How do you track/budget?

blondie42107 · May 2014

Our house started tracking expenses and bills almost a year ago. Initially I printed a basic monthly calendar and listed each of our expenses on it's due date. I also included our scheduled pay days and expected pay (salary). Then I hand write in all of our other expenses as we go. At the end of the month I total each category - gas, groceries, eating out, daycare, mortgage, utilities, etc.

I really like visually seeing this but I'm thinking of switching to an excel spread sheet although I'd probably have to print it frequently or just store it on Google Drive so that H and I can access it whenever.

What does everyone else use? Most of the ideas on Pinterest are paper log sheets.

blondie42107 · May 2014

Although I like the idea of this, I'm not sure we want to use an app based system. I will check it out though.

SmrBrd2012 · May 2014

I use an excel spreadsheet on google drive so H can access it and I can work on it at home or work. I'm actually really satisfied with it. Don't really need anything fancy. Every few days I add any expenses we have as well as incoming $. I have a new spreadsheet for every month. At the end of the month I subtract what we spent from what we made. It's fairly easy for us because we don't really use cash very often so everything is listed online. If we do use cash, I make a note that we withdrew from an ATM. I also have autopay set up for most things so I just pay bills right away.

hoffse · May 2014

I use a Google excel sheet so I can open it on multiple computers. I literally just track it every day. It's tedious, but it's the most accurate way to do it for us.

brij2006 · May 2014

We use the "Personal Monthly Budget" from Excel. I create the entire year in tabs along the bottom then put in our "estimated" budget for each month. This helps me add things into random months that we know we'll have extra expenses. It has 2 columns. One for Projected and one for Actual. So at the end of the month I will put in the Actual amount of what we spend in each category and it tells me how much over or under budget we came in certain categories and overall for the month.

I also have a separate tab that keeps track of what bills are due when. I get paid on the 10th and 25th. So I have listed on the 10th what bills need paid that are due between the 10th and 25th. Then I put a X in the box under the month so I know that I paid it.

blondie42107 · May 2014

brij2006 said:

We use the "Personal Monthly Budget" from Excel. I create the entire year in tabs along the bottom then put in our "estimated" budget for each month. This helps me add things into random months that we know we'll have extra expenses. It has 2 columns. One for Projected and one for Actual. So at the end of the month I will put in the Actual amount of what we spend in each category and it tells me how much over or under budget we came in certain categories and overall for the month.

I also have a separate tab that keeps track of what bills are due when. I get paid on the 10th and 25th. So I have listed on the 10th what bills need paid that are due between the 10th and 25th. Then I put a X in the box under the month so I know that I paid it.

THANK YOU!!! I'm looking through the excel options right now and I'm very excited.

I was going to do a basic spreadsheet but dreaded creating it. This is so much better!

KatieCutie05 · May 2014

I use the same excel template except i keep the months in separate files instead of tabs. not that it really matters either way. Then I also use mint.com to track our expenses. Then about once a week I'll go in and update the "spent/actual" column with the information mint gives as to what we've spent on each category, when we pay a bill, when we get paid, etc. That way I know if we're getting close to overspending or to make sure we aren't spending all our money at the beginning of the month before our last paycheck of the month comes in.

I have another excel spreadsheet that is for the whole year so i can easily see in one spot how much our spending is changing from month to month..

mana8503 · May 2014

I use Mint.com and excel. I use mint to categorize and keep budgets for each category.

Excel I keep track of all our bills and add the date when it was paid so I don't miss anything. I have a tab of our projected payoffs and other for actual. This way I can see "well, what if I focus on this debt first instead of that." I also have a tab listing our budget and expected income. My favorite is when I can delete a bill off that.

I should say I'm an analyst and love excel and building spreadsheets.

Erikan73 · May 2014

I tried doing the Dave Ramsey envelope thing, which didn't work well for us because sometimes hubby will hit grocery store to pick something up & would use debit card. He didn't want to carry any of the food cash because he knew he would spend it on other things. So that made it hard to track things. So I have a few things I combine to help out. I keep an online (google drive) notebook with what expenses fall under each paycheck to help me figure out how much money we need, what needs to go into checking to cover bills that are taken out automatically and whatever bills we need to send in along with cash items & what needs to go into savings for future bills. For me doing weekly updates to my spreadsheet (also google drive) by seeing what is on our checking account and what is on our cc, has been easier for me. I put everything on google drive because then I can update info from home or work during my lunch time and hubby has access to view things too.

cbee817 · May 2014

We use excel. One spreadsheet that tracks our daily checking accounts' ins and outs (have maintained that since 2007) and one that looks at the entire calendar year broken out by month (started in 2008). The 2nd one tracks savings accounts, 401K, 403B, Roth IRAs, Mortgage, etc on top of monthly bills. I also added some graphs that shows how far we've come over the years, where we're projecting to be at the end of the year, and what % of our income goes to what expense over the year... I like graphs.

CuriousKiddosMama · May 2014

Erikan73 said:

I tried doing the Dave Ramsey envelope thing, which didn't work well for us because sometimes hubby will hit grocery store to pick something up & would use debit card. He didn't want to carry any of the food cash because he knew he would spend it on other things. So that made it hard to track things. So I have a few things I combine to help out. I keep an online (google drive) notebook with what expenses fall under each paycheck to help me figure out how much money we need, what needs to go into checking to cover bills that are taken out automatically and whatever bills we need to send in along with cash items & what needs to go into savings for future bills. For me doing weekly updates to my spreadsheet (also google drive) by seeing what is on our checking account and what is on our cc, has been easier for me. I put everything on google drive because then I can update info from home or work during my lunch time and hubby has access to view things too.

This happens to us too. When DH stops, or I forget an envelop and still stop, once I get home the $ immediately comes out of the envelop and into an 'extra envelop' we keep. Any money in that extra envelop is used for the next month- so we pull less cash out of our checking account to make up for anything that goes on the card on accident.

How do you track/budget?

Re: How do you track/budget?

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