budgets

I hate budgets. I hate dealing with bills and deadlines and all that financial stuff. But, when we divided up chores once we had kids, it became my job because I'm more organized than dh, not to mention that dh's method of balancing the checkbook entailed spending until his debit card was rejected.

I spent about 3 hours today putting together finances and projecting ahead for the rest of the year and it became apparent very early into the process that I need to be more organized. I need to get more specific with categories and keep better track of where our money goes.

So, I'd love some suggestions. What do you do? Do you use a spreadsheet system? Do you have a budget that you stick to or do you just track the money after it's spent? I can track where all of our money goes for free through our bank's online system, so that makes it easy to track categories AFTER it has been spent. But what about before? Do you give yourself money each month for a clothing allowance or eating out? How about the old-fashioned envelope system for each category?

Ideas, links and suggestions welcome!