Sometimes good intentions like "new year resolutions" are hard to keep. The best of your intentions to get organized where your budget and finances are concerned could fly out of the window and never get done. The main reason for this is that it is a little hard to keep tabs on your expenses and income because of all the time and hard work it entails. However, in this day and age there are ways that have made it easier.

Electronic banking.

This way of finance and banking along with the numerous software products available, have made it easy to track your expenses. Gone are the days of keeping huge piles of bills, receipts and tracking expenses. With the advantages of software programs (like Quicken for example) and websites (like Mint.com) you can get your computer to do most of the work. Downloading your transactions to your computer directly is easy if you have internet access. Sometimes the transactions that you download will even include an expense category for certain items. These reports will give you the much need general idea of your financial status and areas that need to improve will be identified easily.

However, you have to realize that small cash purchases you have made will not show up on your bank statement or credit card statement and you might just tend to dismiss them. This will prove that your software budgeting reports will not be accurate unless you make those entries yourself.

Have a personal plan for your Credit & Debt related finances.

Understanding your expenses and income is the first step towards forming the personal plan. Therefore, you have to have detailed information. Try out a few principles and steps to track your expenses and give you knowledge of your financial stability.

One of the simplest but effective ways is to use hard cash for all your transactions. Keeping lots of cash on hand is not really wise so if you can deposit your earnings in the bank and make weekly withdrawals that will be sufficient for a week, it will be helpful. You will not find it easy to use only hard cash because banks need you to make your monthly mortgage payment by withdrawals that are automatic from your account. Automatic billing does save expense and time but it is still a great idea to make most of your transactions by cash to see exactly where you stand financially every month.

Using the "envelope" method.

This needs more planning. Once you do cash your paycheck, you can divide it into different categories like "rent", "mortgage", "groceries", "gas", "utilities" etc. This is an easy way to track your expenses. You will have a lot more information about how your money is being spent, and the best part of it is, if your "Gas" envelope still has money in it at the end of the month, you will realize that you have saved on transport.