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Angel
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 7:58pm | IP Logged
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Since my wonderful dh took all the kids to soccer... I am spending a lot of time tonight researching various organizational tools. One of the things dh and I have been talking about a lot lately is keeping track of our spending. We're not spendthrifts and our only debt is currently our mortgage, but we could be better stewards of our resources. We've been talking about ledgers, the envelope system, budgets... etc.
Because we live out in the boondocks, far away from places like Target and Michael's and clothing stores, I'm not sure the envelope system would really work for us; we tend to buy many things online that other people in more suburban areas include in their weekly errands. But what we have been thinking about is starting some kind of ledger system where we write down everything we spend.
So my question is: do you use a ledger? Keep a budget? If so, what kind of notebook/ledger/planner do you use to keep track of your spending? What do you use to make/keep your budget? What is your system for keeping up with these tasks?
Thanks!
--Angela
Three Plus Two
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 8:12pm | IP Logged
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There is an online virtual envelope system that you can subscribe too. It is Mvelopes. I found it to be too time consuming, but I know others rave about it. I believe Mary Hunt (Complete Cheapskate) recommends it.
I use Quicken and an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of what we are spending. Unfortunately, it is more retroactive than proactive. I would like to find a better tool that would help me see if I have already spent my budgeted amount in a particular category for that month before I go to make a purchase.
Great questions!
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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mrsgranola
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 8:14pm | IP Logged
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Angela, I highly recommend using Quicken. It's a wonderful tool for family finances and can be utilized in numerous ways for family organization, too. I keep up with what we spend down to the penny and have so for 15 years now with Quicken. This is the only area of my life I'm really organized!  
Every day or two I enter receipts and categorize what we've spent accordingly. Now I enjoy downloading many things into Quicken, as well. Once you use it a while, it becomes automatic and not really a hassle at all.
MOre when I can...
JoAnna
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Mom to Jacob, Grace, Mary, Lucas, Emma, Carrie and Gianna
Parente Adventures
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Macmom
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 8:55pm | IP Logged
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We use common sense, a la Dave Ramsey, and make a budget. (We also have an emergency fund! It gets a little bigger every month!) At the beginning of the month, we write out the hard costs (mortgage, gas, insurance, food, etc) and at the bottom of the paper the fungibles (entertainment, clothing, homeschool). Every month we discuss where the money needs to go, and any long term projects/expenses we foresee that need to be saved for.
Ramsey calls it "telling every dollar what to do."
Like you, we live out in the boonies and do a lot of on-line shopping, we just make sure it's all in the budget.
We've also used Quicken since 2001. DH sits down every weekend and inputs all the receipts, and we make any budget changes then. (like, hey, we are coming in really low on gas this month, we can add a little to the clothing allowance!)
I really like knowing where the money is going. It keeps me honest!
Peace,
Macmom
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Catholic family life works on the same principle as a washing machine- clothes get clean by agitation.
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Philothea
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 10:29pm | IP Logged
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This only works if you pay it off in full during the grace period every month, but what we do is use our dividend credit card for everything. We earn cash back at the end of the year, and we signed up at Yodlee.com, so all our spending is tracked and categorized in real time for us to see without having to cruch the numbers ourselves. Every once in a while we sit down and make sure the software has categorized things correctly, but for the most part, it's pretty right-on, and you can add filters and preferences to help it be even more accurate. It's been great. We have a really good idea of where our money is going.
However, I will say again this plan only works if you won't overspend, because the credit company will exponentially increase your limit the longer you do this, so it can be a temptation. But it is a good way to keep track and get some cash back each year.
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Essy
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| Posted: July 27 2007 at 10:35am | IP Logged
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this is what I've been using for the past month or so and it has been so totally awesome...it completly changed the way we spend our money.
http://www.snowmintcs.com/
you can even try it out for free.
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Cheryl
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| Posted: July 27 2007 at 11:00am | IP Logged
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We enter our receipts into specific categories in Quicken. You can do reports to track your expenses with it. We make our budget in an Excel spreadsheet. I check to make sure that our expenses are within the budgeted amount before I spend. Usually.
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: July 27 2007 at 12:39pm | IP Logged
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My husband has developed an Excel database to track all our expenses, liabilities, assets...it is amazing. It's like Quicken on steroids. It is very important to both of us that we are able to see exactly where each cent goes and to budget accordingly, so this customized option is perfect for us.
We write down EVERYTHING we spend--and I mean everything! (I can tell you with a glance when I last bought bananas and from what supermarket! ) It does take some dedication, but it really isn't much extra time, and it has been so helpful when it comes time for quarterly forecasting, etc.
He's the brains behind our finances, though, so if I were on my own, I would just go back to using something simple, like Quicken--we used Quicken at the very beginning of our marriage, and it worked well enough. I would definitely go for something computer-based. Programs like Quicken make it very easy to see how much you're spending in each area of your household. I love all the possibilities of tracking, graphing, etc.
I am definitely not an envelope-system person; I love not having to carry cash around, and I do some shopping online. Also, like Philothea, we use our cash-back credit card as often as possible. But we are also very thrifty, and neither of us has a spending problem.
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Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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Marjorie
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We have been using Quicken forever as our bank (Ntions Bk) has online bill pay that uses that program. It is excellent for tracking expenses. Once you categorize a bill i.e. Gas South is Natural Gas, you never have to do it again. You can also create your own categories and subcategories i.e. Homeschooling:books, Homeschooling:extracurriculars, Homeschooling:materials etc. and add memo lines too. Quicken also has a great budget feature that I must admit I haven't used. I do like the bill reminders and that every one of my debit or cc purchases can be downloaded automatically so I don't have to enter them. If I had to write it all down I would fail miserably! Downloading is my friend.
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Marjorie
Lettres de mon Moulin
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CatholicMommy
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I've not done Quicken yet (it's one of a very few things I just can't seem to make work on the computer for me - I need the handwriting), but we have a notebook which has a separate page for each budget item. When the money comes in or goes out, it is noted in a secondary notebook, then written on the appropriate page. This way, it's LIKE having the envelope system, but it's on paper instead.
I have gone through so many different forms of budgeting and recordkeeping and this is one that finally seems to be sticking for me. Not too complicated, but still accurate.
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Keeping track of the money
