How do you keep track of your money, spending, bills?

Question

I was curious what works for other people out there who has to manage their finances on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

When I first moved out of the house I wasn't tought about how to budget and pretty much had to fall on my face. I had a checking account but didn't keep good records and would be naive and bounce checks so I started getting money orders for everything and that helped to have better tabs to where it went.
By the time I had my second child I got the hang of using the checkbook register and would highly recommend that to anyone who is learning about budgeting or doesn't have financial software.
When we bought our first computer it had Microsoft Money on it and I didn't like it and would forget to log things so I deleted the program and went back to paper method.
A few years later I decided to try the Quicken software which was verison 2004 and got hooked. I'm currently using verison Qkn Deluxe 2006 and was wanting to upgrade but didn't need investment catagories.

Answer 1

My wife and I decided when we got married that the most important thing to us was for our family to be financially secure which at the end of the day no matter what software program you use means living below your means. It's important to track expenses to know where your money is going but the absolute best thing we ever did was to decide to pay ourselves first (savings, brokerage, ira and college savings) each pay period. We never ever alter this strategy. We leave enough in our checking accounts to cover our fixed monthly bills and a few hundred dollars each month for some modest daily luxuries....by saving first and not keeping much in our checking accounts we have trained ourselves to ask ourselves if we really need something before we buy it......every once in a while we dip into our savings but the time it takes us to transfer funds gives us clarity to really decide if it's important or not and we often decide that it's not as important as seeing our net worth increase every month and keeping our retirment and kids savings plans on track.

Answer 2

Quicken by Intuit is my favorite Microsoft Money is about the same thing. Quicken will keep track of your accounts, income, spending, bills, assets, liabilities, etc. It will also connect to the internet and get your account information from your bank or credit card company. It can even print checks for you to make bill paying easier.

Answer 3

The Dave Ramsey.com is good. My husband and I teach a class through his company. The basic thing is to put a name on every penny you make. For example if you bring home $2000 a month you have to tell that money where you want it to go. $200 for tithe. $500 for Rent. $200 for Food $300 for utilities $200 for Gas and $600 in Savings. Also you can take the money you set aside for each category and put it in an envelope and you know that's how much you can spend on that thing. When that money runs out, you have to wait until payday.

Answer 4

I also use personal finance software to keep my budget in line.
I have been using a Personal Finance Software package by Australian business Parcus Group - Personal Finance Associate.
The product is very good. For AU$29 it costs, you get budgeting, financial planning templates as well as advanced features that typically cost loads more as separate software packages such as investment real estate calculations (mainly based on rental cash-flow analysis) as well as some value based shares valuations (based on Warren Buffet's stock valuation methodology)
Their website is http://www.parcusgroup.com
For anyone interested in their own wealth managment this product is definitely worth looking at.

Answer 5

I would highly suggest that you go to 'Dave Ramsey.com.' He is all about showing you how to manage your finances.