Stefanie Murray at The Ann Arbor News is working on a Financial Makeover series featuring families in her community. Here’s the main story for the June 8 series kickoff: Paycheck to paycheck - in tough times, some families can use help.
A snippet:
Facing a monthly mortgage payment that’s about to jump from $2,275 to $2,600, credit […]

I just got home and checked the mail.
We do not owe any money this month to DTE Energy for our electric bill.
There’s actually a credit balance of $45.67 on our account.
How did I do that?

Moneyning was the editor of the week for the April 7 Carnival of Personal Finance.
Here are some of the posts you’ll find on the showcase:

I’ve Paid Twice for This Already presents Budgeting on An Irregular Income: “The easiest way to do this is to come up with your average earnings over an at least 3 […]

Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service has this two-page tipsheet pdf that you can download:
Sharpening your financial survival skills: Or, what can you do when bills pile up?
A snippet:
Are there any bills that I have to pay because they are necessary for our survival? These may include expenses in the categories of food, shelter, utilities, […]

MIchigan State University Cooperative Extension Service has this 3-page pdf file and worksheet that you can download:
Income Loss: How to address the stress and prioritize your financial needs for the family.
A snippet:
To identify individual and family needs and wants, make a list of the things that are necessary for survival and those things that you […]

Michigan State University’s cooperative extension service has a series of Budget Basics handouts and worksheets available on-line for you to print out and work on at home.
If you prefer paper notebook accounting systems rather than an on-line course or computer software (after all, paper forms can be helpful if you are doing family budgets “by […]

One of the breakout sessions at the Mortgage Solutions: Your Home, Your Family, Your Future Saturday at Monroe County Community College was called “Budgeting 101: Basics of Home Financing and Prioritizing - Can You Catch Up?”
Josephine Perna-Stahl, assistant vice president and relationship manager from KeyBank’s Telegraph Rd. branch in Monroe, led the presentation by taking […]

If you’re clicking to this site from a story in The Monroe Evening News on the Mortgage Solutions seminar, welcome to Monroe on a Budget!
The program included a lot of practical and useful information for families who are struggling in Monroe County, Mich., with mortgage and other financial issues. Here are some of the agencies […]

I’m going to run some household budget scenarios on the Monroe County median income, which was reported at $55,823 for 2005. That’s a recent enough statistic to play around with.
And it’s a pretty timely figure, with today’s headline in the Detroit News about $14 an hour jobs. Two wage earners at $14 an hour, 40 […]

I admit: I’m a Quicken user. My husband and I have tracked our household finances on Quicken software since we bought our first Macintosh home computer in 1996.
I don’t use all the features, and I’ve got some serious debugging to do in my database with entry errors I made in the past. But the software […]