Ok....here's my update:
I bought the basic version and now I'm trying to figure out how to use it. Maybe I just need to need to spend some more time on it. I can't figure out the budget part. How do I budget for groceries, gas expenses etc..........
Thanks
Here's how I do it...and this is probably not the only way to do it, but it works for me.
Every time my DH gets paid, I set aside money (ie-budget) for certain expenses (groceries, insurance, gas, travel, clothing, qtrly bills, etc). I created what I refer to as a dummy accounts in Quicken for each of these categories. I classified them each as bank accounts and have them all start with **. For example, my first account is for auto expenses (mostly gas). The title of the account is "**auto". That way it is at the very top of my account list and I can easily identify it as a budget account since I started them all with "**". So, for example every month I want to budget $500 for these expenses. I would create a transfer from my checking account for $500 and allocate it accordingly to these accounts. That way I can see exactly how much I have in the budget for these categories.
Ok, now fast forward. I've just received my credit card stmt (we use for points and pay off each month) and I tally up my auto expense. For the entire month I used $200 in gas. I would transfer $200 from "**auto" to my checking account and then pay my credit card bill with that money.
Now, in reality the money never left my checking account. If you look at my bank statement you won't see the money going to or from my checking account during the budget process. It just helps me see how much money I have allocated to the various expenses.
At the end of the month (or whenever my bank stmt arrives) I simply add the balances of my budget accounts to the balance shown in my Quicken checking account. Assuming all my checks have posted, the total of all these accounts will equal the balance shown on my checking account statement. Like I said above, the money never technically leaves my checking account as far as the bank is concerned.
I hope this makes sense, but if it doesn't please let me know and I'll try and create a better example.
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