Financial Organization

[CEK40]

Good Morning to you all!

First let me say that I enjoy reading all your post on "Budgeting" and have found quite a few of them to be useful to me and my family.

My question today for you out there is...do any of you use a computer program to keep track of your finances, budget, spending, etc.? I have always kept mine on paper in a notebook from year to year, but am getting lazy in writing all that down.

I know there are many out there and am looking for something that is fairly simple to use. My son-in-law uses Mint.com and really likes it. I am not sure how I feel about a site or rather a program like a Windows based program. We had our credit card information stolen along with our e-bay, paypal and AOL last April and are just now getting things back to normal.

I appreciate your information and look forward to seeing what you have to share.

Thanks again,
CK in VA

 

[Scubee]

Good Morning to you all!

First let me say that I enjoy reading all your post on "Budgeting" and have found quite a few of them to be useful to me and my family.

My question today for you out there is...do any of you use a computer program to keep track of your finances, budget, spending, etc.? I have always kept mine on paper in a notebook from year to year, but am getting lazy in writing all that down.

I know there are many out there and am looking for something that is fairly simple to use. My son-in-law uses Mint.com and really likes it. I am not sure how I feel about a site or rather a program like a Windows based program. We had our credit card information stolen along with our e-bay, paypal and AOL last April and are just now getting things back to normal.

I appreciate your information and look forward to seeing what you have to share.

Thanks again,
CK in VA

I've used a number of packages over the years. Started with MS Money, tried Quicken and Mint, and today I'm back to a bit of paper along with Excel. I'm not proclaiming this to be the best way...it's just the best way for us.

Let me begin by saying this: we use our VISA for almost everything in order to earn cash back and pay it off weekly. This means I have very few checking account transaction to keep up with. Once weekly, I log into my banking Web site and my credit card Web site, I jot down all transactions on a printable check register I found online, and then I enter them into my Excel spreadsheet.

A single Excel worksheet doubles as our monthly budget and our cash flow statement. The columns consists of category, budgeted amount, amount spent, and amount remaining. By entering the info weekly (sometimes twice weekly), I am constantly aware of areas of overspending. I've added Excel cells to enter income and other cells with calculations to show me savings potential for the month.

I would be glad to share my template with anyone interested.

 

[CEK40]

I would love to see your template if you would be kind enough to share. I have always done my budget/finances with paper and pencil, but everyone tells me that using the computer is easier and quicker. I will have to see about that.

Thank you so much for your help, I look forward to seeing what you have.
CK

 

[Scubee]

I would love to see your template if you would be kind enough to share. I have always done my budget/finances with paper and pencil, but everyone tells me that using the computer is easier and quicker. I will have to see about that.

Thank you so much for your help, I look forward to seeing what you have.
CK

I imported it to Google Docs and changed all the numbers so as not to share personal info. Here's what it looks like: Budget & Cash Flow

Each month, I take the template, create a new spreadsheet or tab, and update what we expect to spend. So when our electric bill is higher in the winter or sports registration fees roll around, it's accounted for.

I hope it's not too confusing.

 

[marie1203]

I use an excel spread sheet that is also from a template. It works great every monday I go through our credit card pay it off and put the numbers in.

 

[Chiker9]

Hi,

My husband and I have been using Quicken for about 8 years and love it. It is a very easy program to use.

 

[tink576]

I've started using the You Need A Budget (YNAB) program, I was looking for a program to use and a lot of Diser's recommended it. I've found that I really like it.