Kirby on Finance

Perhaps the best free budgeting software?

I’ll have to be honest with you - I often feel that Quicken has just too many bells, whistles, and features for me. Sometimes, I find the desire to fully utilize the program makes me a lot less likely to actually use it. I know that sounds silly, but it’s the honest truth. That’s why the new program, Buddi really appeals to me. It’s a free multi-platform personal finance and budgeting program designed for people who don’t really need all of the features and expense of Quicken or Microsoft Money.

I’m still giving it the once over, and will be sure to offer a much more detailed review soon, but I think it’s worth a shot for anyone who’s just getting started with a budget or would like to save a few bucks and avoid buying the higher priced alternatives.

Buddi [Sourceforge via Lifehacker]

Can you pass the money test?

Suze Orman has a really good money test for you to determine your money management skills.  It’s made for graduates, but works for everyone.

Graduates, Test Your Money Smarts [Yahoo]

A Little Blog Post Collection!

I’m constantly amazed at how many great personal finance bloggers there are out there. The sheer mass of quality content that’s put out here for all of us to enjoy daily is just amazing. I’m working on a few other projects this evening, so I figured this would be a good time to show you a few posts by other bloggers that I’m sure you’d enjoy.

The Budgeting Babe has a great post on determining your net worth. She really goes through the basics of what exactly someone’s net worth includes and a few thoughts about the whole process.

Young and Broke offers up another great read with her post on the true cost of pet ownership. She arrives at the ultimate cost of $400 a month for a pet. Amazing! This, and all of her other posts are absolutely worth checking out.

Seattle Simplicity offers up some free personal finance tools.

Last but certainly not least, congrats goes out to Our Money, who reached a personal milestone of $80,000 net worth. Congrats!

February is getting rather expensive!

February is already turning out to be a pretty expensive month for me. On the fourth of the month I celebrated a five-year anniversary with my girlfriend. And yes, we’re waiting until I get done with law school before we get married!

Then last week while I wasn’t feeling too well, I spent a surprisingly large amount on over the counter meds. It really is dumbfounding how quickly I spend money when I’m not feeling well. Between the meds and the justification that I needed to get some pre-made meals from Whole Foods because I was too sick to cook for myself, it really added up. I ended up doubling what I usually spend on food and added about $35 extra for the meds.

So, I’m not even halfway through the month and it’s already starting to add up. With Valentine’s Day next week I’m sure to be riding awfully close to my February budget already. It’s time to get frugal – really frugal. Maybe this will be a good time to pour over a few back issues of the Festival of Frugality! (Hosted by Boston Gal this week.)

Caitlin from Cluttler2Cash posted a plan to stretch out a Costco chicken into five or six meals. That type of frugal savings is sounding pretty good to me right about now!

The Daily Financial Challenge

Jeffrey over at Personal Finance Advice has come up with a great six part Daily Financial Challenge that’ll help you build a solid foundation in developing wealth. I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t share it with you because it helped me focus myself on a few of my 2006 goals. Most of the challenges will only take you 15-20 minutes a day but really any time you devote to the challenge will be time well spent.

Saving 10% at Target

I was about to purchase a gift off of my friends wedding registry from Target.com and a few things occured to me. First off, why in the world is someone getting married so young putting such expensive things on their gift registry. Secondly, how am I going to pay for this stuff?!?! So, before I contacted my Financal Advisor at school to see if I could roll-on a Target.com purchases onto my student loans, it occured to me - I need to save 10% off on this purchase!

Luckily, there’s a code that I can use. It’s “TCADVCBN” and it’s valid until Jan. 31st on anything except gift cards, Bose equipment, and personalized gifts. Since getting a gift card for someone is kinda lame and the only person getting Bose equipment in this equation is me, this code is perfect. I think it’ll be perfect for you - so long as it fits in your budget!