how do you keep track of money

[mumof2]

I use a hand written budget and usually just round up when paying a bill which I track in a book...but I don't track what we actually spend when it comes to groceries/gas etc...we just have a set amount for this and use it till it is gone on what we need....I would like to track this more closely and for free of course but not sure what to use...so does anyone on here use programs to track every cent they spend. I also round down our income as it depends on the exchange rate and it flucuates all the time so I always put less just in case...let me know what is good to use if you use one..thanks

[disneysteve]

I don't have specific recommendations but I know there are various apps for entering receipts and tracking spending.

I'm curious about why you are looking to do this. You have a written budget. Are you finding difficulty adhering to it? Are you not sure if it's accurate? Knowing what you're trying to accomplish might help people recommend ways to do that.

[bjl584]

I'm probably not the best example for keeping track of things.
I sort of just have a "feel" for it.
I know how much I have, roughly how much I'll be spending, and how much I save.
Not very scientific, but it works for me.

[Smallsteps]

I use two banks and both have a section online that tracks spending and categorizes items fairly accurately.
You can customize your categories to as many narrow groups you want and it gives you color alerts as you approach or go over the budget you set for any category
This of course does not track cash purchases etc.
Once in a while I can go online and move transaction from one category to another if it better reflects the purchase.
I have both banks linked to one (the better website) that has charts and graphs that track not only spending but savings goals or debt payoff plans etc.
You can link CC or other real estate/ loans/investment accounts and when you sign in you can see it all in one place. All accounts update daily.

Since I use a local small banks I imagine that the larger banks have this type of section on their online system.

[mumof2]

I'm curious about why you are looking to do this. You have a written budget. Are you finding difficulty adhering to it? Are you not sure if it's accurate? Knowing what you're trying to accomplish might help people recommend ways to do that.

I average things out and up when paying something so say our elec bill is 741.23...then i will just pay 745, or our groceries we have a budget of 250 a week (groceries are expensive here) and we don't actually track what we are spending it on just that we have that much to spend etc...just thought I would see what we were actually spending our money on and the actual amounts we spend noy what we round them up to...I always budget less than what we make...but it always ends up somewhere else for something else that has come up...so thought tracking it in more detail might help as I would like to cut back in some areas.

[mumof2]

I use two banks and both have a section online that tracks spending and categorizes items fairly accurately.
You can customize your categories to as many narrow groups you want and it gives you color alerts as you approach or go over the budget you set for any category
This of course does not track cash purchases etc.
Once in a while I can go online and move transaction from one category to another if it better reflects the purchase.
I have both banks linked to one (the better website) that has charts and graphs that track not only spending but savings goals or debt payoff plans etc.
You can link CC or other real estate/ loans/investment accounts and when you sign in you can see it all in one place. All accounts update daily.

Since I use a local small banks I imagine that the larger banks have this type of section on their online system.

I use an online bank and they don't have this feature

[kork13]

so thought tracking it in more detail might help as I would like to cut back in some areas.

This is probably the greatest benefit of closely tracking your spending -- it gives you awareness of what you're actually spending your money on, and in turn, the ability to consciously decide what NOT to spend your money on in the future, or how to spend it more carefully.

I haven't tracked my spending since shortly after I got married... But when I did, I found it helpful to have a spreadsheet that I used to list everything I spent money on. I'd get a receipt for everything I spent money on, then either input it immediately into the spreadsheet, or toss them all into a small container by the door & input them all every few days. I listed everything under 3 groups for simplicity: Food (Groceries/Restaurants), Housing/Utilities/Auto, and Everything Else. Those seem super broad, but it ended up working very well for me. I followed that system from 2009-2014, and I think that was one thing that really helped me to understand what my true expenses were, and allowed me to really focus on accelerating my savings.

[disneysteve]

I use two banks and both have a section online that tracks spending and categorizes items fairly accurately.

My credit cards do this too but it's still really only a big picture overview, not a dollar for dollar record. It's great for something like a restaurant charge but where it fails is for something like a Target charge. That may include a wide variety of things such as groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, clothing, electronics, pet food, etc. If you are really trying to analyze and control your spending, you need more detail than "Target, $143.59".

[disneysteve]

thought tracking it in more detail might help as I would like to cut back in some areas.

Call me old school but I think the best way to track spending to the penny is with paper and pencil. Carry a small notepad with you and write down everything you spend. Don't wait until the end of the day to write it down as you will forget stuff. Do it in the moment. And have your partner do the same. Do that for at least 30 days. Then sit down and compile the data and see exactly where your money is actually going.

[mumof2]

Call me old school but I think the best way to track spending to the penny is with paper and pencil. Carry a small notepad with you and write down everything you spend. Don't wait until the end of the day to write it down as you will forget stuff. Do it in the moment. And have your partner do the same. Do that for at least 30 days. Then sit down and compile the data and see exactly where your money is actually going.

I have been thinking of doing it that way...going to start 1 feb which is only a day away and see if we cant start seeing where all our money goes

[riverwed070707]

Mint.com! I've been using it for probably 5 years and its fabulous. You enter the log in info for all your accounts and can set budgets, categorize spending (it auto categorizes most things, so I just review around once a month to correct any inaccurate assumptions), see spending trends and totals by category which you can look at by month, year, all time. You can also get alerts on your credit score or spending that is over your norm, etc. The desktop version is fantastic but the app is decent as well. Totally free to use. I have everything from my checking/savings to my retirement to my mortgage accounts so I can easily see a high level net worth. It's really great. Owned by Intuit who has turbo tax and I've never had any issues from a security standpoint

[disneysteve]

Mint.com! I've been using it for probably 5 years and its fabulous. You enter the log in info for all your accounts and can set budgets, categorize spending (it auto categorizes most things, so I just review around once a month to correct any inaccurate assumptions),

I'm assuming that's similar to the credit card categorization though. So like I said earlier, it will put Target under the "Department Store" category but won't tell you what you bought there. Was it socks or apples or shampoo or a video game cartridge?

[Smallsteps]

I'm assuming that's similar to the credit card categorization though. So like I said earlier, it will put Target under the "Department Store" category but won't tell you what you bought there. Was it socks or apples or shampoo or a video game cartridge?

You can break it down for example if i buy pet items with groceries i can mark a part as PET etc. But yes many systems similar like MINT etc have some limitation some sites work better then others and a person would still need to go separate the receipts for more detail.

[bjl584]

I use Excel to track my overall portfolio.
Daily spending I don't really track.

[~bs]

i run a ghetto bank recon in excel. only have credit card payments and other expenses in it. i dont really track individually. that's way too much.

mostly the only reason I run this is so I can get a good idea of the amount to transfer to my investment accounts.