This year I decided to do better about budgeting and payment planning. I set up a spreadsheet to track income and such to better predict my paydays, and set up running transaction plans based on what I know about the coming month.

I list out the day the transaction will happen (like rent on the first, or a payment when I've scheduled a haircut), and have a running balance for my main account. Any time I add new transactions, I resort the list by date, and have formulas setup to find any times I'll go below zero.

It's helped me identify tight times ahead, and I've been able to either defer buying non-critical items or pay with credit to put off certain items if I know I'll have a crunch. It has helped me avoid spending my cushion money and has helped me start saving more. Problem is, I need to update it every few days to stay current, and I have to be aware of items not on the schedue and how that affects my budget.

Still, it helps me visualize where my money is going up to 3 months ahead of time. The next step is to figure out how to identify periods when I can make large purchases, and make some kind of system to select which purchase to make with saved-up funds (e.g. a couple music CDs or tennis shoes or better cooking equipment or whatever).