You can do it in Excel.
Or just with pencil and paper!

I use Quicken... which is relatively inexpensive.

Spreadsheet or a table in a word processor will likely give you better "management" than will a recording software like Quicken or MS Money. Those programs are for recording expenditures not really for budgeting, if as you say you're trying to manage your money rather than record income/expenditures.

The first personal budget I ever made was done using a Excel spreadsheet. Then later I have tried many offline and online money management tools like Quicken, mint and moneyStrands for budgeting, investing, managing financial accounts and generating personalized money-saving ideas. But still I'm continuing my quest to find a solution that works well for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: moneyStrands

"Spreadsheet or a table in a word processor will likely give you better "management" than will a recording software like Quicken or MS Money."

In what way?

I have been using Quicken since the days of DOS and don't find it lacking.

How is a spreadsheet better?

You might also check out www.mint.com.

I've not used it, but a co-worker does, and it does look interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: mint personal finance

There is a great Open Source Software site http://sourceforge.net. I have downloaded and used a number of the programs but not a home budget program. When I did a search for Home Budget in there search window there were a number of them available.

Randy