How to Log Spending

baggins11

I really like the look of YNAB but the cost put me off (how ironic!). I think we will try MS Money for a week or two and see how easy it is to keep on top of things. Like you Polly I am self employed and have my work expenses, accounts and variable income to keep track of so I might need to give YNAB a try if other methods are not working.

My other problem is my OH and although he doesn't spend a great deal he is not savvy with his spending and he is the only person I know who can go into a shop and choose the only item that isn't in the sale! Or he will just buy 1 item if its 2 for 1..

He is also awful at tracking his spending and doesn't even look at receipts. He will walk out of a shop having bought something and I ask how much it came to and he will say I don't know! So this is another issue I have getting him onboard with logging expenses.

bhjm

if you start from scratch - take a book with you, make it to your personal escort like a mobile.

you have the habit writing everything down instantly - you can go from there towards an app of any sort / excel etc.

bhjm

baggins11 wrote: »

He is also awful at tracking his spending and doesn't even look at receipts. He will walk out of a shop having bought something and I ask how much it came to and he will say I don't know! So this is another issue I have getting him onboard with logging expenses.

a separate account would help where only funds like pocket money would be added to get it under control and to log it - because cash purchase aren`t even logged anywhere

Farway

baggins11 wrote: »

Farway do you use the budget bit of MS money? I can't seem to change the categories in that bit - is that correct or am I missing something?

I have tailored the expenses in cash account and that looks good. I can track all variable monthly spends such as groceries, entertainment, clothes etc. Does that link up with regular monthly outgoings in the budget section for all the bills that stay the same each month?

As well as tracking the variable discretionary spend I want to add on the monthly bills etc to work out my total monthly spend.

Also another question if anyone else uses MS Money and knows, I have put my partners monthly income in but I am self employed and mine varies from month to month. Is there any way of adding variable income in?

If not it still looks a great tool for tracking the variable spends each month!

I don't use the budget section so sorry I can't help there
Varying income, I'd add manually, under whatever income heading you like, I did this when I was doing occasional part time work, just made an income category & put it there

As you use Money it recognises regular items & prompts if you'd like to set up a regular income / debit. For instance mortgage, gas bill, savings interest etc. These can be set as fixed or variable amounts and times.

I edit manually when needed, for instance interest set as say 1.00 but is actually 1.25 that month, so I just edit that month

The report function is good, you can add / remove / customise what bills / income you want. I use it for my annual income tax sums

Gers

If you search the main site here there's a basic budgeting tool in Excel for you to modify.

GSDMum

I started using GNUCash about 18 months ago, it's opensource software so it's free with the ability to connect to your bank, but like you, I don't want to do that. There've a great help forum, and help on youtube too.

There're loads of reports you can create, using your own criteria, but that's too complicated for me (so I use a simple spreadsheet which tells me how much we've spent at the end of each month.)

I don't use the budget facility, but I've added monthly transactions and salary amounts for the rest of the year, obviously adjusting as per bank/card account totals are reconciled - and it's so easy to tweak.

There's a checkbox to click when the amounts are confirmed with banks statements keeping me straight.

Wish I'd known about this software years ago.

Nonnadiluca

I use Spending tracker, a free app, on my phone: you can set up as many different'accounts' as you like - eg I have 'joint account', a 'shopping' account, a 'personal spends' account. Because it's on my phone I always have it with me and enter things immediately rather than waiting til I get home (and forgetting!) As it's free, it's worth a go to see how you get on with it. I use the one that is a brown wallet.

baggins11

Ah I see, it looks very versatile. Rather than complicating things whilst I get used to it I might just use it for shopping and variable extras for now and see if it helps me that way. The vast majority of our spends such as most bills are the same each month so I don't really need to look at that bit. I might find I want to go into further depth once I get more into it.

I fancy having a go at the grocery challenge as well but I have no idea how much we spend at the moment so I think I will do a month of tracking then set a target.

baggins11

Gosh lots more options! Thanks V much

mumtoomany

On the first page of the 2020 Frugal living challenge (in the debt free wannabe challenges, sub board, part of Debt free wannabe) there is a link to a spreadsheet on the first post.
Mumtoomany.