BootsnAll Travel Community

Ok guys, I am terrible at paying attention to what I spend. I don't even HAVE a checkbook register.

Does anyone have any good tools/tips/tricks for tracking (all in one place):
-Bills to be paid
-ATM debits/Purchases/checks coming out of your checking account
-Cash disbursements post-ATM debit

The problem is, I want some way of tracking my spending that allows me to write in bills I know I will be receiving in advance. In a checkbook register you can't write things in before you get there because you may need more/less lines before you get to that day. I tried using an accountant's notebook, because there was a line for each day, and 5 spaces across, but I found some days I had more than 5 expenses, and there was no good way to track where my cash was going (I could track it coming out of my bank account, but not where it went after that). I currently use a spreadsheet for bills to be paid, but I don't know how well that would work with daily expenditures because I'd have to remember to enter them all when I got home...


I found that for the week or so I was attempting to track my spending I was definitely better about spending, and I just opened an ING savings account, so I'm really motivated at the moment. Help!

Hey, Tracy... First of all, no check register?!? Are you mad, woman?!? (Okay, I know some people do without it - lots, in fact - but I'd be completely lost without that thing. And I'd probably be overdrawn about every other week. But that's another story.)

At my "other" job, I use Quickbooks to track everything - incoming and outgoing. I don't know if it would be too much for tracking personal finances, as it's really meant for businesses, but you might check out what freeware is available on SnapFiles - just click on the "Freeware" tab on the upper right-hand corner, and type "finances" (or whatever) into the search box. I haven't done it, so I have no idea what you'll come up with, but I imagine there's something out there. Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by JessieS:
Hey, Tracy... First of all, no check register?!? Are you mad, woman?!?

Ha, yes, but in this case I should qualify my original statement. I RARELY write checks, so unless I was good and wrote down ATM/debit card transactions too the register would be mostly empty. I pay my mom $300/month by check for various outstanding loans, and the last two months I had to pay my car payment b/c the autopayment wasn't set up. Everything else I pay online or it is set up on autopayment

Quickbooks is a good idea! I do have access to the software and use it daily at work. Somehow it never occurred to me to use it at home... duh...

Any other suggestions out there?

well you can solve this with the simplest of excel spreadsheets which i use. i have rows for any incoming money like salary and expense checks....and then i simply list my bi-monthly expenses like rent, car payment, insurance, credit card bill, student loan, cable tv, electric, etc and have a A+B-C-D-E-F-G=TOTAL etc formula. now the KEY to this is to have two columns for each pay period...one that has your ANTICIPATED costs and one for your ACTUAL costs...that way when it comes to the 1st or 15th of the month you can see what your expected payment is and then enter your actual payment. this at least keeps you on top of what bills you must pay and lets you see how much you have at any future date.