I have a confession to make…I am a lousy money manager.

I always have good intentions. I save all my receipts thinking I will balancing that checkbook, and – you know what? –  those receipts end up being used a color paper to distract my toddler when we are stuck waiting somewhere. And as for the checkbook, well, your guess is as good as mine. Yep, I should not be trusted with money.

Lucky for me and the other “free spirits” (to quote Dave Ramsey), there are some great online budgeting tools out there. Here are some of the more prominent ones (or at least prominent in my little world):

** Please note, I am not endorsing any of these products. These are simply suggestions of what is out there**

• Mvelopes is a fee-based program which manages all aspects of budgeting. 14,467 financial institutions currently will cooperate with this program, and Mvelopes offers a free 30-day trial. 
• Simple Planning – The website describes this product as an “easy to use Excel Spreadsheet. Planning and tracking a personal budget is not everyone’s idea of fun, so we’ve developed an easy to use, easy to understand budget planner that works right in Microsoft Excel (no need for additional software)”. Free Demo is offered.
• PearBudget appears to be simple and concise. They offer a 30-day free trial as well. I have tried this site and found it very helpful.
• Just budget is a free service; however, there is not a lot of information on the website. Per the “what is” tab, “Justbudget is in evolution. As you are using it, you’ll slowly discover new features coming in. As you or any user would feel them useful. Tell me what is missing; the most popular requests will get their way to justbudget.com.”

And of course there are the computer based resources:

• Excel – make your own spreadsheet
• Quicken
• Microsoft Money

The important thing is that you BUDGET, not how you do it. As my favorite money guru, Dave Ramsey, says “every penny has a name on purpose.”

Photo by d70Focus

Janet is a mom, wife, and teacher. She and her husband are on a quest to “happen to their money” rather than “let their money happen to them.” She can be found blogging about hot issues at educate, empower, enjoy or keeping up with her crazy family at ZieglerZoo.