Alert: This deal has expired. I hope some of you got it in time!

Amazon.com is offering a free 1-year subscription to ESPN The Magazine.

The page shows the magazine for $5, but add it to your cart and during checkout, a coupon will automatically apply. It looks like this great deal lasts until Saturday night.

Note: If you get an error, simply add anything else in cart along with magazine and at checkout delete the item. It will go through without any issues.

Let me know if you got this great deal!

A lot is made of budgeting, but there are differing opinions about the best way of creating one. Some people have categories that are too broad, and others have too many categories, which makes goals difficult to meet month after month. Here, I’ll detail how I made my budget and how I continue to maintain it each month.

Your budget does not need to be perfect. At first, you just want to get a sense of what you spend your money on each month, and later you’ll adjust it to your needs. You don’t need to nail your projected number on the nose. Rather, it’s a guideline to follow.

• Start by going to Mint.com and signing up. It will pull data from your bank accounts and give you a clear sense of how much you’ve earned and how much you’ve spent over the past 3 months. The trends page shows how you spend your money. (Look through the transactions. You may have to tweak some of the categories so it knows that the check sent every month to Mrs. Robinson is for rent, not shopping.)
• Go to the planning page and create budgets for specific categories. Housing, utilies, food, car and loan payments, and entertainment are good places to start. You should include all types of spending, fixed and variable.
• Set a “miscellaneous expenses” category. Double it. No matter how much you think you spend at the corner store, you’re forgetting something. Presents, haircuts, and light bulbs need to be included somewhere! There are lots of other small expenses we often forget about, so we should keep a good buffer in place.
• Review each month. If you see you aren’t using all of your shopping money, decrease the budget for that category. If you’re going over your entertainment budget, either cut back or increase it slightly.
• If your expenses are higher than  your income (or if you want to save more money) cut down in one of your variable categories, such as food, shopping, or miscellaneous expenses. Lower your eating out budget if you want to save extra, and stick to it.
• The only “category” that matters is saving. Always make sure that your expenses are below your income.

We all have to do what works for us. Find your priorities and cut down spending in your other categories. You will be able to spend your money on the things that are important, while still saving for other goals.

Set goals for each month. If you want to save $300, set your budget to $300 less than your income, and see if you can hit it. Who cares if you overspend in one category if you’re making your ultimate goal: saving money!

My budget has worked very well for me. I’ve learned that I don’t do very much shopping and that I wasn’t planning for enough random expenses. By budgeting, we tell ourselves which categories we are willing to splurge on and which we want to cut back on. Good luck, and get started today!

When I created my budget several months ago, I did so to limit my spending. I wanted to avoid spending too much money on clothing, groceries, entertainment, etc. By tracking it as the month progressed, I could see where I needed to cut back and where I was doing well.

I came to the point where I was comfortable with my budget, but there was still a huge problem. I was cutting back too much in categories I didn’t want to cut back on. I got so obsessed with saving that I wasn’t allotting myself enough money for certain things that I should have. One month I had a low grocery bill, so I responding by lowering my budget for groceries for the future. I was able to do it, but not with the quality of life I was looking for. I knew I could save more for the future, but I wasn’t happy with my present quality of life, so I looked for a way to fix my problem.

The Solution

Besides limiting spending, budgets can actually promote it, too. With my budget, I know I have $100 a month to spend on entertainment, and when I see on the 15th of the month I have only spent $20, I make sure to spend more on something that will make me happy, maybe by taking Lauren (my girlfriend) out to a movie, dinner, etc. I try not to waste it on impulse buys, but I want to make sure I’m enjoying myself rather than skimping out on the things that make me happy.

The same goes with groceries. Instead of trying to save too much, I make sure that I buy fruits and vegetables and get ingredients to make halfway decent dinners. Having just graduated college, I am used to pasta, bagels, rice, and potatoes as my main sources of protein (what? those foods aren’t full of protein!??), but now I am trying to enjoy a healthier lifestyle and that means dishing out a little more for quality food. I budgeted for it, I can afford it, so why not be healthy while still saving 50% of my pay?

How do you make sure to spend enough in categories that matter?

I have been helping a friend switch from Sprint to AT&T because I’m a huge fan of AT&T and it would reduce the cost of their plan considerably. It came down to a decision of whether to opt in for the $5 per month Wireless Phone Insurance. For the peace and mind, $5 a month doesn’t sound like much, but when we take a closer look at the numbers, things become a little clearer.

At $5 a month, that comes out to about $60 a year for phone insurance. For five lines, that’s $300 a year. Even if you lost or broke two phones in one year, $300 could buy you two nice phones.

So it comes out about even IF you somehow lose or break 40% of your phones. If something happens to a third phone, you may come out behind, and if you lose fewer than 2 phones, you probably come out ahead. Do you think you would lose or break 2 out of 5 phones in a single year? More?

Regardless of that decision, there’s another kicker: If you have insurance and something happens to your phone, each replacement phone is subject to a $50 or $125 non-refundable deductible per approved claim depending on the phone model. Under our previous assumption, the cost of losing two phones becomes somewhere between $400 and $550 to replace the phones. WOW, that makes the decision pretty definitive: phone insurance just isn’t worth it. Why not roll the dice, knowing that if you get your phone lost or stolen, you can just buy a new one with the money you save.

Still not convinced? Listen to this: All phones come with a manufacturer’s 12 month warranty. If your phone isn’t working properly (does not include lost or stolen phones, or phones with water damage), just call AT&T and they’ll ship you a new phone for free, with no need to write a check or get a cash advance. If you’re responsible, chances are it’s better off going without the insurance and trusting yourself.

After the first 14-21 months, depending on your plan, you are eligible for an upgrade at a reduced cost. If your phones are still functioning after this period of time, save them! If for some reason, your phone doesn’t function, this can be your backup until you become eligible for another upgrade.

While it may be a gamble to pass on the phone insurance, it seems like a small one to me. What do you think?

Today, try and make your own luck. Get active and make a positive change in your financial life!

I finally finished making major changes to the blog, so not much will change in the near future. I added a few links over the right and I hope you will sign up for the RSS feed, Email subscription, or follow me on twitter! Or you can continue to visit the site, which I’m hoping will facilitate discussion. On to the links:

Kevin from 20s Money gives Tips To Make Sure You Have A Job When You Graduate to the class of 2010. I couldn’t agree more, and my experience involved me starting my job search early and using the on-campus career center to help me get my first job.

My Money Blog alerts us that California Increases Income Tax Withholding By 10%. This has some consequences for those living there, but Jonathan presents us wth a way to “undo” the change.

The Simple Dollar lets us know that Investing Isn’t Just for Rich People: Five Ways Anyone Can Reap the Rewards of Investing. I especially like steps 2, 3, and 4.