Managing your personal budget can be simple and can save you lots of money. Make a plan. Work your plan. Track your actual expenditures. Change your plan. It is not as hard as you might be thinking, and the wonderful feelings of being in control and finding money you didn't know you had are priceless.

Ok. This sounds good, but how do you do it? Use the free spreadsheet described below and follow the steps. The spreadsheet is easy to use, and it becomes fun to type into the budget plan your various estimates of spending your money and instantly see what the total expenditures would be.

1. Go to forhonor.com

2. Click "Free Downloads" at the upper right, and download the free budget spreadsheet. Save it as "Expenses2007.xls."

3. Click the link, print, and read the instructions for tracking your expenses.

4. Enter your actual expenses, so far this year, to the "Expenses2007.xls" spreadsheet. Don't worry about being 100% accurate at first. Then save a second copy of this spreadsheet and name it "BudgetPlan2007.xls."

5. Use the "BudgetPlan2007.xls" spreadsheet. There is one page for each month. Across the top are the expense categories, such as housing, automobile, groceries, restaurant, medical, etc. Enter your predicted detailed expenses under each category. You might type in several estimated expenses under groceries, for example. Look at the monthly grocery total, and if you want the total to be bigger or smaller, just change some of the detailed expenditures. Do this for every month until you have estimated all twelve months of the year. Then look at the one-page yearly summary and see the totals that the spreadsheet automatically calculates.

Yikes! The total is more than you are going to have in take home pay. Well, it's better for you to know that now, rather than too late.

6. Think where you could spend less money.

- Spend less on gas by car-pooling with a neighbor. Fill up on Wednesdays if gas prices always go up on the weekend. Walk or bike instead of driving.

- Lower your grocery costs by buying more basic foods and fewer prepared, ready-to-eat foods. Buy the large box of old-fashioned oatmeal. Cook it in your microwave and add skim milk, cinnamon, and sugar, even fruit. You'll have a really delicious, healthy breakfast or snack for pennies a serving, much cheaper than other boxed dry cereal.

- Mix four ounces of pure grape juice and three or four ounces of water. You're still getting good nutrition, but are getting fewer calories and are saving half the cost. Pour four ounces of diet pop or soda water into four ounces of grape juice, and you have a healthy, low-calorie, low-cost drink that tastes great and quenches your thirst.

- Don't pay credit card interest. Force yourself to stop charging ANYTHING for two months. Pay cash only. Then, always pay more each month than you charged that month until the card is entirely paid off. The interest you no longer pay is "found" money. Change to a credit card that pays you a percentage back and doesn't charge an annual fee, but be sure you always pay off the balance in full each month.

- Get a free checking account so you don't have to pay check-cashing fees. Many banks waive account fees if you have your paycheck or social security check direct-deposited or if you have a savings account. Don't bounce checks. Don't get advance loans on your paycheck because the fees are very high. NEVER get the immediate income tax refund loan from your tax preparer. They charge a FEE. Choose direct-deposit for your tax refund and you will get it quickly.

- Use your income tax refund to help get your credit card paid off or to help break the cycle of always needing to get a paycheck advance loan. If you got a large refund this year, get help from your employer to calculate if you can reduce your tax withholding for next year. Then you will get more money in your paycheck every payday.

- Use electronic bill-payment for many of your bills and save the thirty-nine cents stamp, the envelope, and the check cost.

7. Type your revised spending estimates into "BudgetPlan.xls" as you think of them, and let the computer instantly give you the new totals. Keep trying until your total estimated expenses are less than your total take-home pay for the month or the year.

8. Continue to track your actual expenses in the "Expenses2007.xls" spreadsheet and compare them to your "BudgetPlan.xls" every month. When expenditures aren't going according to plan, you can easily play around with entering different numbers in your plan to decide what changes to make so you don't spend more than you earn.

The more months you track your actual expenses the easier it gets to plan for future months. Soon, you'll find you don't want to live without your plan and your expense tracking.

Go to http://www.forhonor.com and take control of your money today.