How many people account for every penny?

~Chameleon~

I use MS Money which is updated daily with everything I've received/spent. I even keep a Cash account but I'm not anal enough to record every detail to the last penny, just round it up or down to nearest £1 and allocate it to a specific category i.e. groceries, toiletries, window cleaner, bus fares etc.

I also "pay" my bills in MS Money up to 6 weeks ahead so I know I have enough money to cover everything and can plan expenditure accordingly.

I've been doing this for several years now so it's become second nature. I've tried setting up spreadsheets as well but I find these a chore and never keep up with them

heppy23

I keep track of everything but cash using quicken. I probably SHOULD keep an eye on cash as about 1/3 of my income goes out of quicken through the CASH account.

I don't want to get into carrying notebooks and stuff but I should look at where the cash goes more carefully.

epsilondraconis

I used to track the amount we had in our current account on a daily basis to ensure we never went into our overdraft by mistake. However now I've no need to keep as close an eye on it. The reason is that everything, apart from direct debits and cash withdrawls now goes onto our credit card which is 0% on purchases for 13 months or so.

At the beginning of the month I total up the amount of our direct debits for that month and approximately how much we'll need to withdraw as cash. The rest of the money goes into our savings accounts.

Previously I would be logging onto our online bank virtually every day to pay off anything we put on the credit card to ensure the balance was 0 at the end of the month.

We've currently got about £5k stoozed at the moment. We've another 0% on purchases credit card on the way for when this one gets close to its limit.

To keep track of everything I just use Excel - I mainly use it to keep track of our various ISAs and savings accounts. The 'Today' and 'Date' functions are the most useful as they allow me to calculate our interest on a daily rate.

One day the interest from our savings accounts will exceed the interest from our mortgage. One day, one day.

I think I need to stooze for a bit longer; however every little helps.

www.stoozing.com - if you want anymore info

YorkshireBoy

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I also "pay" my bills in MS Money up to 6 weeks ahead so I know I have enough money to cover everything and can plan expenditure accordingly.

I've always run mine the full 12 months ahead, ever since I started using MS Money in 1999 (same copy now running under XP)...and I have records for my main current account going back to 1996.

I update MS Money daily, but don't categorise 'spends' to the same degree others seem to do.

With 48 active accounts and 62 closed accounts, I don't think a spreadsheet would work for me.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

and i thought i was the only 'geek'! haha

i could tell you how much money i have in any one of 6 accounts (isas, daily savings, current accounts & bills acc) as at 'now', and projected balance for any regular or adhoc payments i know i need to make before next payday... If i withdraw cash i put what it was for as only withdraw when i HAVE to. (eg pay for a taxi! - yes i am one of those annoying people who will pay for a 1.99 sandwich and a bottle of coke on my card!!)

when each transaction hits my account its 'logged' as complete and current / projected balances update.

Everything goes in.. eg my car insurance is due in 2 months and i already know which account it will be paid from , and how i'll be building up the extra surplus (surplus would normally get swept into savings account!)

I think people under estimate the value of accurately running their financial affairs then wonder why they get themselve in a mess.

Jeez i didnt realise what i nerd i am! haha

~Chameleon~

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I've always run mine the full 12 months ahead, ever since I started using MS Money in 1999 (same copy now running under XP)...and I have records for my main current account going back to 1996.

I update MS Money daily, but don't categorise 'spends' to the same degree others seem to do.

With 48 active accounts and 62 closed accounts, I don't think a spreadsheet would work for me.

:rotfl:

And I thought I was bad with 28 active and 32 closed accounts!

I like the idea of running the accounts up to a year ahead though, don't know why I didn't think of that earlier, so I've just completed all known transactions up to next April. Certainly makes my 'savings' look a lot healthier :cool:


TTTCOP - If you're a nerd then I must be one too :rotfl: