# Budgeting Software



## bmfinc (Apr 3, 2009)

What budgeting software does everyone use?

I just spent a year using Microsoft money elements. It was very intuitive to use, basically I used to categorize and total my spending so I could download it to excel and compare month to month spending. Watching what we spent every month really open our eyes and saved us money.

I just got a message that my year is up and if I want to download my bank statements I have to rebuy it for $19.99 CAD. If you don’t rebuy you have to enter everything in manually. I must have at least 200 transactions a month so I would not want to do this.

I tried quicken before elements and found it too much to handle – maybe because it was my first with this type of software.

Before I buy elements again is there other better budget programs that you don't have to rebuy yearly?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Just to clarify, I don't think you're talking about budgeting software per se, it's more personal accounting software. Budgeting is a specific function that some programs do well and others not so well, but if you're talking about tracking your income and expenses you're talking about personal accounting software.

If you don't want to be locked into having to rebuy the program every year, you could check out Moneydance -- I think they're a bit better about maintaining download capability from year to year.

Also I wanted to respond to this:



bmfinc said:


> If you don’t rebuy you have to enter everything in manually. I must have at least 200 transactions a month so I would not want to do this.


I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I have a similar number of transactions per month and I find that entering them manually helps me stay on top of things better. I used to download all my transactions and found I didn't pay as much attention to my spending as I did when I switched back to doing them manually. 

I use Quicken and enter everything manually, which allows me to use the same version for years without ever having to upgrade unless they happen to add some new feature that I really want. Both Quicken and Money are very mature programs at this point, so it's hard to imagine any killer new feature that would make me want to upgrade...usually the only time I upgrade is if I upgrade my operating system and my old version of Quicken doesn't work under the new OS.


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## bmfinc (Apr 3, 2009)

I am not sure what the most accurate term is for the software it does track expenses and income but it also compares my expenses to a budget that I have created, so some of both.

Thanks for the insight of entering everything manually, perhaps I will try it for a month or two and see what it is like instead of assuming it is too much work. Just like you said, if I dont mind the manual entry then I would not have to renew yearly.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

bmfinc said:


> Thanks for the insight of entering everything manually, perhaps I will try it for a month or two and see what it is like instead of assuming it is too much work. Just like you said, if I dont mind the manual entry then I would not have to renew yearly.


Actually if you end up doing manual entry you might be even better off with a simple spreadsheet. That's what I should be using, but I'm too lazy to switch (I've been using Quicken since the early 1990s) and Quicken does have a few features that make it more attractive to me and easier to use than a spreadsheet.

I typically save my receipts when shopping, put them in under a paperweight next to my computer at the end of the day, and then the next morning I enter them into Quicken. It doesn't take long and for some reason it makes me feel like I'm more in control and more aware than when I was downloading my transactions. Plus during the five or six years I was downloading transactions I occasionally had trouble connecting to the bank or there were weird bugs in the downloads that caused no end of headaches. Ultimately I decided to go back to the manual way.


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## bgc_fan (Apr 5, 2009)

*Gnucash*

Personally I use Gnucash. It's pretty easy to use and uses double-entry bookkeeping which makes it easy to keep track of where the money goes. It's free and available for Linux and Windows if that's your taste.


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## apples (Apr 10, 2009)

Just old-fashioned Excel 
I kept an Excel workbook for all my household planning, from cash flow to net worth


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## CJB (Apr 4, 2009)

As far as actually budgeting, I use an awesome piece of software called YNAB (You Need A Budget) http://www.youneedabudget.com/

It does not track net worth, nor investments etc, but it is simply amazing at budgeting. It also uses a different kind of process (known as the 4 rules) to manage your money. It took me a while to get my head around it but once you do, there is simply no other way to budget.

I started using it at the end of last year and haven't looked back.


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## The_Number (Apr 3, 2009)

I use Quicken, and I think it can download transactions automatically.

But I personally disable all the automatic features and enter everything manually for several reasons:
- I don't want sensitive security information (login/pass to financial institutions) stored on the computer/software (even though I encrypt everything).
- The software (US version) cannot handle some Canadian transactions (I imagine that I would have the exact opposite problem with a Canadian version.)
- Transactions in my bank account is pretty meaningless for my personal budgeting because most of my transactions are in cash.

I think Quicken wants you to upgrade the software every year, but I simply disable the nagging upgrade notifications. The version from two years ago still works fine.


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## canabiz (Apr 4, 2009)

bmfinc said:


> What budgeting software does everyone use?
> 
> I just spent a year using Microsoft money elements. It was very intuitive to use, basically I used to categorize and total my spending so I could download it to excel and compare month to month spending. Watching what we spent every month really open our eyes and saved us money.
> 
> ...


Just as an FYI, Microsoft will discontinue selling and supporting Money in the very near future. Here is an article for your review

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10261742-56.html

There are plenty of freeware and shareware out there that are capable of doing what MS Money is doing. I personally use Excel still but I also vouch for GnuCash as well.


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## canadianbanks (Jun 5, 2009)

I usually use a spreadsheet.


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## Elbyron (Apr 3, 2009)

I use a spreadsheet for budgeting, but to track expenses I download the transactions and then upload them to expensr.com. It's not as advanced as Quicken or Money, but it's free and has the features I want.


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## Arcaneind (Apr 3, 2009)

*Bump*

I have been using MS Money 2006 but am growing frustrated with it ever since MS announced they are discontinuing update service.

I use National Bank for banking and Direct Brokerage (I'm actually very happy with them) but Mint.com, QuickenOnline, etc. don't seem to use them. Plus, I'm not keen on keeping my info online. I tried GnuCash and a very old version of Quicken, but didn't like them.

Are there any other alternatives for Canadians?


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## Soils4Peace (Mar 14, 2010)

I liked Quicken 98, didn't like Quicken 2002 - it was more complicated and _less intuit_ive. And I am not going to _pay_ to upgrade something I don't like. So I am going to start over, giving Gnucash a try.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I'm quite happy with the Canadian version of Quicken 2010 for Windows. It has an improved and simpler interface, including some nicely improved and very helpful bill reminder features. 

Quicken's budgeting tool has never been its strongest point; apparently it was improved as well in the 2010 version but since I don't do a budget I haven't checked it out. Both flavours of Quicken (the cheaper Cash Manager as well as the more pricey Home and Business) have budget capabilities.

I did try using Quicken's budget tool a few years ago, and one nice feature is that it can set up a budget for you based on your past income and expenses, which is a good starting point, and then you can adjust you desired budget for individual line items from there.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I personally find the excel spreadsheet works really well. I have it setup with expenses on one side, income on the other, and one subtracts from the other to give a current total. Most of my expenses/payments come out at the same time every month, so it's a simple matter of copy-paste once you get one month setup. Then just add rows for additional expenses that come up.

By pasting 6-8 months into the future I am able to see how much money I'll have over the coming months and can use that info to make spending decisions on when to make larger ($250+) expenditures.

I realize I'm probably missing out on a lot of great features, but like the way a person organizes thousands of digital photos on the computer, I think this really comes down to personal choice.

Does anyone disagree with my approach? Why? Discuss. I'm open to that.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> Does anyone disagree with my approach? Why? Discuss. I'm open to that.


I think it's a great approach, especially because your method will never become obsolete and you'll never be forced to upgrade.

I would do it as well, except I'm too lazy and have gotten too used to the handy features that Quicken offers. The only really important feature you don't have access to is the ability to download transactions, but in my opinion that's not a deal-breaker. I used Quicken's online features for six or seven years but decided to go back to entering everything by hand after encountering several glitches that caused major headaches and a lot of lost time.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Thanks brad, very nice of you to say!

A friend of mine always matches his ongoing tally (in a spreadsheet similar to mine) to his bank account, penny for penny. Some people do this frequently but since I'm not suffering any cashflow problems I figure that once or twice a month is enough to monitor the accounts, add in any exceptions or overspending.

Call me paranoid but I nervous about uploading this to any kind of an online service. My excel sheet is a file that sits on my desktop. No online service or 3rd party ever sees it. For my eyes only.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Some banks (none that I have accounts with, unfortunately) allow you to export your data in OFX format, and some spreadsheets can import OFX files.

Apple's Numbers software, which is their answer to Excel, has a personal finance spreadsheet template that can import OFX files and save you the trouble of entering everything by hand.

Still, I think the discipline of entering all my transactions by hand and categorizing them gives me a better sense of my finances and what I'm spending than when I was downloading them through Quicken.

Excel can export files to universal formats like .csv, whereas Quicken can't do anything like that. I've spent many hours trying to import Quicken files into competing programs (Moneydance, iBank, SEEFinance, etc.) and it's a generally a disaster. A spreadsheet is probably the most sustainable tool and certainly the cheapest computer-based tool.


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## Addy (Mar 12, 2010)

We use excel and really like it. My husband has things linked to a second spreadsheet (tab) where it puts our savings and splits our savings up according to what we're saving for... ie it will tell us how much we have set aside for a new computer, vacation, how much we've saved towards our annual auto insurance premium, etc. It took some time to set up but I think it works really well for us.


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## CanadianCapitalist (Mar 31, 2009)

I've been using Microsoft Money for more than 8 years now. I've probably upgraded 3 versions, the last of which was only because I owned a bunch of stocks and wanted to automatically update portfolio values. These days I'm mostly in ETFs and index funds and I wouldn't find updating manually occasionally a big hassle. I use Google Docs to track the portfolio anyway.

Microsoft is promising to release a version that won't require activation. Hopefully, it can be used for a long time.


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## mrbizi (Dec 19, 2009)

My wife and I use Quicken 2007. Although, I've never used spreadsheets to track and manage my finances, I think one of the advantages of Quicken is the pre-built graphs and reports. I'm a see the big picture first type of guy and I love how I can analyze my finances first at the macro level and then be able to drill down to the details when necessary. I can't imagine myself creating custom graphs in excel or using pivot tables to come up with the reports that Quicken can automatically generate for me. I only upgrade my software when absolutely necessary. IMHO the software has paid for itself many times over.

With regards to creating, managing and monitoring your budget. It comes with this functionality which I think will meet the needs of most people. You also have the option of exporting reports to an excel file (or at least a csv file which can be imported by Excel) if you want to manipulate the reports further.


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## Underworld (Aug 26, 2009)

I've used money and really liked it, until it ran out and wasn't supported any more. 

Then I got Quicken Money. I absolutely hated that product. I regard myself as reasonably intelligent and am a software engineer. I couldn't use this product for the life of me. I think you need some real education in accounting to be able to use this.

I'd like to use mint.com but I don't think it is available in Canada yet.

There is another site akin to Mint, but I can't remember its name and haven't tried it yet.


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## Macro007 (Apr 18, 2010)

Excel. Hands down. Totally customizable. I use it for everything. My g/f is jealous of it.


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

*why budgeting?*

ok, first, i request OP to excuse me for hijacking this thread.

now, may i ask all the esteemed posters, why you are interested in budgeting down to the last penny:

possible reasons:
1) unsteady income 
2) unsteady expenses
3) impulsive expenses

in my situation, we are a 31 yr old couple with 2 little kids. wife is on mat leave this year. both of us are employed and have a steady income. we are extremely frugal and have no impulsive expenses. we are paying down mortgage like there is no tomorrow. i really do not see the need for budgeting!!! if we feel like buying something, we know or at least have an idea whether we can afford it or not. if we can afford and we really need it, we go ahead and buy.

i feel it gives us more peace of mind this way, rather than writing down every penny we spend and then poring over it every day/week/month!!!

am i missing something here?


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

The problem with your approach is that it does not allow you to SEE any possible leaks and wastage problems in the way you spend money. Doing things loosey-goosey takes away your control, over your money. Yes, I balance my excel sheet to my bank account to the penny. This allows me to forecast and prepare for large expenditures (ie. large medical expenses, new car and other major one-time costs) and to be able to make these expenditures when the budget can allow for it.

No, you do not need to "pore over it every [single] day/week/month". I generally reconcile about twice a month when the mood strikes.

This method also serves as fraud detection.

How do you know the real impact of your spending decisions large and small? Only some type of budget spreadsheet (as a minimum) gives you real visibility. Right now you're operating blind, not very good.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

rookie said:


> now, may i ask all the esteemed posters, why you are interested in budgeting down to the last penny:


Personally I think budgeting "down to the last penny" is an exercise one might do for a year or six months to provide a complete picture, but after that it's not really necessary for most people. But some people are compulsive about documenting everything, and let's face it...there are a lot worse things you could be compulsive about.

I don't actually keep a budget in the tradtional sense, but set caps for myself on certain types of expenses that I know from past experience (through documentation) can get out of hand if I don't watch out.

Even my accounting is fairly loose: I track all of my income and expenses, but I don't account for all my cash purchases, which amounts to quite a big pile of money every year. But I have a general idea of where that money goes, so I don't sweat it. Tracking those expenditures down to the penny is not going to teach me something I don't already know, so it's not worth the effort.

Similarly, while some people break out their receipts to track how much was paid in sales tax, that level of detail is way more than I need. 

I think the key to any budgeting or accounting exercise is to ask yourself why you're doing it, what you hope to learn and achieve, and how much time you want to devote to it, then set about figuring out the best way to achieve your mission. For some people this could involve budgeting to the last penny; for others, a broad-brush approach may do the trick.


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

brad said:


> Even my accounting is fairly loose: I track all of my income and expenses, but I don't account for all my cash purchases, which amounts to quite a big pile of money every year. But I have a general idea of where that money goes, so I don't sweat it. Tracking those expenditures down to the penny is not going to teach me something I don't already know, so it's not worth the effort.


we do something similar to this. both wife and i are not big spenders and are extremely careful on what we spend.


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

the-royal-mail said:


> This allows me to forecast and prepare for large expenditures (ie. large medical expenses, new car and other major one-time costs) and to be able to make these expenditures when the budget can allow for it.


the expenses you have mentioned here cannot be forecasted. if there is a large medical expense or you need a new car, you can either afford it or you cannot. sometimes you can squeeze in by making compromises. if its something you can avoid, you avoid it. if you cant, u just cant. if u cant afford and avoid, then u r screwed. how can budgeting help?



brad said:


> I think the key to any budgeting or accounting exercise is to ask yourself why you're doing it, what you hope to learn and achieve, and how much time you want to devote to it, then set about figuring out the best way to achieve your mission. For some people this could involve budgeting to the last penny; for others, a broad-brush approach may do the trick.



this was exactly what i was trying to find out. what is it that people achieve by putting time and money into budgeting?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

rookie said:


> this was exactly what i was trying to find out. what is it that people achieve by putting time and money into budgeting?


Control. 

If you have trouble controlling your spending, a budget can be an invaluable tool. If you don't have trouble controlling your spending, a detailed budget may not be worth the effort.

Sometimes a budget is useful if one partner in a couple is bad with money, for example.

When I had credit card debt, I used a budget to help me achieve my goals, but it was a temporary thing: I set limits on my spending in many categories and tracked how I was doing against those limits. It was a useful motivating tool that kept me on track. Once I eliminated my debt, I stopped tracking my budget but I still run quarterly (or more frequent) reports to keep tabs on where my money is going even if I don't have specific category targets anymore. That's "monitoring" not "budgeting."


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

I guess for me it is the opposite. so far i have done the budgeting twice. once when we initially moved to canada and were renting. second time when we first moved to our home. both the times, i saw that there was literally no possible way to cut down spending without severely downgrading the quality of life. so i stopped budgeting both times after 3-4 months as i saw it purely as waste of time.

now i want to do it once more since we now have 2 kids and i think we have been more stingy (frugal) than necessary. i want to know how much i can invest in RESP and most importantly, i want to know how much i can afford to indulge/splurge.

in my case i feel, budgeting once in a while after life changing incidents makes sense rather than doing it all the time.


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## dilbert789 (Apr 20, 2010)

I budget so that I can try and see where the money is going and then can change my spending habits to better fit what matters to me. 

My wife and I both make a good chunk of money, yet we never felt we were comfortable with our finances. I had setup a big budget in Excel that told us each how much we should put into the joint accounts that would pay all of the bills and cover all the joint expenses to the amounts we thought we were spending, plus 10% for savings. However after a couple months, we don't really have much in the joint account that should have gone to savings... I've recently started doing a much more detailed tracking of all of my personal expenses (lunches out/toys) and our joint expenses using Mint.com (PC Financial works). We're 2 weeks into May, and we're already 10% over our monthly food budget... 

I think partially I need proof to try to curb my wife's spending habits as she tends to like to shop...


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## randomthoughts (May 23, 2010)

www.wesabe.com works pretty good, if your bank supports OFX downloads - that way, you don't have to enter your bank user credentials anywhere. Support lately has been a bit haphazard, but its budgeting system and charts are very useful if you budget on a monthly basis.

That's probably the alternative to mint.com that someone alluded to earlier.


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## maybesomeday (Nov 25, 2013)

Hey found this old thread and I'm considering starting to use Quicken to track personal spending. I am prepared to dedicate time to setting everything up, but I am looking for feedback on how much time it would take to maintain once it is up and running. Do people generally spend an hour or so a week or?? Any input woudl be so appreciated!! Oh and do you manually enter your transactions or upload them from your bank?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Wow, that is really an old thread! Wesabe doesn't exist anymore, for example. ;-)

As for Quicken, I think most people who use it connect directly to their bank rather than doing manual entry. However, I tried that for about 5 years and ended up with enough glitches and mismatches that I ended up going back to manual entry. And the great part about manual entry is that you can keep the same version of Quicken for many years -- Intuit deliberately breaks Quicken after a certain number of years so you are forced to upgrade if you want to keep connecting directly to your bank. With manual entry I was able to keep using an old version of Quicken for 7-8 years and probably could still be using that old version today if I were still using Quicken.

Manual entry takes me about 5-10 minutes per week. I enter receipts at the end of each day or the following morning. 

Note that Quicken isn't really great at budgeting, but it's good for tracking. In other words, it helps you see what you've already spent and where your money has gone, but isn't very effective at helping you plan how you're going to manage your money. For that you'd need actual budgeting software, such as You Need a Budget or some of the other budget programs out there.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

^^^^

I always saw the manual entry more to my taste ... I want an independent calculation to arrive at the same number to confirm what the financial institution is telling me.


Cheers


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

OK , here's an easier method.

Pick a year (calendar or taxation year). Determine how much income (gross salary, pension you received), how much investment cash you pulled down. Then subtract loan pmts, and monies put into investments. Finally subtract the income tax for that year. The amount left over is what you spent on living cost. 

Surely this trivial bit of math involving 10 or 15 entries on your calculator is simpler than the soul destroying daily or weekly entry in a detailed budget.... "Let me see, did I buy the drinks on Friday?" or.... "What did I get at Starbucks, the Short Americano or the premium Latte Grande?"

Just sayin.


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## randomthoughts (May 23, 2010)

brad said:


> Wow, that is really an old thread! Wesabe doesn't exist anymore, for example. ;-)
> <snip>


I still use Wesabe! I use a local version that has been open sourced, called mesabe. I think it's still available for download, but you probably need a computers background to get it working... but it's even better now because i can connect my MS Access database to it to run reports.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

steve41 said:


> Surely this trivial bit of math involving 10 or 15 entries on your calculator is simpler than the soul destroying daily or weekly entry in a detailed budget.... "Let me see, did I buy the drinks on Friday?" or.... "What did I get at Starbucks, the Short Americano or the premium Latte Grande?"


I've been doing manual entry for about 10 years now and my soul is still intact. 

It's a matter of entering receipts and categorizing them; it's not so hard. It takes me 5-10 minutes per week. I don't bother tracking where I spend cash, since most of my spending is with debit or credit cards, and I simply enter those receipts.

There's a big difference between passively watching where your money went and actively deciding where your money will go. With Quicken, managing my money was like a spectator sport: I watched as money went in and out of my accounts. With a budget, I'm in the game: the budget forces me to make decisions every month about what I'm going to spend or save.

Lots of people think of a budget as restricting, but I've found it to be liberating: the big mistake is to think of category balances as limits, as in "I only have $x to spend on restaurants this month, so once I've spent $x I can't have any more fun." That's not the way budgets work. You have an overall cap, and you have minimum amounts in your fixed required expenses, but everything else can be shuffled around as needed as long as you stay within the cap. So if you want to spend more on restaurants this month, that's fine but you have to figure out which other category to shift funds from in order to fund your extra restaurant spending. That forces you to consider opportunity costs and priorities. Over time, your spending starts to reflect your true priorities. And there's no guilt or uncertainty associated with buying things, because you've budgeted for them and you know your other needs and goals are still being met.


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## PrairieGal (Apr 2, 2011)

I use "You Need a Budget" (YNAB). There is a phone app that goes with it, so you can track your spending as it happens, or I just sit down on Sundays and enter my spending for the week. Takes no time at all. It has been a godsend for me in turning my finances around. Can't say enough good things about it.


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## cannew (Jun 19, 2011)

Budgeting is nothing more than "Controlling Expenses". Depending on one's situation and ability, one needs to decide what and why you want to set up a budget. Is it to get control of Rising Debt, Get Out of Debt, Understand where the money is going or is it to set up a plan for savings?
As most answered almost any accounting software will work because they will track and categorize your spending.

If one does not want to take the time or make the effort, than just get rid of your credit cards and pay off debt if you have any. After that open up a savings account (ie: Tangerine is a good choice) and as often as you can and as much as you can, deposit money into the account. Be sure you don't with draw any of the money just because you want to buy something or have to pay a credit card bill. Once the savings account gets big enough use the money to invest. Save and increase what you save and you'll be ok.

Personally I record everything (income, expenses and investment activity) in an accounting software (NewViews) and also record Investment status, activity, history, comparisons and activity in Excel. Back them up weekly.

ps: If you don't have Excel or can afford it, get Open Office a freeware program.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

cannew said:


> Budgeting is nothing more than "Controlling Expenses".


You can look at it that way, or you can look at a budget as a spending plan. Not everyone needs to control expenses, but a spending plan can be very useful even to multimillionaires who have no debt. That's how I look at my budget: it's a spending plan. The YNAB method's first rule is "give every dollar a job." That's a spending plan ("spending" in this case includes savings). You start with your income for the month and you decide where every dollar will go: how much will go to fixed monthly expenses, how much will go to different savings categories (retirement investments, saving for a new car or computer, etc.), how much will go to "rainy day funds," which are future known expenses that you need to start saving for now, how much will go to your emergency fund, how much for discretionary spending. Making those decisions in advance is empowering, compared with simply tracking your spending and seeing where it all went after the fact.


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## steve41 (Apr 18, 2009)

What is most important is to know 'how much you should be spending'. If you are spending too much, you will die broke prematurely, if you are spending too little, then your ungrateful kids will inherit a gazillion dollars.


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## maybesomeday (Nov 25, 2013)

Thanks for all the great comments. Brad, do you balance your accounts at the end of the month? Do you use quicken to track your investments too, or just use it to track your expenses? FWIW, the reason I want to consider doing this is so that I can make sure my spending habits align with my priorities.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

maybesomeday said:


> Thanks for all the great comments. Brad, do you balance your accounts at the end of the month? Do you use quicken to track your investments too, or just use it to track your expenses? FWIW, the reason I want to consider doing this is so that I can make sure my spending habits align with my priorities.


I don't actually use Quicken anymore, I use You Need a Budget. YNAB is not set up track investments, although you can show their current value in an off-budget account if you want to keep track of your net worth; I have a Google spreadsheet that I use to monitor my asset allocation, which is all the tracking I personally need to do for my investments (they're all in RRSPs and all long-term investents).

I used to reconcile my accounts at the end of each month using the bank statement, but I found it's a lot easier/faster to reconcile periodically throughout the month just by comparing my account balances in YNAB with the balances on my banks' websites.

As steve41 says, you want to know how much you should be spending. But that's not very helpful for managing your day to day spending, because unexpected expenses come up all the time, and you're guaranteed to deviate from your targets over time. I got YNAB precisely because I never seemed to manage to meet all of my financial goals each year; other people use YNAB to help them get out of debt or to manage small businesses.


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## christinad (Apr 30, 2013)

I've been using money manager (an android phone app) to track eating out. I just noticed you can export your expenses to an excel spreadsheet and plan to try and use it in a more comprehensive way.


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## heyjude (May 16, 2009)

Some years ago I tried Quicken and didn't like it. 

Since I retired I have been calculating and analyzing all my expenses at the end of each month. For two years prior to retiring I calculated and categorized annual expenses and used that information to develop a budget. I developed an Excel spreadsheet that populates all the recurring expenses such as mortgage payment and car loan, and shows the budgeted monthly and YTD amount for each category as well as the variance. I have also separated expenses into taxes, debt repayment and lifestyle expenses. 

Most of my transactions are paid for with my credit card and a few are direct debit. I use cash only when there is no other alternative. I keep all receipts and make a note of all cash transactions. At month's end I download the data from my credit card and deposit account to Excel, add the cash expenses, combine and sort them into my budget categories and calculate the sum of each expense category. This takes 20 minutes maximum and then I am ready to enter that number in my expense spreadsheet. My financial picture and month to month trends become instantly clear. I add comments to cells with unusual items and notes at the bottom, which help me to plan for the next few months. For example, a tax installment and house insurance will be due in June. 

My spreadsheet has been an enormously helpful tool and I can modify it to provide the insights that I am seeking. It's private and it's free.


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## christinad (Apr 30, 2013)

I just learned TD Visa at least will change your billing cycle. I now have it the 4th to 4th of the month (that is the best they can do). I think it will be better for budgeting.


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