Tracking Support

[fidgiegirl]

I'd really like to recommit to daily tracking and the Wall Chart. Anyone in?

First, I need to decide if I will keep using the Moneydance program or something else. It seems so cumbersome now, but I could clean it up. Not sure how to start over since I took a long break with it. But I know it well and like it.

[fidgiegirl]

OH poo. Maybe I don't. I am remember how much work it was. But it was so useful.

Maybe today wasn't the best day to get this idea. *cranky*

[bogdandumitrescu]

I am using google spreadsheet ... easy to share with other people
I broke it into 4 easy manageable categories ... food, social/entertainment, other, RunningSports
Always looking for a partner to keep me in check ... and i could do the same thing for you

[flowerseverywhere]

For years we wrote things down on a school notebook page as we spent it and at the end of the month I would take different colored highlighters (originally it was circling in colored pencil) to seperate the categories. Then I would add them up so we had a pretty good idea of what we were spending on.

We are really high tech now. We have a excell spreadsheet that DH made up. He just put the categories in with sub categories under each one. For instance travel has gas, hotel, food, transportation costs (ie. subway) admissions, misc. For transportation we have gas, registration and inspecion, repairs, parking). other categories include health, housing, entertainment, personal care.
He made it so that it adds up the different categories then add up all of them. We have a different spreadsheet for savings.

The original pages I have (from 1977) we also used to write in income taxes but we don't bother anymore. We have much less control over that category.

I can vouch for the fact when we don't write stuff down it never fails we feel like money is slipping through the cracks. We would never ever be FI if we hadn't tracked for the majority of these years. It makes us accountable.

[fidgiegirl]

We would never ever be FI if we hadn't tracked for the majority of these years. It makes us accountable.

This is what I'm worried about. I like the Excel idea.

Part of what did me in before was that I just had too many categories. It got too cumbersome. Need to try something else.

[Aroha]

For years we wrote things down on a school notebook page as we spent it and at the end of the month I would take different colored highlighters (originally it was circling in colored pencil) to seperate the categories. Then I would add them up so we had a pretty good idea of what we were spending on.

I know this is an old thread, thank you to all who have posted here because I am looking for ideas. This low-tech approach appeals, I like the highlighter idea, I think even i could make that work.

[cdttmm]

I really need to recommit to tracking, too, so count me in! I used a small notebook and just wrote everything down daily, then at the end of the month would tally everything up and transfer it to a legal pad so that I could compare month to month. It was super low-tech and I always think the idea of using Excel or something would be so much better because I could have charts and graphs and colors and fun! But so far it's not happened. Perhaps I should go with the tried and true method.

[fidgiegirl]

Anyone used Koku on Mac?

[fidgiegirl]

Ok, cdttmm, we are the support group for tracking . . . if I can get set up again, I can start. It's the getting set up that I dread.

[fidgiegirl]

Forget it, we're going to keep using Moneydance. I cleaned up the categories so there weren't so many subcategories or duplicate categories. That was stressing me out. "Was it dining, or restaurants?" "Was the health premium supposed to go here, under healthcare, or over here, under insurance." Silly. I also need to add our business categories and set up our different accounts (wow, lots has changed since we used this program last . . .). If I purge all the reminders that I didn't do for the last six months and basically start over, all will be well. I have had to do this before . . .

I do need to find a good solution for tracking our investments and mortgages. Moneydance doesn't quite do it, or I haven't quite set it up right, and so it's hard to know exactly what we have at any one time. Perhaps for that part, Mint?