Simple program that keeps track of my budget ?

[LordSnailz]

Tried excel, but for some reason, I'm too lazy to open the program and enter in the number ... 🙂

is there something out there that would do it for me? About 80-90% of purchases are with the cc and I can the info. there but I just want to get into the habit of doing it. Freakin' no idea where my money is going ... I make a avg. amount but I barely have anything on my checking 🙁

TIA!

 

[Modeps]

get either Money or Quicken... They're really good for managing your funds. When I started using it, I found out that I spend far too much on games 😉

 

[petesamprs]

I found that Money and Quicken, while good programs, were both not for me. Too complicated. Too many features when all I wanted to do was group my income and expenses and see my monthly cash flows for a year.

I just set it up in excel. Have a sheet with all of my transactions: Account (Citibank Checking, Amex, etc), Date, Transaction (Best Buy), Amount, Transaction group (I've pre-defined categories of income and expenses)

Then I have a pivottable that aggregates the categories each month. Very simple way to keep track without all the bloat.

And most reputable banks and credit card companies will give you statement in excel format if you want, so you can just copy and paste.

 

[Neurorelay]

Yeah, take the time to set up Excel to your preferences then just type in figures. I have been doing it for about five years...just balance income to outgo and debt and you are good to go.

 

[EagleKeeper]

The OP is to lazy to enter the data. 🙁

Needs something that will automatically get the current info from the bank via on-line data transfer.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
The OP is to lazy to enter the data. 🙁

Hey, he lives in America where we need 3000-pound motorized wheelchairs to go three blocks to the store for chips and soda pop... cut him some slack 😉 😉 😉

Anyway, there is a good buy on Microsoft Works Suite 2004 OEM at MWave.com: $39 plus buy a piece of hardware since it's OEM. That gets you full-version Word 2002, a version of Money, Encarta 2004 Std., and some other stuff... not bad for under $50 out the door IMHO. 🙂 With my bank's online site, I could D/L the info into Money too, although I've never tried that since I don't have MS Money.