Advise needed regarding budgeting apps/software and spreadsheets

Eco_Miser

MattMattMattUK said:

The wilful ignorance comment is in relation to people who claim that they have no idea where/when/on what they spent the money when they spend on card, the only way to not know would be to choose not to look at statements/apps. All cash can tell you is what you physically have left, not where you spent the cash you no longer have.

I generally know exactly what I have spent, and on what - I keep the receipts where available, and enter everything on my spreadsheet as soon as reasonable.

However,  I cannot determine what a card payment was for from the statement, and sometimes I can't tell who was paid, nor where. Example: buying at a farmer's market, the location listed is  the trader's base, not the market, and the payee is the company name, not the brand on the stall (and the goods were consumed long before the transaction showed up on a statement).

Buying from shops also sometimes gives the head office or bank branch location, rather than the shop.

And the date is frequently the day after purchase, sometimes longer.

Jami74

The_Fella_London said:

There is usually a monthly fee involved, but happy to spend a bit in order to save a lot!!

Don't spend money to save. It works the same way as that gym membership that makes you exercise, or the weight loss subscription that keeps you accountable. Once the novelty has worn off you've just got another thing you are paying for and not using. 

Open up a spreadsheet (or get yourself a cheap notepad and pen) and record every single thing you spend. That's the first step.

Hoenir

molerat said:

Using cash is a rather blunt budgeting tool.  As long as you don't get another £20 out of the cash machine and it works for you then fine.  But you have no idea / record of where that £20 was spent, you just know you spent it as it isn't there any more. 

Does it actually matter. You've given yourself £20. Once it's spent it's gone. A form of old fashioned financial discipline. That in the main disappeared a couple of generations ago. When people managed perfectly well without any tech. 

Nasqueron

Hoenir said:

molerat said:

Using cash is a rather blunt budgeting tool.  As long as you don't get another £20 out of the cash machine and it works for you then fine.  But you have no idea / record of where that £20 was spent, you just know you spent it as it isn't there any more. 

Does it actually matter. You've given yourself £20. Once it's spent it's gone. A form of old fashioned financial discipline. That in the main disappeared a couple of generations ago. When people managed perfectly well without any tech. 

But you can just take out more, it's no more or less effective depending on the person. Some people managed without tech, plenty had financial problems and suffered even with cash. Some ran spreadsheets, software, even old fashioned bookkeeping which modern tech just makes easier

AmityNeon

I track transactions manually, currently with actualbudget. Regular transactions can be scheduled with flexible frequencies (including every 𝑥 number of days/weeks) whilst accounting for weekends (before/after), which automates bills/subscriptions. Rules can also be created to automatically process and clean up imported transactions (e.g. rename payees, categorise based on payee, add notes etc.) so eventually, manual intervention is minimised.

I like being able to generate custom reports to summarise historical data with filtering—by income type, account, spending category, payee, custom hashtags—over different intervals/periods, in both tabular and graph formats. For example, when remortgaging, I was able to efficiently provide an accurate breakdown of average monthly outgoings.

The_Fella_London

Thanks for all the help and advice. Actual Budget does look good, I will look into this. I understand the comments regarding spending money to save money - I have long kept longhand notes in various pads, but still can't get my head around where the money goes. I think something that generates graphs and summarises things visually would help me. Maybe I will always be bad with money, but keeping track is clearly important, and if I find a method that I might actually enjoy following might help with this.