Comments on: How Do You Track Your Money?

By: Get Out of Odious Overdraft « gailvazoxlade.com

Get Out of Odious Overdraft « gailvazoxlade.com — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:35:19 +0000

[...] are also going to become meticulous at tracking your spending. After all, you don’t want to have to go through this pain again, [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:26:20 +0000

I use Microsoft Money 2006, and Excel. I use MS Money for all tracking of income and expenses for all accounts including mortgage, credit cards, mutual funds, and loans. It does take awhile to setup, but worth it in the end. I can get an accurate snapshot of how we are doing and know exactly what the value of my mutual funds are, and know what the balances of all my accounts to the penny.

I use Excel for a cashflow speedsheet to show what bills are coming up and when they will come out of my chequing acct. I also track my cash expenses. We have a Manulife One Mortgage (A big line of credit for a mortgage) and I track that account with a seperate spreadsheet. I have a several columns that represent different items we have bought with this account and everything is kept seperate. So I know exactly what is left on our mortgage, furniture amount remaining, vacation account, and my deferred items account. (I keep track of deferred items that we have paid for but not used up yet, ie. plane tickets, reservations for 2010 Olympics, then in Feb 2010, I expense those items to use them up.)

This spreadsheet exactly matches the totals that are in MS Money program. The excel just allows me to see better what goes in and where the money goes when we make a transfer to our M One account. It requires a little work to keep everything up to date, but well worth it at the end of the year. I can see exactly where our money went and compare to other years and the budget.

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Why Do I Run? | Running workout information — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:33:58 +0000

[...] How Do You Track Your Money? « gailvazoxlade.com [...]

By: kp

kp — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:43:17 +0000

I looked for software that could keep track of our expenses. Instead, I made a simple spreadsheet in Excel that helps to keep track of all our ‘FIXED’ expenses and helps to even the cash flow between monthly bills, bi-monthly paycheques and bi-weekly mortgage payments. I have a spreadsheet that lists by date all the fixed expenses and paydays for the up-coming year down the left side of the page. All our bills are on an equal payment/pre-authorized payment plan, and are fairly consistent. We get paid twice a month. The spreadsheet adds up all the fixed expenses for the year and divides by the number of paycheques. It calculates how much we need to deposit in our “fixed expenses” account every payday. It calculates the fixed expenses paid between paycheques, then subtracts this amount from the amount we deposited on payday. The remainder is added to the amount we add on the next payday. Then the next group of bills is automatically deducted, etc. The system works well for us because there is always a positive balance in the acoount that is just enough to cover the fixed expenses, no more and no less.

I find this system ‘evens’ our cash flow for paying bills because we deposit the same amount every payday. If we have an extra mortgage payment scheduled, for example, in November, then that cost is allocated evenly into all of the previous paycheques prior to November. By the time November rolls around, we have the money available for the extra mortgage payment already in the ‘fixed expenses’ account. If a bill payment changes, or an extra fixed expense has to be added, then the spreadsheet automatically corrects for the amount that needs to be deposited each pay. I regularly compare my spreadsheet with our online banking statements and check each bill as it gets (automatically) paid.

The cash that doesn’t go into out ‘fixed expense’ account goes into emergency, savings and jars.

By: Joanne

Joanne — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:11:19 +0000

Not sure if this is the right spot but something just dawned on me while grocery shopping today… We have doing the jars since Jan 09 and since we have been pulling cash out of the machine and then shopping and paying cash. But by doing this we have not been getting the PC points that I using “spend” on my Christmas extras. So today I go and try and pull the money out of the machine and it is out of service. The debit at the tills are working so I figure I will just debit it instead and figure out how to deal with the amount that is left over from my weekly amount left in the account and not in my jar. I went through the self checkout and after selecting debit it asks if you want cash back – I never used to use this option so I TOTALLY forgot about it!. Then a light bulb goes off! Hey I’ll just cash back the difference from the amount owing for the groceries and my weekly allowance (turned out to be 9.64) and my bank statement shows that I pulled out the full amount that I would have on the machine!
Brilliant!
I’m others already know this but I thought I would share – I guess I was just a little slow since I was trying to work with just “cash” from my jars :0)

By: Canadian Personal Finance Blog » Blog Archive » Random Thoughts: When Celebrities Go…

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:28:02 +0000

[...] Vaz Oxlade asks How Do You Track Your Money, which is always a topic I love to talk about, although Gail’s method is a bit higher work [...]

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:06:31 +0000

I use Quicken and find it easy to use once your expenses are entered in to the program. I have set up most of our large living expenses (insurance, utilities) to the companies budget plan and put them on automatic withdrawl. This way I know exactly my fixed expenses for any given period in a month/quarter/ year. and when the money will be coming out of the account. I find it easier to enter to forecast when I enter all these expense for the pay period (2 wks)in the register on payday and then see what is left for variables. I then look to the next pay period to see if it is better or worse money wise and budget accordingly.
I have been Gail junkie for years and have preached your common sense more often then i should have to.

By: Bud

Bud — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:29:59 +0000

Well I’m still trying to get into using a spreadsheet but I found that a notebook broken into sections for each category is easier to get to write the amounts of receipts into it and attach them than I know the receipts r counted for.. I’m in my late 20’s and still don’t like computer as much as the calculater and pen and paper.. Even though lately the calculater seems to be playing games when it adds or minus every so often.. WEIRD! EH!
I use envelopes that I get in the mail and write-out the address and put the category [with a small description] on and amount that I put in each payday and only carry the ones I need when I go out or I don’t remember how much each one has if I leave in a clump in my wallet..
The only category I don’t watch so closely is hubby spending money since he doesn’t like to ask for receipts on the things he buys. So I take away his debit cards so the bills don’t bounce and he has anuf spending cash and only cash for between the pay periods.. He has slowly gotten use to of the idea and when he wants them I remind him that I make sure there’s anuf money in the account for the bills and there is no spending cash in the accounts left to take out until next pay…
I’m glad to say we’ve reached just above $1000 for emergency fund in savings [since Dec.] and very happy we now afford with only cash to go on weekend vacation some time this yr.. Also I’ve twink the budget a few times since we started in Dec…
I’m happy there is someone out there to give us the info.. to learn to budget probaly and not to use the cc for everything. I’m sick of being in debt and happy that we’re getting ahead with the cash flow since it’s more challenging to wait for the item … Thanks GAIL!

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:48:57 +0000

I love spreadsheets. The only “twist” I use is that I have set-up my spreadsheet on google documents (linked to my gmail email account). It is stored online and my husband and I have shared access to it. Either of us can update our numbers (though it is almost always me!).

By: Sarah F.

Sarah F. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:08:10 +0000

I am an Excel junkie as well.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:03:15 +0000

@Mary – glad I could inspire you to keep easy track of home expenditures.
I’m always amazed how many times I have to look something up.
@Maureen – if hubby’s happy AND helping….go for it! Whatever works.
@Kristy – LOL did you know there are calories in the glue you are licking???

By: Kristy

Kristy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:43:56 +0000

Hi Maureen,
I lick the envelope’s shut then cut off the top. Ziploc’s are a good idea too! Thanks for the idea.

By: Kit Kat

Kit Kat — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:34:00 +0000

I like Microsoft Money. It can do anything…update prices of stock/mutual funds, calculate mortgage amortization schedules, refinancing tools and comparison, budget tracker, cash flow projections, net worth….all in one package!

I collect receipts of my purchases. At the end of a week, I input them all in to the software and I can see instantly where I stand. At the beginning, there is a lot to input, but once you’ve done it, all you have to do is just update as your circumstances change.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:30:13 +0000

I suppose the difference for me is that I’m using my computer every day anyways, so to open up my expenses document on a regular basis is no stretch for me.

That and I’m lazy. Once I’ve created my document, I just use my =x+y or =sum(x:y) formulas (or whatever formula I need), and for the most part, the only time I need to update the formula is for my categories of spending – everything else is pre-filled based on the document, so I just enter in the details and let the math complete itself. It’s especially good for the student loan interest calculations, though every time prime rate changes, I have to redo my calculation of interest (there’s two different rates for Canada vs. Ontario loans), so it took a bit of trial and error to get the percentage correct, but now I just update the amount I’ve paid, if my budget ever needs to vary from my intended payment (which is currently almost 40% of my take home pay – yikes! It’s almost done though).

By: Maureen

Maureen — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:58:48 +0000

Luddite Catherine! Ha! Love it. I would have to say that I am with you as I am very technologically challenged BUT I have had to give up pen and paper. The pen may be mightier than the sword but it is no match against a whining husband. I had to give up my manual record keeping and go computerized in order to get him to participate and learn about our budget. He was willing enough to make the manual entries in our budget binder but he just didn’t want to do the adding and subtracting. With Excel everything gets figured out instantly so he is now a happy budgeter.