How do you keep track of your spending

triplea35

I use an Excel spreadsheet and on or about the 1st of each month record the balances of all accounts, current, savings, SIPP etc so gives our net worth at that time. I save it each month so can compare with previous month, year, decade etc.

greenglide

triplea35 wrote: »

I use an Excel spreadsheet and on or about the 1st of each month record the balances of all accounts, current, savings, SIPP etc so gives our net worth at that time. I save it each month so can compare with previous month, year, decade etc.

That is what I do as well.


Credit / debit card receipts are checked against the statement to ensure all transactions are genuine. Day to day cash spending is not monitored.

boliston

Mothman wrote: »

Used to use Quicken which we loved but the copy we had wouldn't work with the later versions of Windows and so changed to MS Money which is OK...

i had to tweak my windows settings to get my old 1998 version of quickbooks (made by the same company as quicken) to run in windows 7,8 & 10 using the 'run as admin' / 'run as windows xp' tickbox - for the last 2 years since ditching windows it has run on linux under wine with no issues at all

teddysmum

Alexland wrote: »

I keep track of account balances, browse my transaction history but I don't 'keep track of the spending'. As long as it's a transaction I recognise that's fine. There's no point worrying about how much you spend just judge each transaction on if it's really necessary and move on. Far better to keep track of your savings and investments.

Alex

I do the same. If something is required, it is purchased.


We have no need of spread sheets because we know there is enough money in the working bank account and I deal with the savings part.

Alexland

cloud_dog wrote: »

I am intrigued by a number of post(ers) who have indicated that they do not track expenditure

I just don't really see the point when we are already fairly careful on how we spend the money in the first place. Some months we spend more on holidays, home improvements, etc but do why does it matter and what value would there be in categorising and calculating it precisely? We already invest a high proportion of our income and don't spend much overall so the detail seems like a waste of time. I just scan to check transactions look correct.

Alex

Brambleberry

I'm fascinated by how many people are still managing to keep older software running, this is not my forte so I have to play to my strengths. I do like reading how others manage and track their money too, there's always a good tip or two to glean along the way.

I track almost everything in excel, I have two current accounts and a joint, all spending from these cards, plus other money moves gets logged against their individual budget categories (28 spreadsheets across 2 workbooks )

I'm less picky about recording cash spends, I log that as misc money going to my purse. It forms a very small portion of my spending, I can sometimes go for weeks without spending actual coins or notes.

schiff

A Numbers spreadsheet on my MacBook from month to month. To me the only thing that matters is money spent and money received, as the net figure tells you everything. I log everything spent and received with some detail of where it came from (including investment income) and what it was spent on - HK, council tax, car service,etc. The two column totals tell me the net figure at a glance.

Savings and investments are dealt with separately

I started it as I couldn't understand how my capital seemed to have been increasing over time. Now I know, I don't spend my income

Cash-Strapped.T32

I have a really simple spreadsheet.

---

AUGUST

---

Carried Over; xxx
Wages; xxx

Expenditure #1
Expenditure #2
..etc...

Left Over; xxx

---

..and then it rolls on through the year.
Obviously formatted and forumulae'ed up so that it's easy to follow and I don't have to mess around with it too much.

Day to day spending is easy - I just check my balance on my phone at the weekend, and update the top line to reflect my current balance of the month we're currently in - and in a slightly dickensian way, as long as the bottom line ends in the black and never ends the month in negative numbers, it's all cushty.

Savings count as an expenditure (and have their own tab so I know where I'm going with them and thier objectives), and costs throughout the year (mot, insurance, brithdays, etc...) obviously can be pre-planned.

I started back in 2010 when I found this site and that same excel sheet has been the basis of how I basically turned my life around (yay).
Various girlfriends past & present have taken the pi**, but so what - since I've started I've not really had one of those "run out of wages before I run out of month" situations that were basically my life up till that point.

As time has gone on it has become more complex and does more stuff, but the core is still that rolling monthly top line/bottom line structure.

Sapphire

teddysmum wrote: »

I do the same. If something is required, it is purchased.


We have no need of spread sheets because we know there is enough money in the working bank account and I deal with the savings part.

Same here. I've never found the need to track spending, since I am in control of what I spend. I only spend money when I really want or need something (sometimes it is fairly expensive things, but I only buy them when I know I can afford them). The weekly expenses on basics like food tend to be static. I don't use spreadsheets and the like, since that would involve wasting too much time that I do not have (I would rather work instead).

I do keep a track of savings, but not obsessively.

I do manage to see how my spending pans out when I compile my accounts at year end before sending them to my accountant. It always seems to be stable. In fact, I spent less on food last year than the year before and the spending hasn't increased over several years of freelance employment. I was also freelance about 15 years ago for a couple of years, and it is curious that at that time my food shopping was not much less than it is now.

woody190388

I use Money Dashboard to track daily expenditure either on my phone or laptop. It auto allocates each expense to an account and seems to get it right most of the time now as it has learnt how I allocate each transaction. As long as you are comfortable with aggregating your bank accounts and credit cards through Money Dashboard it couldn't be easier.

Monthly I use a google spreadsheet to monitor all account balances in a net worth statement. I have done this for four years now, and it is great to look back at old sheets to see how much progress you are making.