Good riddance to the latte myth

Today I read a post on Helaine Olen's Money blog that presented evidence debunking the latte myth -- you know the one. It is the belief espoused by personal finance experts that if we all denied ourselves luxuries like buying a cup of coffee on the way to work every day, we could get our financial houses in order. Olen's post is a good one and reminded me that I want to read her book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry.

I've spent a good bit of my reading time over the years poring over advice from the Suze Ormans and the Dave Ramseys of the world, hoping to find some nugget of information that would help me and ABM manage our finances better. Finally, I decided a few years ago to swear off budget books. It had gotten to the point that whenever I read "make your coffee at home instead of buying it at Starbucks", I wanted to through the offending book across the room. Coffeehouse coffee is a treat for us, not a daily expense, so suggestions like that aren't helpful. As Olen's post suggests, normal expenses are what is eating up most people's paychecks: rent, medical bills, food, etc. There are a lot of us who are spending beyond our means not to have luxuries, but because we have more bills that we have money.

Although I stuck to my decision to eschew personal finance books, I'm afraid that I am filling that hole with frugal living blogs. They go a step further than the budget books because they give you tips on things like how to feed your family on $200 a month or how to make your own laundry detergent. I rarely try any of the suggestions but at least I feel that I could, unlike when I read the budget books and know that the authors aren't talking to me.

Giving Mint another try; initial budget hiccups

When I made a call for budgeting software suggestions, several people mentioned Mint.  I rejected that suggestion at first because I had tried Mint before and didn't really get it. However, looking back today, I realized that I last tried the site in 2010 and decided that I should give it another go. I set up another account today and I plan to give it a few months before I pass judgment on whether it is right for us.

A big reason that I am trying Mint again is because I need to categorize my expenses after the fact. The Dave Ramsey method seems to be all about planning ahead for how you are going to spend your money that month and sticking with it. Unfortunately we aren't there yet. Trying to get ABM to remember what he spent money on last week without annoying him was a tense balancing act. For so many years we have just paid things as they came along: no saving receipts, no balancing the checkbook, no categorizing. ABM has kept us afloat with his fancy juggling during the lean times when I've been unemployed, so I can see why he is resistant to following a stricter system.

For at least the next couple months I need to track where the money is going so I can show ABM where we are overspending. Perhaps then it will be easier to convince him to stay within the limits of the budget we set.

What software do you use with Total Money Makeover?

I am late in discovering Dave Ramsey and his personal finance theories. I mean, I knew who he was and what he did, but I was so burnt out on self-help books in general and budgeting books in particular that I didn't bother to investigate his methods further. Then I noticed that all the people I know in real life who truly have their lives together have dropped Ramsey's name into conversation at some point. Because of this, I thought that his books might be worth reading but they were always checked out at the library. That's how I ended up reading The Total Money Makeover almost 10 years after it was originally published.

ABM and I have never been an extravagant couple. True, we are a family that enjoys our gadgets, but the majority of the computers and other tech that we own was purchased used and with cash. We have less than $800 in credit card debt and that was incurred in the last year. It is well below the state average of $6350 per family. The first 100 pages of Ramsey's book droned on with information that I already knew. However, the Baby Steps Plan outlined in the last half of the book appeals to me. Our family's biggest financial problem is that we stopped tracking our spending long ago and tried to keep it all in our heads. Ramsey's plan provides that structure and I am ready to get started. What I am not ready to do is do it all on paper. 

Back in the 1990s, I used to keep track of everything with a combination of a wall calendar to keep up with bill due dates and budgeting software to track our paychecks and expenditures. For our new budget, I have the calendar part handled with Manilla; ABM is a bit squeamish about posting our bills up on the refrigerator the way we used to before we had teenagers and all their friends tramping through the house. What I need now is a free or really cheap budgeting software that would work well as a virtual envelope system (like a lot of people, we don't carry cash). 

If you are a follower of Dave Ramsey's principles, do you use budgeting software? What do you use? Please don't recommend that I create a spreadsheet in Excel. Spreadsheet programs give me hives. I want a program specifically for budgeting that will do the calculations for me. Any suggestions?