The Budget Kit: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook [Paperback]

Judy Lawrence (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2008 | Series: Budget Kit

The bestselling guide to getting finances under control--now fully updated and revised for these financially challenging times.
No matter your financial goal, a well-defined budget is the first step to achieving success. The Budget Kit offers consumers a foundation of knowledge, advice in reining in out-of-control spending, and necessary background information on personal investing.

Judy Lawrence, trusted budget coach and personal financial counselor, uses straightforward and easy-to-understand exercises to teach readers how to meet their financial needs and goals.

The Budget Kit is filled with practical forms and tools you can use to organize and keep track of your finances, as well as expert advice to help you:

• Create monthly and yearly budgets
• Outline a plan for repaying debt
• Manage a budget on a variable income
• Find spending leaks
• Navigate online finances
• Track medical expenses and flexible spending accounts
• ...and more!

The Budget Kit is fully revised and now includes an updated online resource guide that directs readers to helpful websites for additional information on spending guidelines, credit card debt, and recovery issues.

With Judy's tried-and-true guidance, you can get your spending under control and create a budget that will put you on the road to financial freedom!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A foolproof way to organize and maintain a personal budget." --Publisher's Weekly


"I recommend The Budget Kit over other budget books because it doesn't just give you blank spaces to fill in. It really explains the hows and whys. Even if you're already in debt it can help you pay off those debts when you know where the money is." --Terry Savage, Author, The Savage Truth on Money

"The Budget Kit" is a budgeting workbook that is truly usable" - Kiplinger's Personal Finance

"One of the most usable resources we've ever seen." --Money magazine

From the Publisher

Budgeting Just Got Easy

Simply having money does not necessarily guarantee your ability to manage it. In an age of information overload, many of us simply don’t have the time, knowledge, or organizational skills to set up a simple, functional system for managing our daily, monthly, and yearly finances. That’s where The Budget Kit comes in—practical, comprehensive, and easy-to-use, this bestselling classic shows you how to put your financial house in order and take the first steps toward financial independence.

Even if you are using a financial software program, you will find the concepts in The Budget Kit to be essential to your understanding of budgeting. Whether you make $30,000 or $100,000, if you follow the guidelines in this manual, you will be well on your way to creating the freedom and ability to achieve your personal and financial goals.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing; 5 edition (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1427796726
• ISBN-13: 978-1427796721
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judy Lawrence is a Personal Financial Counselor / Budget Coach and holds a Masters in Counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Her basic money management concepts are drawn from her early days growing up above a local Wisconsin Dairy Co-op (cheese factory), managed by her father, and the "common cents" modeling from her parents. Her future book would be based on her "5 Jar System" where she saved her cheese factory earnings in five different jars to cover her clothing, car savings, college savings and more. That need for visual feedback and interaction would also later play out in her future books.

A variety of job experiences over the years in Wisconsin, New Mexico and California broadened her awareness of consumer's relationship with money. Jobs ranging initially from elementary through high school and college counselor, to Realtor, Office Manager, Online Support Executive (in Silicon Valley), Sales Executive, Budget Consultant for the family law courts in New Mexico and long standing Private Practice as a Financial Counselor (sitting at hundred's of kitchen tables), as well as being a member of the Albuquerque Collaborative Divorce Group team, have enhanced her financial counseling and coaching skills.

Judy's book, "The Budget Kit:Common Cents Money Management Workbook" 6th Edition, has been in print since 1980. The original book "Common Cent$: The Complete Money Management Workbook", was the self-published forerunner to "The Budget Kit" and was later published by Dow Jones-Irwin. It is a perennial bestseller for Kaplan Publishing (previously Dearborn Publishers) for over 15 years and other publishers before that. For decades, Judy has been a spokesperson and quoted in numerous media outlets and a frequent guest on TV and radio, including CNBC, WGN, CNN Radio, USA Radio Network, Business Talk Radio, Money, Kiplinger's, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the San Jose Mercury News.

Her down-to-earth style through her books, coaching and workshops and website www.moneytracker.com has helped thousands of couples, individuals and small business owners nationwide get out of debt, start saving, gain financial control, and develop a healthy relationship with money. The ultimate goal is always to guide people towards more financial peace of mind.

Judy recently moved back to Albuquerque, NM after spending ten years of one of the most tumultuous years of financial booms and busts in the Silicon Valley Bay Area in CA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

237 of 239 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! I've finally mastered the art of the budget, January 17, 2002

By 

Alexis Coxon (Holt, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Budget Kit : The Common Cents Money Management Workbook (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

I had the misfortune to fall in love with a profession that doesn't pay beans. I also have tastes that would be more in line for an heiress. What to do?

Well, what I -did- do was overspend, get myself into credit-card debt, get myself out of it and still not have any idea how to save money or manage a budget. But this great little book changed that.

There's some advice and encouragement from the author here, but that's not the focus here. The focus would be extremely easy-to-use charts that help you plan your spending and keep track of what you actually -did- spend.

It's pretty easy: First, figure out your yearly expenses (the author provides a long list of these to jog your memory). These include car maintenance, professional dues, subscription renewals, haircuts, vet visits -- the whole shebang. There's also a great worksheet that lets you figure out your gift-giving expenses for birthdays, holidays and so on. Add them all up and divide by 12. That's the amount you need to save every month for these occasional expenses. (Why didn't I think of that?)

Then, for each month, there's a one-page worksheet where you figure out what your income will be for the month and what your expenses will be. You can easily chart when you'll get paid and when you'll need to pay your bills.

Finally, there's a two-page worksheet for each month to keep track of what you actually did spend. (It was a real eye-opener for me to realize what I actually spent on snacks each month!)

This is the first time I've every been able to create and stick to a realistic budget, and I have to say that it's pretty awesome. I actually have money left the second week of each pay period now, and I don't have to skip paying one bill so I can pay the others.

Here's a tip that I used to keep track of my budget: I copied it into my planner every week, so after I spent my allocation for, say, dining, I would cross it off. That way, I didn't get confused about how much of my budget for the week I'd actually used.

103 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A faithful companion that no one should be without!, February 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Budget Kit : The Common Cents Money Management Workbook (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I've been using Judy Lawrence's "Common Cents" system of budget management for probably the past 12 years or so, and it's made a big difference in how I handle my money. I track all my spending in a notebook (and in my checkbook), and then transfer these transaction details into my monthly Common Cents pages. It's made a huge difference to see at-a-glance where my money is going each month -- and you can't imagine the difference at tax time! All of this tracking takes me maybe 1-2 hours a month, so it's a minimal time investment. And I have no doubt I've saved many thousands of dollars over the years through the discipline and focus over money management that the Common Cents system has instilled. I've recommended it to friends and members of my family for many years; it just works!!

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Book -- Easy But Incredibly Thorough, February 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Budget Kit : The Common Cents Money Management Workbook (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

After a few failed starts with Excel and even Quicken, the pen and pencil tear-out pages in this book did the trick. The book is so modular and well-designed that you can start whenever and with whatever committment you want.

Do you think that keeping a budget is too hard? Not only is it easy, its especially easy with this book and the relief you feel as you get control of your spending is worth many, many times whatever small effort you put into tracking your expenses.