There’s a new budgeting tool out there: NeoBudget.  NeoBudget uses the envelope method of budgeting.  Traditional budgeting methods set a monthly goal for each category, but reset your spending in each category to $0 at the beginning of each month.  So if you have a bad month in one category, you lose that information the following month.  The envelope method allocates money to each category as your paycheck comes in.  The category amounts carry over month to month.  So if you have a surplus in car repairs one month, you know that money is available next month to spend on car repairs.  Or if you overspend on gifts one month, you know the following month that you should take it easy (you still have a negative balance in your “gifts” envelope!).

Traditionally, envelope budgeting actually involved getting cash out of your checking account and putting it into real envelopes, one for each category.  But this is cumbersome in the age of credit and debit cards.  NeoBudget makes envelope budgeting easy because it keeps track of your money using virtual envelopes.  Your money stays in your checking account, but as you enter your paychecks and receipts int NeoBudget, it  keeps track of how much money you have in each virtual envelope.

Try NeoBudget and see if it works for you — it’s free!  If you’ve ever tried Quicken or MS Money and given up on them because they were too complicated or didn’t fit your needs well, then NeoBudget might just be the right tool for you!

Tags: budget, budgeting, envelope, envelopes, neobudget, tool, Tools

Free money finance is giving away a copy of You Need a Budget Pro budgeting software. To enter you need to write a comment sharing the number one reason a person needs a budget. Here’s what I wrote:

You need a budget because building wealth is not possible without self-discipline.

A budget is an essential tool for setting goals; establishing reasonable boundaries that are necessary for meeting those goals; and measuring your performance and holding you accountable to those boundaries. If you lose ground, a budget will alert you to this fact, and you can adjust your budget to compensate. If you exceed your goals, a budget gives you some freedom to enjoy any excess you are blessed with.

A budget is an essential tool for exercising financial self-discipline!

Tags: accountability, budget, discipline, finance, giveaway, goals, money, personal-finance, self-discipline, technology, tool, wealth

You can save much time and frustration by applying to remove your name, number and address from marketers’ databases. Some of the quickest ways to do this are:

1. Add your phone numbers to the national do not call registry.
2. Apply to have your name and address removed from the DMA database, which affects all DMA member companies ($1 fee).
3. Remove your name and address from the credit bureau database used to produce pre-screened credit offers.

For more information you can also read:

1. Reducing Junk Mail
2. Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email and phone calls

My wife and I added our information to the do-not-call registry a year or two ago and have greatly enjoyed the results. I’ve just added our information to the DMA and credit bureau opt-out lists, notwithstanding that it is ridiculous to pay the DMA to do this. Can anyone who has done this report on whether it was successful for them? We don’t buy from catalogs anymore, anyway — we always search online or go directly to the store. Plus this removes an additional source of temptation to spend money.

HT: No Impact Man

Tags: catalogs, credit_bureau, direct-mail, DMA, do-not-call, junk-mail, marketer, marketers, marketing, no-impact, opt_out, spam, stop-junk-mail, telemarketer, telemarketing, tool

Zillow is a very neat and incredibly useful website where you can find a value estimate for many homes. Of course, for official numbers you’ll need to talk to an appraiser. But Zillow has enough real estate and property tax data, and enough smarts, that it seems to be able to make very reasonable estimates based on comparables.

I’m using Zillow right now as one gauge for when I should refinance. My wife and I bought our home using two mortgages, and between our payments, improvements we’ve done, and the growth in our home’s value, I hope to reach the magic 20% equity point in a couple of years (provided the housing market doesn’t collapse).

Check it out! I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised at your house’s value, but even if not, it’s useful information.

Tags: appraisal, appraiser, comparables, equity, finance, home, house, housing-market, mortgage, personal-finance, property, real-estate, refinance, tax, tool, value, Zillow