next »

[marigolds]

I've found a software combo that feels do-able to me (MoneyWell for budgeting, Checkbook app for iPhone) but I'm wondering what fantastic systems you all have for keeping track of financial stuff when things get more complicated.  (We always fall down on the job come tax time, and have to scramble to dig out all deductible receipts, documentation for all the different sources of income [my husband is a musician so his are really complicated and weird], etc.) 

Any tips for making my "workflow" on this more efficient? 

[antiphon1]

I use Quicken.  It's pretty simple.  My bank's online entry system can be uploaded into the program.  Mega wonderful.

The key regardless of which program you use is making regular entries.  Trying to enter in all the data at the end of the year is crazy making.

[shrek]

Quicken. Started using it when I first had a small business in 1985, been using it since.

[undisciplined]

Quicken. Mr. Undisciplined uses it and then I complain about it when he nags me about receipts. But it's incredibly useful at tax time.

[spork]

I bring home all my receipts and enter the info into an Excel spreadsheet that is marked with different columns -- groceries, car, home repairs, fun, health care, etc.  Then I sum all the columns each month.

[octoprof]

We have a written monthly budget (created in Excel). We don't spend anything that isn't in the budget without discussing it and then taking something else out of the budget.  We mostly use the debit card. Our credit union online banking has a way to put a category on every transaction. We do that, then print a report so we can see what we've spent on each category (we can even create new custom weirdo categories for our weirdo interests).  We run this report every two weeks (i.e. every pay period) to see if we are on track or not and to make corrections or adjustments.  I usually dumb it into Excel and play with the numbers.

Until we starting doing this we didn't realize we spent more than twice as much on dining out as we spent on groceries. That was an eye opener.

Whatever you do, write it down (electronically is fine).

[clean]

Until you can understand something, you can not control it.

I control my spending (like Octo) with a written budget.  I use a yellow pad and an XL spreadsheet.


I use cash for most purchases (especially food and entertainment).
Other things go to cash. 

[marigolds]

This is what I was afraid you would all say...that it just takes a freaking lot of attention and time to keep it under control.  I've been using MoneyWell as the budgeting part of it (it's based on envelope budgeting - it dumps money from paychecks into buckets whose levels you've set beforehand; when, for example, the "restaurant" bucket is empty, well, no more eating out that month. 

I've been essentially messing with it for about 20-30 minutes a day (we're just starting to keep it actually under control rather than just crossing our fingers and saying "oh s***!" when a big bill comes due) and I wondered if I was doing it the most efficient way.

One thing I'm REALLY happy about is that MoneyWell can separate out the different types of income from my husband's jobs into different buckets - which apparently matters to our accountants, since he's self-employed.  (Publishing rights vs royalties vs performance vs teaching income...this is a BEAR to keep track of.  So I have high hopes for this part of it.)

We've always kept all potentially deductible receipts in a separate envelope and just added them up at the end of the year.  Is there some more efficient way to do this?  (And what about stuff like gas mileage?  My husband isn't the most diligent about keeping up with little boring tasks that happen regularly, so this is hard for him to do.  Any tips on keeping up with this?  Because I'm just not going to do it - I'm already dealing with all the other financial stuff, and that's annoying enough.) 

We've been keeping track of everything we spend for over a month now.  Octo, you're right - it IS an eye-opener. 

[new_bus_prof]

Currently, I keep a mini-notebook that sits in the column between the driver and passenger seats. I also keep one in my bag. We record the date and where we went. Then, I can go back and calculate mileage. I put it in a file in my office when filled.

My SO loves the fact that there is always a notebook to create a shopping list or write a last minute note.

Tracking spending...use a card that provides downloadable Excel-compatible statements.

[mad_doctor]

I have programmed an excel workbook with several spreadsheets that keep track of various things.  One is a monthly balance sheet that keeps running balances and carries the previous month's ending balance to the beginning of the next month, so I can make forecasts for several months out.  Another tracks my various investments and allows projections for the next 30 years or so.  Another track the payment schedules for home, car, and other big-ticket items so I know how much principal is remaining on the loans at any given time.

[sibyl]

We use Excel for budgeting and Quicken for keeping track.  Once we establish a monthly or annual budget line (e.g. $200 for gasoline each month; car insurance is $600/annum so we plan to save $50 a month), every so often we compare our expenditures to the budget.  ("Oh, gas went down, so we're now spending about $150 instead; let's change the budget amount.")  We also use Excel to keep track of our budgeted savings ($550 of our savings are for car insurance, I spent $120 on a new outfit so the amount available for clothing is now $365, etc.).  We also pay the savings account first, and make sure we have funds for unexpected events, because life happens.

The time consumed to keep up with it weekly is less time than it would take to do it all annually, and we value the increased sense of control over our money that it brings.  (Not being worried about whether you'll have enough money?  Priceless.)

[pink_]

Do any of you use mint?
I've been flirting with the idea of trying it, but haven't done it yet.

[chemxtree]

Wife took over tracking our finances this past summer after about a 10yr tour of duty on my part, she had done the first 10ish years of our living together and early marriage years. Over the years we used Quicken and a bit of Excel. I dropped Quicken/TurboTax combo around '02 or '03 when then started adding some callhome software hooks in their releases. Then I essentially drop it all and rode on the seat of my pants with online banking websites for the past 5 or so years.

Now we're back to using Excel to budget out big-ticket items and monthly bills with online banking as primary money tracker. My biggest qualm is how our bank seems to shift our money around at their own free will. ERRRGH!

[onion]

Do any of you use mint?
I've been flirting with the idea of trying it, but haven't done it yet.

I've been using mint.com for a couple of months, and I don't really like it.  For one, it's constantly trying to sell me things.  For another, I don't find it as user-friendly or intuitive as a plain old Excel spreadsheet or even Quicken (I'm not good with this kind of stuff).  With mint, I don't feel like I have enough data, or enough control over the data--granted, I haven't been using it very long. 

I've been using these http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/personal-budget-spreadsheet.html because they thought of stuff that I would often overlook when writing out my own budget in a notebook.  It helps me plan ahead, too.

[lexan]

I like mint - the ads are the price of having a free service.  I really like the tags, and the fact that I don't have to enter transactions myself.  Which I would never do, because I don't have the discipline.  For long-term financial planning, I use a bunch of ING accounts (transferring over money to my checking when it's time to spend it).  There's a small problem there in that mint doesn't integrate well with ING, but it works out fine since I don't directly spend the money from the ING accounts.