Comments on: Tracking and Managing Your Cash Flow

By: Ashwani

Ashwani — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:18:10 +0000

GNUcash is another tool one can use to track his/her finances and networth. I have been using it for 3 years now. Really satisfied. One can track expenses/ income and analyze using various reports. It also has support to import data from other tools like Quicken. Above all it is free.

By: BG

BG — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:06:19 +0000

The only receipts that I care about now are the ones marked FSA/HSA, as they are saved for tax purposes. I track those items very specifically in a dedicated spreadsheet so I can pay myself back from my HSA account (my HSA still owes me..), and keep my tax-records straight.

A few years ago we were on the cash-envelope system to retrain our brains to not waste so much money on ’stuff’. I recommend this to anyone stressing out from a cash-flow problem. But once we paid off our debts (excluding house), there was no point in trying to track things so relentlessly.

The beauty of the > $0.00 (plus buffer) method is that you are free to spend extra money on for whatever you want. If the wife wants to blow $500 on hats, then she knows that we will have less money for other things, like entertainment, groceries, etc. Trying to religiously budget $13.65/week for clothing was not a method that was going to work for her, and she was always ’stealing’ money from envelopes and dropping IOUs into them (creative accounting!).

So much less stress now, no more arguing about petty purchases, etc. I do look at all transactions, but I rarely question them unless it is from a merchant that I don’t know — it’s the system we have and it works for us.

By: Rosa

Rosa — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:37:44 +0000

I don’t know if it would help you – “just try not to go there” is a pretty good method – but I pretty much rolled categories together. I buy soap, detergent, toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, and face cream at our coop, so it’s “groceries”. We get lightbulbs at Target so they end up under “clothes”.

The only times I split receipts is if I’m looking at a certain item – like “how much are spending on toys” means I have to go back and split the Target receipts. Or if we’re feeling like some item is too big (“groceries”) and I need to tighten it up, I take a look at what exactly is in there.

(My method is receipts in envelopes in a file drawer, and an Excel spreadsheet.)

By: LesInk

LesInk — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:02:44 +0000

BG) Although adding walmart as a budget item, we don’t go there very much. Then there is Target and Big Lots and so on. Each one has a strange mix of products that are either one time purchases. In short, we just try not to go there except for special purchases (that electronics sale item, etc.)

I like to categorize based on the type of items, not where we go.

However, I will consider your >= 0.0 method a bit more. I have debated on setting up another debit card and account just for the ’slush’ account we spend each month and just lump all the rest here. That way I have an account with a >= $0.00 (plus buffer) setup.

By: Pamela

Pamela — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:35:41 +0000

We’ve used YNAB for over two years and I really like it.

I don’t use it quite the way they recommend (building a buffer in your account, etc.), so sometimes that causes frustrations, but that’s not so much a problem with the program as it is a problem of me not using it the way it was designed.

By: daddy paul

daddy paul — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:11:54 +0000

Really nice article. I was just looking at many of these software packages.

By: BG

BG — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:38:55 +0000

LesInk) The solution — just add a WalMart entry to your budget. Do you really care that you spent an extra 3% on milk this month compared to the same month last year?

My budgeting system is now down to:

Checking Account Balance >= $0.00

That’s all I care about really. My savings are automated, my bills are mostly automated, everything else can be spent on whatever ’stuff’ my wife wants to buy.

Use a spreadsheet, and budget how you want…

By: LesInk

LesInk — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:05:05 +0000

I have done Quicken, Excel, and even a bit of an online tool provided by my bank (not listed above). In short, I can say the biggest time drain is the ‘Walmart effect’. That’s when you got to split a charge by hand at some point. I don’t expect any of the tools to be able to do this because it is just plain hard to categorize many charges.

In short, they all fail at some level. For example, I have not found a good budget tool that I like (I can’t seem to figure out what Quicken thinks it is doing to budget — its so far removed from an envelope system). So, I’ve adopted a hybrid technique. I use Quicken to download my statement, use its automatic renaming rules to do most of the categorizing (but check it closely), while using a spreadsheet to track my budget. Very tedious.

By: Red Oscar

Red Oscar — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:48:14 +0000

In the old days we didn’t have computers or the internet. We did budgeting by the seat of our pants. Even though I’ve been using a computer to track income, expenses, and investments for nearly 25 years, it has only been within the last 10 years that I have actually used the “budget” feature in Quicken. Having years of history has been helpful in that process. Regardless of the method, the important thing is to live within one’s means. If you are buying new gadgets and taking expensive vacations while still paying credit card interest, you are not paying attention.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:41:28 +0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.Our financial system is constantly being updated and tweaked as we grow and learn about different options.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:52:29 +0000

I like the idea behind Mint, but I find the categorization process tedious. I spend way too much time going through and categorizing stuff. And essentially have to do it twice, b/c I then do the same thing in Quicken.

I’m just not willing to trust Mint with all of that data, and then one day find out they’ve decided to charge me for it…

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Wed, 05 May 2010 00:37:32 +0000

Switched over to Excel this January after years with Quicken. I like the ease of Quicken, but Excel works across platforms and doesn’t have to be expensively updated every time you turn around. And though Mint.com sounds neat, as a survivor of the Pleistocene I’m just not very comfortable about putting that data in the Cloud.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:09:04 +0000

You can split purchases into different categories on Mint (grocery vs. personal care vs. electronics etc.), but you have to do it manually.

By: Chuckles Mcgee

Chuckles Mcgee — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:33:47 +0000

Mint.com’s good, but still needs time to work it’s account fetching system out. A number of major banks aren’t listed or don’t work with all accounts. It’ll probably get up to snuff in a few months, but not having a few major loans or savings accounts really kills the functionality for some people.