topic Re: Methods of tracking spending in Personal Finance

Methods of tracking spending

bdebtfree215 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:22:47 GMT

What apps/ methods do you use to budget and track spending? I use an excel spreadsheet right now but I’m thinking of trying Mint to automatically download my transactions.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 17:01:53 GMT

I don't trust any company with access to my financial accounts so I use an app called Spending Tracker to make budgets manually.

http://www.mhriley.com/spendingtracker/index.html

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Kforce — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:34:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I don't trust any company with access to my financial accounts so I use an app called Spending Tracker to make budgets manually.

http://www.mhriley.com/spendingtracker/index.html

+ 100

I also keep my financial accounts manually.

A lot of good programs for free, or one can build your own version with any spreadsheet or use a programmable calculator (software)

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:38:10 GMT

@Kforce wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I don't trust any company with access to my financial accounts so I use an app called Spending Tracker to make budgets manually.

http://www.mhriley.com/spendingtracker/index.html
+ 100
I also keep my financial accounts manually.

A lot of good programs for free, or one can build your own version with any spreadsheet or use a programmable calculator (software)

I find that doing it manually forces to think about my spending much more too so the added bonus is, I don't waste anywhere near as much as I used to.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

bdebtfree215 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:43:29 GMT

Thanks everyone. I read a previous post talking about YNAB (You Need A Budget) and tried it out and it wasn't as comprehensive as my excel spreadsheet- think I'll stick with that. If it isn't broke why fix it, right?

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 18:48:57 GMT

@bdebtfree215 wrote:
Thanks everyone. I read a previous post talking about YNAB (You Need A Budget) and tried it out and it wasn't as comprehensive as my excel spreadsheet- think I'll stick with that. If it isn't broke why fix it, right?

The thing with YNAB that annoys me is that you have to pay a subscription to use it. They completely killed and buried their single purchase product and replaced it with subscription as a service with inferior features and a change in philosophy according to many who used the old product. Read the comments section at the bottom of this review and you can see just how many disgruntled customers they got between 4 and new YNAB.

https://www.alextran.org/ynab-vs-ynab4/

Re: Methods of tracking spending

TGG_1976 — Tue, 27 Apr 2021 21:35:33 GMT

I personally use Mint, but I do not grant access to all my financial institutions. I use only two credit cards for specific categories for my spending, and I have those two cards linked to Mint. Means, I basically just budget / track transactions for groceries, gas, subscriptions and such across two accounts and those are the only ones linked.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

wantitgone — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 00:46:18 GMT

I use Kualto to manually put in my income and expenses. Can be used on the web or iPhone (not sure about android). I got a lifetime subscription at some point. I find it very helpful; it helps me envision my money for 6-12 months ahead! (Also, they put in where you can see your balance 30 years in the future. I find this mostly amusing, it's fun to see what my account balance might be when I'm 65 if my income stayed exactly the same the whole time .

Re: Methods of tracking spending

bdebtfree215 — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 01:39:04 GMT

@wantitgone wrote:
I use Kualto to manually put in my income and expenses. Can be used on the web or iPhone (not sure about android). I got a lifetime subscription at some point. I find it very helpful; it helps me envision my money for 6-12 months ahead! (Also, they put in where you can see your balance 30 years in the future. I find this mostly amusing, it's fun to see what my account balance might be when I'm 65 if my income stayed exactly the same the whole time .

I've never heard of that. I'm going to check that out.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 02:08:35 GMT

@wantitgone wrote:
I use Kualto to manually put in my income and expenses. Can be used on the web or iPhone (not sure about android). I got a lifetime subscription at some point. I find it very helpful; it helps me envision my money for 6-12 months ahead! (Also, they put in where you can see your balance 30 years in the future. I find this mostly amusing, it's fun to see what my account balance might be when I'm 65 if my income stayed exactly the same the whole time .

It's an automatic delete for me when a developer tricks you into downloading and installing an app just to be greeted with a screen that forces you to sign up an account for a 30 day trial with undisclosed terms after it's over. I had to go look in the App Store to see that $4.99 a month price tag.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

bdebtfree215 — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 03:29:46 GMT

Yeah, same here.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

sxa001 — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 18:29:04 GMT

I have a Mint account that I plan to delete at some point because it isn't helpful in that it doesn't work with all my FI's. I have a spreadsheet for recurring costs but I do need a system to better track spend, I have struggled with whether I should nickle and dime myself, I know some people set daily spending limits. Budgeting is rough. I will have to check out some of the suggestions in this thread.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Kidcat — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 20:37:24 GMT

I have used Ynab for years. From the old system and to the new one, so I was grandfathered in at the original price. I'm not sure of the current cost for the subscription. The thing I like, is when I needed to pay closer attention to where my money was going, I did a manual budget, and didn't import. I did that for all of 2020. Now I am back to importing, but that option is always there if I feel as though my unplanned spending is inching up.

I will add that there is a learning curve. I think I started in 2012, so it's intuitive for me at this point.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

designated_knitter — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 23:03:38 GMT

So for those of you that do it manually, does that mean you enter all your transactions manually? Or download from you FI as a CSV and import?

I really wish quicken still had their pc based version where you could store locally in the cloud. I don't like having my data in the cloud.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Kidcat — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:17:55 GMT

I would manually enter my transactions and reconcile once a week or so. This kept things from getting unruly. Most of my stuff is on auto pay, so it was usually just ensuring that everything was paid when it was supposed to be paid.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

bdebtfree215 — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 08:40:24 GMT

@Kidcat wrote:
I would manually enter my transactions and reconcile once a week or so. This kept things from getting unruly. Most of my stuff is on auto pay, so it was usually just ensuring that everything was paid when it was supposed to be paid.

I download all of my transactions weekly as well. That's a good idea to have things on autopay. I thought about using my Nfcu rewards card to set my bills to autopay and then just pay that bill off once a month. That will help my credit, allow me to not have to go on billers site to make payments or mail off multiple payments and also I can earn a nice size cash reward monthly that I can use as spending money to further help my budget.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

calyx — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 13:24:32 GMT

I've used ynab for a few years... I don't really consider it a "tracker" though - to me it's more of an active/thoughtful budget system. If you just want a tracker, there are probably better systems.

And since I"m "new"ish to YNAB, I pay the 83.99/year fee. I don't mind paying for it because they are always updating it and adding new features. Honestly, sometimes I wish they'd slow down with the new features. I quite like it, and they're popular enough that I think if it works for you, it works for you. It does have a pretty good learning curve for a budget program, but there's a lot of great support, community (reddit, fb, forums), and tutorials (the only thing I ever had trouble with was how to make cashback/cashrewards for credit cards work, and I still think the work around is dumb, but it works). but again, for just a tracker? I wouldn't recommend it.

And +1 on manual import. I manually import and then periodically (at a minimum - once a month) reconcile my accounts to be sure I haven't done anything boneheaded.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 19:07:37 GMT

@designated_knitter wrote:
So for those of you that do it manually, does that mean you enter all your transactions manually? Or download from you FI as a CSV and import?

I really wish quicken still had their pc based version where you could store locally in the cloud. I don't like having my data in the cloud.

I do it all manually. When I make a transaction, I put it in the ledger right away or save the receipt and do it at home. Credit card alerts make sure I don't miss anything.

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Horseshoez — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 19:12:11 GMT

I have to applaud everybody who budgets and tracks their expenses against said budgets; that is something I've never had neither time nor patience to do, and probably never will.

Question for y'all; have you seen a benefit from a tight control of budget and expenses compared to before you tracked it all? If so, what benefits do you realize from your tracking?

Re: Methods of tracking spending

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 19:46:25 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
I have to applaud everybody who budgets and tracks their expenses against said budgets; that is something I've never had neither time nor patience to do, and probably never will.

Question for y'all; have you seen a benefit from a tight control of budget and expenses compared to before you tracked it all? If so, what benefits do you realize from your tracking?

Well I actually have a savings now. I'm wasting so much less money now that I'm able to put away over $300 a month ($300 is in the budget but I take whatever is left that I don't spend and put that into savings too at the end of the month). That doesn't sound like much but for someone with less than $19K income, that's a huge achievement. Never in my life have I been able to say I have $5K saved before and I would have more if I didn't decide to build a new computer ($1400) and buy an Xbox Series X ($620 with tax and warranty) with my stimulus checks. I was always one of those people who lived paycheck to paycheck and I paid a ton of interest carrying balances on my cards so I could go to raves, parties, clubs, and bars rather than plan for my future.