thanks guitarman.
That's one way I sertainly can do it.

I use notepad for everything. Including a file mysteriously titled "budget.txt"

Of course, my parents don't understand crap, so I have no idea what money for what things comes out of what account. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm still auto-paying on a student loan that got bought by a different institution, which would mostly just be $130 down the drain every month.

I like notepad. If you need something more complicated, it'd be trivial for someone to toss together a small program that can read a text document and do calculations and junk.

Also, "yay vegies" is right. At least where I am, those are impressively cheap.

To begin with creating a monthly budget is very simple and does not require any specialized software. Yes, you can use Excel, Libre Calc, or some other spreadsheet, but honestly it isn't necessary to do it for a simple monthly budget unless you really want or need the calculation abilities of the software. All you really need is a basic text editor like Notepad and a calculator.

First, you would begin with writing down a starting balance. I.E. the amount of money in your bank account at the time of starting your budget.

Second, you will write down the balance of your income from work, disability income, etc. That will be added to the balance each month which will help you get an idea of how much you have in the bank for that month.

Third, write down all of your reoccurring bills such as TV subscription, internet, phone bill, whatever. As these tend to be rather consistent from month to month this will be subtracted from your balance which will give you an idea of how much you have left for other purchases.

Next, set aside some money for necessary expenses such as food, toilet paper, shaving cream, whatever. Once you figure out how much you have to spend on those items subtract that from the balance, and you'll find out how much you have for spending on non-essential items.

If you are frugal and don't want to just blow your money on games, movies, music, etc you can put back 50 to 100 or so per month which you can put in a savings account for a new computer, screen reader upgrade, or just have on hand when and if you need it.

Bottom line, as long as you write down how much you make and how much you spend from month to month in a text editor you'll be able to keep track of your money better. Once you have a record of your expenses and income you can budget it to save money or make better plans how to redistribute your money to make the most of it. While living at home it might not seem like a big deal, but should you start living on your own it is a skill you will need. So its best to figure out what works for you now rather than having to learn the hard way when you really need it.

To be honest Sean it sounds like your over complicating a little. Budgiting just means checking what is coming in, vs what you spend. You can do this fairly easily at your bank, with a bank statement, doing online banking if you wish or whatever. I do mine in my head, though alternatively you can just right the numbers down in any old program and add them up.

I myself go to the bank occasionally and measure my encome support vs my billls just to check what I'm doing though it usually works out fine in my case sinse I don't tend to use much money on stuff, heck, even living in a small flat is a bennifit sinse my electricity and heating bills are far less.

What I would personally do is take your income then take off everything that is automatically paid out, ie, water, electricity, gas, tax if you pay it, possibly your phone and internet. Then, look at what you have left anddecide what your going to spend on what.

I don't personally make a set food budgit, or a set budgit for necessities sinse it is usually better to buy such things in bulk. For example I have several tins of baked beans in my cupboard which I bought in a pack of 8 as it was cheaper than doing so individually. I will buy various things to go with them over the while, but having them bought in bulk takes off the general price. similarly, instead of budgiting for toilet paper as a necessity, I grabbed two packs of 8 and stick them in my out cupboard. Those will last a good long while, so i don't need to factor them in individually.

Similarly, with meat, it would be very expensive to buy a pack of mince beef everytime I wanted to make chilly, but when I last went to the supermarkit Minced beef was on offer in huge 1 kg bags at £5 for two, and considering each bag will make me enough meals (with some cooking sauce and some kidney beans chucked in), for two or three days, then budgit wise it's far easier to do that way.

This is why I personally tend to budgit based on "necesary outgoings" vs "disposable amounts" and in the disposable colum count pretty much everything else.

Btw, if you really! want to save money, the best way is not to spend it .

This is actually why I usually myself happen to have money for things when things come up, such as my recent Victor stream, simply because I don't tend to spend very much normally. Of course it does help that in Britain I think the ennifit situation is much better than in some parts of the world, and that of course I do have the advantage of living in a councel property and thus having no rent, (or rather my housing bennifit pays the rent), though I still have utility bills.

Spreadsheets are more of an advantage for people who can see, sinse the columnized information means that a sighted person can scan for a quick spacial overvieww, so probably aren't needed if your just reading the numbers.

As I said I personally do mine mentally, but that's me, I've always liked using my memory over writing things down.

For me it is a case of whatever works. I suggested using Notepad and a calculator because that is the easiest and most accessible way to create a budget. However, I'll freely admit spreadsheets are nice and handy for a number of reasons.

As a matter of fact I do my finances in Libre Calc on Linux since it is free and comparable to Excel in functionality. The advantage of using a spreadsheet like Libre Calc or Excel over the text editor and calculator idea is that you can build formulas into the spreadsheet to do calculations such as add all of your deposits to your balance or subtract all the withdrawals from the balance. No need to manually do the calculations yourself. Plus depending on how you layout your spreadsheet there are specific columns for specific types of information which can and does make it easy to locate something quickly.

For example, let's say I buy $60 worth of stuff at Walmart. When I enter it into my spreadsheet under withdrawals I'll say Walmart, under amount $60, and then under the memo column
I'll give a one or two word description of the purchase such as groceries so I know what I spent the money on. That helps me organize the information so I can quickly go back and look where I spent my money, how much, and what it was used for. It is easier to look up things in a spreadsheet than in a text editor for the most part, and I prefer having it laid out in nice neat rows and columns myself.

I must admit I always hated the spacial components of maths and  would much rather use my brain. Actually it used to piss off my Maths teacher sinse they'd set a problem, I'd sit down for five minutes and work out the right answer by just juggling the numbers mentally, however as soon as I was required to make graphs, columnize the information etc I always  went amazingly wrong! answers. I've always substituted for my poor spacial coordination with my memory.

I've never got how to put formulae into Xl, though I know it is possible. The only use I've ever found for xl is making gamebook maps to play the CHRONICLES OF ARBORELL GAMES LIKE TORCHLIGHT, SINSE YOU HAVE A READY MADE SET OF BOXES ALL WITH COORDINATES THAT YOU CAN WRITE ROOM DESCRIPTIONS IN :d.

Still, whatever works for you.