How do you manage your money?

[joelsgirl]

We're doing the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University right now, and this is my first month on a budget. He said a couple of weeks ago that keeping my checkbook balanced is a must, but I find that to be so overwhelming! I write checks, and we both use a debit card AND cash. I cannot keep track of it in a small checkbook register, like I used to a zillion years ago when I actually kept my checkbook balanced. So now I'm wanting to know what other people do.

I asked Meg, and she recommended mvelopes.com and http://www.youneedabudget.com. I'm looking for something pretty basic, where I can keep track of my checking account expenses without too much hassel. I'm feeling overwhelmed, and mostly what I want is a program that will help me keep track of our spending, not necessarily establish our budget.

But anyway, I thought that maybe someone here might have a good money management plan that you'd like to share. I would love to hear what you're doing!

[Angie4b1g]

I manage it by spending it all.

[cheltzey]

We use mint. And we use credit cards to manage expenses more easily (but we pay them off every month!). With 2 people writing checks and using debit cards, it gets really difficult to sort things out. I used to do the budgeting part, but I HATED updating everything and my husband gets a kick out of seeing everything neatly categorized, so now it's his job.

[pewtertm]

Hubby started using Quicken a year or so ago, and his budgeting skills have gotten SOO much better.

[meems]

Originally Posted by Angie4b1g

I manage it by spending it all.

+1

pearbudget is pretty simple though. If you don't want to use the online service, they have a free spreadsheet too.

I have YNAB. I even have the YNAB iphone app. Not using either

[jaylensmom]

I use Quicken...I download all my transactions from my bank, credit card, and 401k directly to quicken and push a button to reconcile. It's really easy.

[Nettio]

I use YNAB too for my budgeting. You might look into Mint. I've never used it so I don't know a ton about it but it's free and from what I'd read about it in the past, it has more of a big picture focus of your spending/money as opposed to being more budgeting-focused like YNAB.

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by cheltzey

We use mint. And we use credit cards to manage expenses more easily (but we pay them off every month!). With 2 people writing checks and using debit cards, it gets really difficult to sort things out. I used to do the budgeting part, but I HATED updating everything and my husband gets a kick out of seeing everything neatly categorized, so now it's his job.

What is mint?

[eranslow]

we use Quicken. Have for years - and we really love it.

I know my parents just use Microsoft Excel.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

What is mint?

I linked to it in my post too: http://www.mint.com/

[meems]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

What is mint?

some online service that sucks up your bank transactions to keep track of everything. mint.com

Personally I do not like to have my transactions automatically entered (although it does save time).

I once tried it but there was something I did not like about the set up. I don't remember what.

[Paula]

We use Money Dance.

[Megan Turnidge]

I use You Need a Budget and I LOOOOOOVE it!!! We also started the cash system. We pay all our bills with checks/debit card but for stuff like eating out, grocery shopping, fun money, etc., I take out the cash, divide it up by category and use a cutie patootie envelope from Etsy with dividers in it to keep it separated. Once the cash is gone, it's gone and I can't pull out my debit card to pay. That keeps me on budget and focused because I can always see right there how much money I have left to spend on restaurants and stuff.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by meems

some online service that sucks up your bank transactions to keep track of everything. mint.com

Personally I do not like to have my transactions automatically entered (although it does save time).

I once tried it but there was something I did not like about the set up. I don't remember what.

I just looked at it again just now and now remember why I chose not to use it - you had to put your bank account numbers, passwords and pin to get everything set up. They swear it's safe but it made me really uncomfortable. I suppose it's no worse than logging into your bank account online but for some reason giving all that info to a 3rd party seemed weird. So perhaps I take back my Mint recommendation, haha.

Kellie, I know you said you're doing FPU. Are you just looking for a way to keep track of what you've already spent? Or are you eventually wanting to do more of a budget?

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by Nettio

Kellie, I know you said you're doing FPU. Are you just looking for a way to keep track of what you've already spent? Or are you eventually wanting to do more of a budget?

I just want to keep track of what I've already spent.

[meems]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

I just want to keep track of what I've already spent.

then try quicken or ms money or pearbudget

eta: well not sure about pearbudget for tracking ... maybe it is more for budgeting ...

[meems]

Originally Posted by Nettio

I just looked at it again just now and now remember why I chose not to use it - you had to put your bank account numbers, passwords and pin to get everything set up. They swear it's safe but it made me really uncomfortable. I suppose it's no worse than logging into your bank account online but for some reason giving all that info to a 3rd party seemed weird. So perhaps I take back my Mint recommendation, haha.?

yes, that was definitely something i didn't like. So i think I was trying to set up generic dummy accts but I couldn't figure out how. It really really really wanted me to link up to a real bank.

[KateD]

I just started using Mint. I hesitated setting it up with the bank info, too. I used to use the online version of Quicken, though, and it's done by the same company so I took the plunge and signed up. What I haven't figured out how to do is actually reconcile my accounts. It does a great job of catagorizing my spending, though.

[NeverendingJen]

We've done FPU in the past and I use Quicken and Excel spreadsheets. Rather than using a check register, I keep a small notebook in my purse to track all transactions. I also keep all receipts with the notebook too, minimum for one month(i.e I keep all of August's receipts through september 30, then toss all that are not needed to keep, but transfer them to my binders at home).

[nonnie]

We also use Dave - and Mint

Its REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hard at first to stop your habits - believe me I know -

One idea - stop writing checks - use cash or debit card only - this helped us

[ColleenSwerb]

My brother and sister are using mint.com right now, and they were talking about it. My Dad and Husband overheard and were SHOCKED that my siblings put ALL of that information in 1 place. Zero chance that would ever happen in this house, Jordan is PARANOID about identity theft (ironically, while he's had 3 instances of credit card fraud, I throw my info about willy nilly and it's never happened to me, lol).

Anyway. I don't budget. I spend carefully, and then my husband flips out that I spent at all. It's awesome

I think Quicken would be good for that though Kellie. You can input what you spent and categorize it and stuff.

[nun69]

I don't really keep track except to make sure ALL of our bills are setup to go out on the 1st and 15th {our paydays}....and we do NOT write checks unless it is absolutely neccessary! we use our debit cards for everything and pay cash to both of our daycare providers...so I don't have any suggestions and I will be keeping an eye on this thread

[Andrea Gourley]

I don't write cheques but do use my debit and credit card (paid off in full each month) and I just write down everything that I spend and every couple of days I add it up. I take out real money in chunks so that I can write that into my calculations (like I don't write that I spent £1.50 on a diet coke and 75 pence on a bar of chocolate but that on Sunday I withdrew £20 etc.)

I split my wages into seperate little budgets for car loan, board, phone, dentist, car insurance, spending money, clothes, savings etc. so I know how much I can spend in that category.

And if I haven't got it I don't spend it

[Shawna]

I have a spreadsheet that I use as a check register of sorts and keep track of all our income & expenses with that. Ours is pretty simple to track since my DH's district only pays once a month and all our monthly bills are setup to be due and paid that day and then whatever is leftover is our grocery and gas money for the month along with my daycare income & any photography income. I may have to check into Mint though!

[MamaBee]

When I was single, I used quicken...

now that I'm married to an engineer... he takes care of everything. We pay with cash when ever possible, credit cards after that (all paid off every month)... for tracking spending... hubby sets up a google excel document that I have access to so when we spend $$ through the day, we enter it onto the google document.

[Stacey42]

I gave up checks years ago. Haven't written one myself in about three years, but my bank will write & send checks for me with their free Bill Pay.

We're mostly all cash now. I don't bother with all the envelopes, after two years I know how much we spend on things & how much to take out each week to cover that week's expenses. I spend nearly all of it so I just keep the receipts for that week & DH hands over his. If we run out of what should have been sufficient money that week, I can find where it went fairly easily & adjust accordingly. Or say, "Sorry, you want that new gizmo, no dinner out this week." I have a much easier time keeping on top of things with cash because once it's gone, it's gone. That plastic bank card though goes on & on.

We still charge gas, beause it is quicker & large things like hotel rooms when we don't want to carry that much money with us. We have checking card Visa we use for regular stuff like that and a regular Visa for things like sudden auto repairs, that we then pay off in full from savings.

I just use my bank's online tools to manage my money. Since the bulk of our spending is done in cash that leaves the online bills and a few specific charged things to keep track of which is fairly easy.

[NettieB]

as the reigning CFO of the house - Quicken. DH has dutifully provided for us, never paid a bill, and written maybe 5 checks in the 9 years we've been married. I keep the finances on Quicken, pay the bills and this works for us.

You can set up categories, and go to whatever level of detail and minutiae you need to, to track your spending habits - or they have several ready built in.

I set my widowed mother up on Quicken when my father passed. She feels like she can use this method much easier than all the hand entry into a checkbook, and had been using a system where her checkbook register was divided into category sections. This method transferred easily to Quicken.

as a tax CPA (retired now) I also like how easily Quicken can generate, once you keep it current, tax information, and import it directly if you so wish into intuit's TurboTax product at tax time. It also gives you some pretty good tax tips along the year.

all the best with your goals!

[clearskies]

I guess I'm a dinosaur. I still use my check register even though I hardly ever write checks anymore. I love balancing it, I find it relaxing. DH and I just tuck all the reciepts into the checkbook periodically and then I go through every couple of weeks and enter them into the register. Even now and then I miss one, but it's pretty rare. I quit tracking our spending categories. Just decided I didn't care enough to do it.

[cheltzey]

Mint does exactly what quicken does. You have to enter all your accounts, passwords etc into quicken if you want it to automatically enter your transactions, just like you do with mint. Mint also has no transaction ability (you can't transfer) and you can't write checks, UNLIKE quicken. So it's technically safer than quicken is. My super hacker husband feels okay with it, so I don't have a problem, but I can see why some might.

It's definitely safer than using checks, though. Checks are fraud waiting to happen, since it has your account number and financial instituation on each and every check. I spent months dealing with check fraud on our account, so I've sworn off of them for everything except babysitters.

[jessica31876]

My dad was an accountant (among other things in his life) and I have always loved math. When my husband and I got married I started a budget. I would take our bills, take how many checks he got in the month and divide to get an even amount to be withheld each week. I would give my husband 5 dollars a day for lunches. I put 10-15% in savings (it was all we could afford). We never had credit cards. I did not believe in buying on credit. We paid cash for everything we had. My husband had a bank check card so when he used it he gave me receipts and I reconciled them all online with my online banking every single night. I did not use my card alot so I really only had to worry about my husbands card. We stopped using checks and just pay all bills in person or online. Only thing we could not pay that way was our mortgage. We had to mail that to our mortgage holder. It was a private mortgage and the guy lived in Pennsylvania. So that is basically how I managed our money. I used no programs and just stuck by the budget. We had a few screwups over the years but overall it worked for us. I did not use a check registrar ever. I knew what was in my account at any time within a few dollars. Now our bank set it up so I can get a daily email of the balance, anytime it falls below a certain amount (which you set at a level you want) and a few other things. I really like those options. You can also get it sent by text to your phone. Our bills since we had no credit extended except our mortgage were pretty straight-forward and easy to deal with and never really changed except power went up in summer and down in the winter.

[jessica31876]

Oh and I am really lucky in that my husband can repair just about anything, knows how to do plumbing & electrical work and is a mechanical genius so we never had to worry about those sudden emergency expences alot of people have with home repair and car repair. Of course we still had to pay for the stuff to fix whatever is broken but never paid any repair costs to anyone.

[mnm_y2]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

I just want to keep track of what I've already spent.

I have a spreadsheet that I do for every 2 weeks which is when we get paid.

It's not so much as a budget as actually tracking what we spend. In ways it is a budget though.

I start at the beginning with the amounts of my paycheck + my husbands subtract any musts (car payment, insurance, etc) that are set amounts and due then. then i look at CC payments, babysitter, gas, groceries, eating out, and "fill in those buckets" I have an average now of what we use every 2 weeks. So I put in those amounts. Then I have the last "buckets" to fill with an amount which are our individual spending, fun $ (movies etc), a boys column (school, sports, halloween) and then finally the 'extra' which is usually a $50 or so cushion

every couple days I update with the transactions so that I know how much is left in our buckets. It helps me in that if we've eaten out close to the allotment then I try not go anymore. If i do, then I rearrange my bucket and usually pass $ back from my $ since I hardly spend the amount I give myself.

works pretty well for us. I have been doing this for about 3 months now.

[g8rbeckie]

Originally Posted by NettieB

as the reigning CFO of the house - Quicken. DH has dutifully provided for us, never paid a bill, and written maybe 5 checks in the 9 years we've been married. I keep the finances on Quicken, pay the bills and this works for us.

You can set up categories, and go to whatever level of detail and minutiae you need to, to track your spending habits - or they have several ready built in.

DITTO Quicken!

My engineer husband LOVES quicken; it automatically categorizes by where you make your purchase, charts stuff, etc. he loves it. (I avoid math related things like the plague, personally).

Kellie - where you live can you use credit cards? or is it a cash-only environment? I'm in Asia right now and discovering that most places expect cash. That would seriously rock our world and make it difficult to track ANYTHING easily

I'll also say that DH and I use credit cards with every possible purchase - we have Am EX and Discover and a regular old' Visa...the Am Ex has the best baseline % cash back, but discover runs promotions where you get 5% back from select vendors. DH tells me "Restaurants are 5% cashback this month on discover" and I make a point to use that card.

We get HUNDREDS of dollars back per year. So for all of you cash girls, you may want to look at your annual expenses and get an idea how how much money you could get back from creditc card companies.

You HAVE to pay off fully each month though or you get screwed

[Gabbina]

I really didn't know such things existed... I'm trying out pearbudget now, and so far I like it. It's pretty easy to use and I can set my own currency.

[ColleenSwerb]

We live for credit card rewards too Beckie. We figure if we're gonna spend it anyway, we might as well get something back for it. Jordan logs on once a week to keep track of things, and pay the cards off. We never carry over a balance.

[joelsgirl]

We use credit cards, but most Asian banks use a chip instead of the strip, so we can't use it everywhere. Plus, we get a much better exchange rate on cash. And yes, it definitely makes it hard to keep track of stuff.

We have a Chase rewards card, but they are upping our annual fee from $30 to $80. In the three years we were overseas this time, we were able to cash in about $300 worth of gift cards, but after you factor in the higher exchange rate on the card & the annual fee, we really just broke even. We can't use Discover or Am Ex where we're at, and we haven't found a MC or Visa that offers really good rewards.

[ColleenSwerb]

I have a decent visa rewards card through Bank of America, but we mostly use Jordan's Capital One rewards card (I have a card on the account). We get 1.25 points for every $1.

[nonnie]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

We use credit cards, but most Asian banks use a chip instead of the strip, so we can't use it everywhere. Plus, we get a much better exchange rate on cash. And yes, it definitely makes it hard to keep track of stuff.

Yes this!!! What is up with the chip thing???? - I have a debit reward program through the BEST bank in the whole world USAA - and while its 2 for 1 points, we end up with about 300 to 400 dollars cash back or in gift cards every christmas, and the program is free.
We get a great exchange rate through our bank, typically higher than the money exchange, so we use it every where - I have to keep the receipt and write what it is on the receipt - If someone read out account statement, I have no idea what they would think with charges from bag bang and big bang - Koreans like to use the word Bang a LOT!!!!

[KateD]

Originally Posted by nonnie

I have a debit reward program through the BEST bank in the whole world USAA

USAA rocks!!

[joelsgirl]

Originally Posted by nonnie

Yes this!!! What is up with the chip thing???? - I have a debit reward program through the BEST bank in the whole world USAA - and while its 2 for 1 points, we end up with about 300 to 400 dollars cash back or in gift cards every christmas, and the program is free.
We get a great exchange rate through our bank, typically higher than the money exchange, so we use it every where - I have to keep the receipt and write what it is on the receipt - If someone read out account statement, I have no idea what they would think with charges from bag bang and big bang - Koreans like to use the word Bang a LOT!!!!

Is your bank just for military families? We get rewards for our card, but with the foreign transaction fees we pay, the rewards aren't that great.

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by joelsgirl

Is your bank just for military families? We get rewards for our card, but with the foreign transaction fees we pay, the rewards aren't that great.

Yes, it's for military members (or veterans) and their families.

[Priscilla]

we use mint as well

[joelsgirl]

I just signed up for mint; it made me sick putting all that info online like that. I like that I can add transactions and set goals. If I lose all my money to a hacker, I'm gonna blame you girls. ; )

[cheltzey]

Mint is read-only, so you should be safe. Never hurts to be careful, though!

[adrianka]

I seem to be living on a different planet. What are credit card rewards?

[ajfries]

I've tried both mint & pear budget. I lost interest after setting them up. Basically we have 2 checking accounts. One for bills, one for spending. Bills are defined as have to pay it every month (mortgage, interent, cell phones, utilities, etc). Spending is all extras (well, tecnically we could do without cell phones & internet, but YKWIM) including groceries, because I actually have quite a bit of control in how much we spend there.

Anyway (this is getting long-sorry), every pay day I put $500 into bills. No matter what. The bulk of our bills go out the first of the month, so the excess from the 15th, rolls over to the next pay period. Make sense? The rest gets put into spending for groceries, eating out, clothes, diapers, etc. We don't carry a balance on our credit card & we also each get $25 cash for eating out with friends, snacks, etc. I've been spending my allowance online, though, so I just leave it in the account & try to track it. Sort of. I should set up my own paypal or something.

I don't micro manage our money. I've tried that in the past & while it would be beneficial, I think to some degree, more than anything it stresses me out & makes me feel like a failure. So, doing it this way ensures that the bills get paid & we have some left over. I never have to wonder if the mortgage is going to 'be able to be paid'.

When we were getting out of debt, I put money into the bills account, then paid down the credit cards, and then I paid to the spending account. It worked out really well.

[sprauncey1]

Originally Posted by helenvader

I seem to be living on a different planet. What are credit card rewards?

Some credit cards here give you points or % back for using the cards. Some are for frequent flyer miles to get free airline flights, some are for points for goods/services and some (like the one we use) are for money back. We get 1% back plus up to 5% back on certain items. It is a way to get people to sign up for their credit card program. Credit card companies typically make 3% or more on transactions, so even with people like us that pay off the bill every month, they still make money. As the new consumer rules in the USA are being applied, these programs are being phased out or reduced though.

[Leah]

Originally Posted by Angie4b1g

I manage it by spending it all.

My thought EXACTLY! LOL

[junebug]

Originally Posted by Nettio

Yes, it's for military members (or veterans) and their families.

i didnt know veterans could use USAA.....cool....lol

i need to keep track of things better so we can stick to a budget and stop running out of money before the end of the month lol. i dont even keep a check book; i use our visa debit bank card and just keep track in my head. doesnt always work out well; you'd think i'd learn haha.

[ariesfl326]

I use a good old fashioned Excel spreadsheet I created to track expenses. It does the trick for me. Since my boyfriend and I are not legally married but do share a house we each have our own bank account and split the expenses. I am chief nagger over the money and so I actually do the paying of the bills. I rarely write checks so balancing a checkbook is about the last thing on my mind. It's tough but for me this works as well as anything. I used to have no clue what was due and how much I was spening and it just stressed me out!