How do you keep track of your spending

medusagrey

Nothing too fancy, I have an app on my phone and I use that to keep track of both bills and everyday spending for each month. I'm thinking of setting up a spreadsheet going forward - although I do like the fact that I can use and update the app on the go!

Zero_Sum

Sapphire wrote: »

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.

Im in control of finances & buy what i want/need etc.
However, for me its more a bit of a hobby and just for info to see exactly how much is spent where.
The other thing, its not just expenditure but also seeing how much you're making from various sources over & above salary income.

MisterMotivated

Zero_Sum wrote: »

Im in control of finances & buy what i want/need etc.
However, for me its more a bit of a hobby and just for info to see exactly how much is spent where.
The other thing, its not just expenditure but also seeing how much you're making from various sources over & above salary income.

It's the same for me. I have a spreadsheet with a (some would say ridiculous) number of tabs, but it covers everything from income and expenditure, to savings interest, credit cards, shares/dividends, P2P ISA's, rental income, pensions, mortgages, matched betting, and various charts and graphs. It's very much a hobby and the graphs let me see, for example, what proportion of my income comes from salary/rent/equities/other, as well as whether these categories are growing year-on-year. I normally create a new spreadsheet each year, and have an archive going back to 2007, when I realised I was wasting money all over the shop without really having much to show for it, so I decided to start keeping track of what I spent it on. The archive also allows me to look back and answer random questions, like when did I actually buy the tyres that are currently on my car.

I feel like my finances are too complex not to require such detailed observation; with money in so many different places, as well as stoozed credit cards, etc, offsetting it, it might otherwise be difficult to know how much I actually have.

Some of the tabs go way beyond what's strictly necessary (for example, there are ones which automatically calculate how much my car and motorbike cost to run, per year and per mile. Like I said though, it's as much of a hobby as a necessity.

There's not much manual work required on the input side, other than logging purchase and income amounts. The rest pretty much sorts itself out.


The latest addition (which I may or may not keep) is a usage tracker, so I can work out how much certain larger purchases are costing per use. Not massively useful, but might be interesting...

cloud_dog

MisterMotivated wrote: »

It's the same for me. I have a spreadsheet with a (some would say ridiculous) number of tabs, but it covers everything from income and expenditure, to savings interest, credit cards, shares/dividends, P2P ISA's, rental income, pensions, mortgages, and various charts and graphs. It's very much a hobby and the graphs let me see, for example, what proportion of my income comes from salary/rent/equities/other, as well as whether these categories are growing year-on-year. I normally create a new spreadsheet each year, and have an archive going back to 2007, when I realised I was wasting money all over the shop without really having much to show for it, so I decided to start keeping track of what I spent it on. The archive also allows me to look back and answer random questions, like when did I actually buy the tyres that are currently on my car.

I feel like my finances are too complex not to require such detailed observation; with money in so many different places, as well as stoozed credit cards, etc, offsetting it, it might otherwise be difficult to know how much I actually have.

Some of the tabs go way beyond what's strictly necessary (for example, there are ones which automatically calculate how much my car and motorbike cost to run, per year and per mile. Like I said though, it's as much of a hobby as a necessity.

There's not much manual work required on the input side, other than logging purchase and income amounts. The rest pretty much sorts itself out.


The latest addition (which I may or may not keep) is a usage tracker, so I can work out how much certain larger purchases are costing per use. Not massively useful, but might be interesting...

Or, you could simply use MS Money (or Quicken) and set up all the accounts and as many categories and sub-categories to your hearts content, and create or tailor the reports to suit your purpose.

What ever works for each of us is good.

MisterMotivated

cloud_dog wrote: »

Or, you could simply use MS Money (or Quicken) and set up all the accounts and as many categories and sub-categories to your hearts content, and create or tailor the reports to suit your purpose.

What ever works for each of us is good.

I could, but Excel lets me add almost limitless customisation. It's not just all about categories, and I can't see MS Money coming close to matching my current spreadsheet (with 78 tabs, though this was cut down from over 100 when some of the lesser-used features were separated into another spreadsheet).

Zero_Sum

cloud_dog wrote: »

Or, you could simply use MS Money (or Quicken) and set up all the accounts and as many categories and sub-categories to your hearts content, and create or tailor the reports to suit your purpose.

What ever works for each of us is good.

The one thing you could do in Excel, is to make it all double entry & get it to pull of a set of accounts every year if youre that way inclined.