I have a couple of spreadsheets that track a complex web of spending, and a generic list of rewards redeemed, that gives me yearly totals, and year-end projection of rewards.
I have 9 cards that get use every month or almost every month. I have some credit card charges that have to be separated, and some that have to be separated within a single charge on a card. Since purchases can often pop up out of nowhere, I need to track them on the go.
I use Excel on a cloud-based drive to track them as well as Excel for Android when I'm out. It tracks each charge by card and runs totals for each. Each total from each card has to match my credit card statement and almost always does, so then I can pay the card immediately without the use of going through receipts.
It then subtracts it from my available cash in my checking account after projected expenses for the pay period. The morning of payday, I have a dollar value of excess cash that was not used from my checking account as well as the credit card purchases that have not yet been paid. I take those dollars and transfer them to either a high yield money market or to my brokerage account. The whole thing starts over again that payday. So each credit card purchase automatically allocates funds that cannot be spent from my checking account, so that at any given point, I have funds to pay every card in full immediately.
And my checkbook is also in Excel. So even if I'm out and need to withdraw cash, I update my Excel checkbook register right then and there, and my excess funds go down immediately, just like they would after using a card.
I always immediately know how much excess cash I have in my checkbook after taking into account all credit card charges.
Separated charges are tracked individually, tallied, and paid from another account, which increases my excess funds. Sometimes excess funds go negative, and when a CC payment is due, money can flow back in from the MM account to cover it.
Cash rewards redemptions to my checking account increases excess funds, unless they are deposited into the MM account directly.
You can get as simple or complex as you like. Placing it on a cloud-based drive makes it easy to update when out and about. You can start out simple and grow it from there. Or just track credit card rewards.
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