These free on-line services let you plan your budget, monitor your spending, and get control over your spending.

You can pay your bills on-line. Also on time.

Accounting software lets you see where your money went. This is crucial in a turnaround in your finances.

You must make a budget. Then you must stick to it.

There are lots of competitive on-line programs. Here are some good ones: Mint, Wesabe, Buxfer, and Yodlee.

They offer budgeting modules. Mint and Wesabe are social networks. You get information and encouragement from your peers. Here is a review of Mint, Buxfer, and Wesabe.

Then there is Quicken. It offers a stripped-down free online version of its powerful $45 program. There are lots of books and on-line materials out there on how to use it.

The important thing is that you begin. You do not need to master any program; just begin. They all offers far more than you will need for a long time.

If you won't use software to help you, here are five low-tech ways to get conttol of your budget.