanyado helps keep the economic gloom at bay with his pick of destinations that put the beach back in reach of the thrifty traveller
Streets ahead: Cukurcuma in Istanbul
Each week we visit an emerging neighbourhood in a different city. This week: Cukurcuma in Istanbul
Hidden treasure: Bulgaria
Cheap hotels in Bulgaria are nothing new, but a cheap boutique hotel with the best views in town and a designer restaurant is quite a find
LA's top 10 cult locations
Think you know Los Angeles? Think again. Benji Lanyado explores the city's secret cultural heart
Blog by blog guide to ? shopping in London
Benji Lanyado guides you through the rabbit warren of London's shopping blogs to find fashion bargains, art steals, music and more
The Celica in Ljubljana is everything a hostel should be
The Celica in Ljubljana is friendly, cheap and alternative, with a buzzing cultural scene on its doorstep
Mercati Generali in Sicily ... the best club in the world?
Benji Lanyado visits Mercati Generali in Sicily, one of Gilles Peterson's favourite clubs
Benji Lanyado finds Slovenia's tiny coastline boasts an undiscovered Adriatic gem
The Slovenian coastline is tiny, but Benji Lanyado discovers it boasts one of the undiscovered gems of the Adriatic
The gypsy kings of the Camargue
Benji Lanyado visits Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
That’s right, you are not making a budget; you are making a list – how easy is that?
Most people can’t even make a list of what they spend each month, because they have no idea what they spend their money on. No problem. Keep it simple. Get a pencil and a piece of paper, and carry them with you everywhere. Whenever you spend money, write in down. At the end of a normal week, you will have a good idea of where you spend your money.
You could then take your week’s worth of notes and make a monthly budget. But, to make your budget even simpler, do a separate budget for every pay check, or make a separate column on your spreadsheet for every paycheck. That means if you get paid every week, have a column for every week.
Then, make a plan for how you will spend every paycheck. It’s much simpler to decide how to spend your paycheck this week than it is to try to budget for the next six months.
Read that sentence again: make a plan for how you will spend your money. That’s the only reason for making a budget. By keeping track of where your money goes, you can make a plan to spend your money where you want to spend it.
If you keep it simple, your budget will be a success. And remember, if you don’t follow this simple rule, your personal finances will be a mess, and you could have to declare personal bankruptcy. So keep it simple, because proper budgeting is the best personal bankruptcy alternative. Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com Jay Lewis writes about personal finance topics, including budgeting, debt, and bankruptcy alternatives. More information can be found on how to make a personal budget and bankruptcy alternatives at www.bankruptcy-alternatives-information.com
Additional
Resources
The First Rule Of Making A Personal Budget – Keep It Simple
By Thomas Berten
Rules. No-one likes rules. But we all realize that if we didn’t follow traffic rules and stop at a red light, our streets would be chaos. If you want to have a successful personal budget, you have to Read more...
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Additional
Resources
Party Planning For Dummies
By Patty Illomia
Planning for a party is no small stuff. It can be really hard to plan for any kind of party and the more important your party is the more stress you are bound to be under. It is a good ting Read more...
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Brown draws election battle lines
Gordon Brown defends his Budget as the Tories claim it is a return to Labour being a "tax and spend party".
Deficit target set to be hit
Britain's public sector net borrowing reaches £30.9bn after eleven months, giving hope that the chancellor will meet his deficit target.
40,000 Whitehall jobs to be cut
Gordon Brown announces extra help for pensioners and schools but thousands of civil servants face the axe.
Clarke's Budget news for schools
The education secretary has set out details of the government's spending boost to education.
Chancellor shrugs off Budget gap
Gordon Brown claims credit for the buoyant state of the economy and says he will meet his fiscal rules despite the big deficit.
Brown moves to cool house prices
Chancellor Gordon Brown welcomes the findings of two key reports into the UK housing market in a bid to avert a price crash.
Smokers face further price rises
The price of a pack of cigarettes will rise by 9p, while duty on beer and wine will also increase, the chancellor says.
Chancellor to close tax loophole
A tax loophole which has enabled some small businesses to avoid paying tax and national insurance is closed.
Customs and Revenue merge
Customs and Excise will merge with the Inland Revenue, Chancellor Gordon Brown announces in his Budget speech.
Radical plan to shake up housing
Britain urgently needs to build 140,000 extra homes a year.
Where's the waste?
BBC economics editor Evan Davis looks for fat to cut.
Spending battle follows Budget
Sharp cutbacks in spending outside health and education are predicted after Mr Brown's forecast for public spending.
City questions Budget forecasts
Some City economists express cynicism and doubts over Gordon Brown's growth promises announced in the Budget.
Should Brown wield the axe?
How much can be saved by slashing costs in Whitehall?
Brown's child poverty challenge
Can the government reach its child poverty targets?
Tax takes centre stage
Labour lays the grounds for the next election.
All agree Budget is 'vote winner'
Wednesday's Budget speech brought consensus in the media that it was a successful political move.
Howard attacks Brown's Budget
Tories attack the "borrow- now tax-later Budget".
'Big decisions are being shelved'
Gordon Brown is avoiding taking key decisions until after the next election, say the Liberal Democrats.
Profile: The Iron Chancellor
The man most likely to succeed Tony Blair as PM.
Brown moves the goalposts
A leading accountant gives her verdict on the Budget.
Brown tackles 'hard-core' jobless
A raft of new measures to get more people off benefits and into work have been announced by the chancellor.
Your reaction to the Budget
Happy or unimpressed? Your first impressions on the Budget.
Brown's tax crackdown
The chancellor moves to stem the tide of tax avoidance schemes hitting the public purse.
What we already knew
A guide to what we already know about Budget 2004.
Firms hail listening chancellor
Big business backs Brown's red tape fight, but smaller firms feel left out.
Film-makers handed tax benefits
Chancellor Gordon Brown announces new tax relief plans for British film-makers to boost film funding.
Distillers' anger over tax plan
The Scotch whisky industry reacts with anger to the Chancellor's Budget move to put security stamps on every bottle.
Film-makers welcome relief
Film-makers welcome a tax credit scheme introduced in the Budget to help the British film industry.
Brown outlines science strategy
Gordon Brown plans to boost science and engineering investment over 10 years.
Minimum wage for under-18s
Patricia Hewitt says a new minimum wage of £3 for workers aged 16 to 18 years will be introduced.
£1.4m pensions cap to hit 10,000
Around 10,000 people may be affected by the government's plans to impose a cap of £1.4m on pensions savings, the National Audit Office reports.
Brown rejects fresh euro test
Gordon Brown rules out a further assessment of the five economic tests for Britain joining the euro until next year.
Cool response to pensioner cash
Treatment of pensioners under fire despite an extra £100 for the over-70s.
20,000 civil servants to relocate
Gordon Brown confirms thousands of civil servants are to be relocated out of London after a report suggested it would save £2bn.
Bookies hail internet bet review
High Street bookies welcome a review of taxes on internet betting exchanges.
Boost for medical research
The government is to fund new specialist research institutes to try to find cures for a range of diseases.
Delays hit lorry charges scheme
Plans to make lorry drivers pay by the mile could take up to five years longer to start than originally expected, it emerges.
Buy-to-let for everyone
A new investment that may make it easy to own your local shopping mall, cinema or even the office in which you work, could be on the way to the UK.
More money for education
Investment in education is one of the priorities for the future set out by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
Budget speech in full
The full text of Chancellor Gordon Brown's eighth Budget statement.
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