Don't forget clothing and dry cleaning, gasoline and transportation costs, including tolls, parking and routine maintenance. These costs are hard to estimate, but do your best. You can adjust down the road if you are far off the mark.

Tracking entertainment costs are the hardest, says Michael Sullivan, director of education at Take Charge America, a Phoenix-based credit counseling service. Part of the difficulty, he says, is because we don't like to acknowledge how much we've frittered away.

After you've recorded your expenses, figure out your income. Simple budget forms ask you to take your total take-home pay and divide it by 52 weeks, but if you do it that way, you'll encounter shortfalls because some months have four weeks and others have five. It will work better if you're precise in your income accounting. Also be sure to add in other sources of income: child support, alimony, interest income, Social Security and pensions.

Once you've done the heavy lifting, you can put these numbers to work in the budget program of your choice.

Do-it-yourself budgeting
What if your online search doesn't yield a budget program that fits your needs? There's always the option of creating a personalized system yourself using the spreadsheet program that's probably already on your computer. This is the basis for most commercial budgeting systems. Excel is the best known, but any spreadsheet format will do.

If you already understand how electronic spreadsheets work, that's great, but you don't have to be a spreadsheet jockey to plot your spending. The simplest design and formulas work very well.

Bankrate has created a downloadable budget spreadsheet to get you started.

Once you start to regularly keep track of your income and bills on any budget program, you'll get a good idea of your household cash flow and where you have work to do. Pretend you're a company bigwig, managing the firm's cash and making executive financial decisions:

• Are you paying more than you have to? Would buying grocery items such as paper goods in bulk save you money? If you combined telephone, Internet and cable, would the bill go down? If you bought a bus pass would you pay less for the commute?
• Do you have bad timing? If you're always late with the electric bill because it comes due two days before you get paid, call the utility company and ask them to change your billing cycle. In most cases, they will be willing to accommodate you.
• Look hard at your expenses. The house payment must be made, while the digital cable bill might be trimmed. Setting these kinds of priorities is up to you. Try not to feel deprived. Remember that even wealthy families have to make choices.
• "Money for Life" author Smith recommends that when you have a month where you spend less money than usual in any category that you move the amount you didn't spend to a savings account or add it to what you pay toward credit card bills. "Even just small amounts of money can make a big difference," he says.

No matter how you choose to set up and follow a budget, either on a spreadsheet you created yourself or with a commercial software program, the task requires commitment, attention to detail and the right attitude. As Sullivan at Take Charge America says, "Budgeting is like dieting. Once you get serious about it, you realize that it doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you do it."

Jennie L. Phipps is a contributing editor based in Michigan.