Losing weight is popular New Years Resolutions, so is quitting smoking. Another popular resolution is creating a Budget and sticking to it. That's why this is a particularly busy time of the year for those of the front lines of the budget battle, professional credit counselors. Many of them say that you must have a goal, a goal to own a home or purchase a car. If you have a goal in mind it will make it easier on you to do a budget. So goal first then budget, a budget simply means keeping track of the money you make and spend. And you don't need fancy software or websites, a paper and pencil still works fine.

Once you have a handle on your income and outgo you can use that to fine tune your budget and hopefully find extra money. If you're having trouble staying on track then what you can do is to visual. For example, if you're looking to buy a car, take a picture of the car you're trying to buy and put it in front of the mirror so you can see it everyday. There are tons of tools online and off that can help you get started and keep you on track. And there are actual human beings that can help you as well, they are as close as your phone and it's cheap or free. You can go to services like consumer credit counseling service to help you do a budget.

So there you have it, visualize a goal, track your expenses, and if you need help find it!