I have never tried a budget company, l just budget myself and the key is not to over-spend and try and save from the wage each week to build up a savings account!

I think what you are looking for are called Financial Counsellors. I know Salvation Army has a particular area ( look at their website ) and Lifeline should even have resources. They are all free. Good luck and happy budgeting as it is good to start earlier than later .

No I haven’t. Using one would cost money would it? If so, you’ld be better off organising your own savings, therefore saving what you would pay the budget company to budget fir you. It’s terrible hard to save. You need commitment and perserverence

Also; make sure you fill it in and track your spending every day; it really does help.

No; I do my own. Maybe google budget planners; easy to fill in and follow and free too.

No. never used them, if you do a google search there is plenty of information on how to set a good budget up for yourself.

No never and I have no debt either just always watching what I spend.

I’ve never used a budget company, but I worked our our budget by listing all our regular outgoing expenses. I put them under Yearly (like Car registration, driver’s licence, etc), 3 monthly (Electricity/Gas, etc), Monthly (Health insurance, house insurance, credit card payments, foxtel, etc), Fortnightly (rent, etc) & Weekly (food, petrol, etc). I also estimated what we’d spend in a year on haircuts, dog vaccinations, and all sorts of things that you might forget unless you really thought about it. I worked out an annual total for each expense (e.g. 4 electricity bills a year at roughly $600 each = $2,400/year, which equals $46/week) and did this for every expense, so we ended up knowing roughly how much money we would need each week to cover all expenses. Weekly & fortnightly expenses get paid from our regular bank account, and monthly/3 monthly & yearly bills get paid from a debit card account that we put money into each pay to cover all bills. It’s worked for us, and we know that, apart from unexpected expenses, we will always have money to cover regular bills.

Until I met my current partner I didn’t budget. But now we have a weekly plan where we have a list of our payments. Eg rent, food, bills, pets, …. So some things are worked out annually so for example we put $60 a week a way to cover phone gas and electric and water. So you need to work out what you need to put away on a weekly basis by calculating each thing

I’ve heard great things about My Budget. A friend’s daughter is currently using them to get themselves out of debt and save a house deposit.

Haven’t used a company. Just budget on my own.

it took me a couple tries but now i do my own

no ive never used one i just sat down took 5 mins and had a good hard look at where my money was going and found things we didnt need and could stop getting to save some money

We never used budget company for save money.

Sounds like a good idea. They may be able to provide you with some useful hints for saving a bit more.

Cannot recommend My Budget enough – we were at the point of homelessness and bankruptcy and they saved us – call 1300 300 922. They are brilliant!

I’d visit a financial planner rather than a budget company. Check out any costs involved in these services first.

A friend of mine is using My budget, they have been using them for nearly a year now and say they are great, yes there are fees but the fees work out to be less then you save.
If I am ever in need of a budget company I will be using them
they have saved over $6,000 in nearly a year

I read a book by an American Guy, Total money makeover, Dave Ramsey. Some parts are More for America ie healthcare. But his logic is amazing. The way he explains money and credit is an eye opener. I could rave about him all night. Since following his advice we now longer live from pay check to pay check. I’ve payed out to debts and now have cash money for a holiday. I feel we have more money than ever.

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  • • hopefullyheidi replied
    • 25 May 2014 , 1:32 pm

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  Wow this guy sounds amazing. I’m going to look him up.

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    • • mom57522 replied
      • 11 Jan 2015 , 6:43 pm

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    Me too! Will be great if his logic works!

I dont trust these companies, cause technically, it costs you more than any debt you had, there is always a fee to the company you use, so that is an EXTRA expense to be added.

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  • • katelt replied
    • 30 May 2014 , 7:46 am

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  I used to think that way too, but they have bargaining powers to renegotiate payment plans that we don’t have, also debtors are more willing to be a bit lenient as they can see you are trying to resolve debt issues. They do charge a small fee ( we pay $43 a fortnight) but I figure very small cost for the sheer amount of work they do. I no longer have to stress when I get a bill – I email the details and the due date and forget about it.