Budget tips

Anyone will tell you that the first step toward living debt free is to track where you are spending money. This may sound daunting at first, but it's really not that bad. Once every other week I sign into my online bank account and enter all the transactions from my debit card into my NeoBudget account. It usually takes me about a half hour. As I enter the transactions, I deduct them from the appropriate envelopes.

By doing this once every other week, I can see where I am spending money. Before I started doing this, I was spending a lot on eating out without even realizing it. When I started tracking my finances, I was able to save about $40 per week by not eating out as often. (Plus, I now generally eat more healthy.)