Out of curiosity, how do you keep track of your budget items? Do you use a computer program like You Need A Budget or do you use a ledger or something else?
Since we're Dave fans, we do the sheets at the end of the month for the next month but that helps us figure out what's due and not the other intricacies of our finances, which is where we need more help.
I really need to find a system that works for us so I figured I'd pick the brains of you moolah mavens. Whatever method you use, please share the pros and cons of that method. I'm open to any and all suggestions.
How do YOU keep track of income/expenses, etc?
December 17th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
December 17th, 2009 at 01:03 pm 1261055024
What I don't love is that it doesn't have a good way to handle loans so I have to track my student loan on my own (but according to the website, the developers are working on this feature). If I had a ton of loans to keep track of, I'm not sure it would work for me.
The other thing I use is a composition notebook I keep in my stupidly-large-purse. I don't like (haven't learned) the "Budgeting" function in Money Manager Ex so I just write out my monthly budget in the notebook for now.
Cliffsnotes
PROS:
-free download
-allows multiple types of accounts and transfers
-available for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu
-forum where you can ask for help/updates/new features
-multiple currencies
Cons:
-no set loan feature (there's a workaround, but way too complicated for me)
-the built in help guide isn't terribly helpful
December 17th, 2009 at 02:04 pm 1261058692
But I can also understand that this isn't a suitable option for everyone.
Yeah, I think there are a lot of YNAB fans on here (and I myself am quite curious as to the progress of his iPhone app).
If all else fails, there's always Excel....
December 17th, 2009 at 03:19 pm 1261063144
December 17th, 2009 at 03:30 pm 1261063834
I keep one spreadsheet of my fixed expenses as well as listing the "buckets" for my variable expenses such as groceries. I keep another one where the action happens: At the top I have my checking account balance, then below I have listed all the things I think are going to come in and go out for the next three months. I try to keep the bottom line at $20; at first I tried to keep it at $0, but that was a little stressful, so the $20 balance I aim for is just for my own comfort. In actuality I usually have a few thousand bucks in the bank, but it's all allocated, either to fixed upcoming expenses or it's part of a bucket such as health expenses or groceries.
I access my checking account daily, sometimes several times a day, during the week, and usually don't during the weekend.
When an income or expense happens, I delete it from my spreadsheet. Not as interested in the past as long as the numbers match up; my goal is to always make sure we're good for the next three months. If a paycheck is going to be unexpectedly lower, I can pick through the spreadsheet and cut expenses where needed. If one of our "wants" is surpassed by another, we can work to reallocate bucket money to what we really want.
Basically, my spreadsheet looks like this:
ACCOUNT BALANCE $1000.00
Pending authorizations: 12/17/09 Target -$10.00
AVAILABLE BALANCE $990.00
Groceries/household [bucket] (55.67) $934.33
12/18/2009 Spending money (180.00) $754.33
12/28/2009 Student loan (61.88) $692.45
12/31/2009 CJ paycheck $1,261.59 $1,954.04
etc. As you can see, I have a calculation that shows what the checking account balance would be should every income and expense come through on the date indicated.
Oh, and I have other spreadsheets where I keep track of debt, net worth, savings, etc. Like I said, big Excel dork. But the hands-on approach is good for me because I tended to be disorganized and irresponsible with money, so now I always have it fresh in my mind what we've got and what's going on.
December 17th, 2009 at 03:58 pm 1261065482
Once you get Quicken setup, it is very user friendly. You download the data and can generate reports every which way. I often get comments in my blog that I must spend a LOT of time tracking data, etc. The truth is just minutes a month!
Others would say a con is the cost. I don't agree. Pays for itself easily. (You just get so organized and cathc more things that would fall through the cracks otherwise).
The big con is that I think I probably would not settle for anything less since I am an accountant. I find my friends and people around here have a lot harder time setting it up. So, if you have any accounting experience, it is awesome. If not, will take some patience to learn - or may not be very useful.
Quicken is clunky for tracking net worth, so I do that in excel too. Though the numbers come easily from Quicken. This is probably the most important thing I do, to get a long term big picture.
I find Quicken good for the nitty gritty, day to day tracking, and excel good for big picture things.
OF course, I use Quicken to track all my income and expenses on a daily basis. So it is all in electronic form and I can look up anything with ease. & run reports, etc., with a click of a button.
I use excel to track my savings "buckets." I put in $1k/month to pay non-monthly bills, and pull the money out when needed. I input the savings and expenses in excel, to make sure I am on track, and not over-spending my cash. I also have another tab in excel to track all my additions to longer-term savings. I then reconcile the totals, monthly, to my bank accounts. Make sure I didn't forget anything, etc. (This is mostly needed because I Tend to lump all my cash in the highest yielding vehicles. I don't use sub accounts. But this is probably easier for me as an accountant, too. I understand if someone rather just have separate bank accounts!).
I don't really budget, per se. If I need to come up with a budget, I do it in excel.
December 17th, 2009 at 05:26 pm 1261070789
I'm not really into reporting functions, I just like to see the numbers. I tried quicken and Microsoft money and even making my own budget in excel. None of them were able to do what I wanted (rolling over budget amounts from month to month). Mevelopes could do it, but I hated paying a monthly fee. (YNAB 3 has much improved reporting function. I might even get into it - just to play with the software a bit).
December 18th, 2009 at 01:08 am 1261098523
December 18th, 2009 at 02:46 pm 1261147577