2008 Year in Review

Budget Tracking

by Angie VanderVinne

How do I keep track of my spending with a budget? Good question, with a variety of answers. Because everyone is different technologically and with orient to detail, budget tracking varies depending on these factors. This week, I’m going to share with you some of the tracking methods I’m familiar with and also give you some resources to examine.

Pad of paper, calculator, and a pencil: This is the most basic form of budgeting done and it’s fine to be this basic. At least you’re doing something! Write your planned income for the month, subtract out your tithe and regular bills/expenses (housing, utilities, debt payments, etc), subtract out budgeted items (gas, groceries, eating out, entertainment, hair cuts, etc). If you are fortunate enough to have money left over, deposit some money in savings and pay extra on debt.

Excel spreadsheet: If you’re comfortable with Excel, it is a GREAT and simple way to keep track of your expenses. Create budget categories (Money garages!), allocate your income to those categories when paid, and subtract expenses from the categories as incurred. Create formulas to calculate the totals for each category (column totals), and also create a formula to total the categories (total of columns). Theoretically, this number should match your checkbook balance.

MS Money, Quicken, Quickbooks, etc: These programs are wonderful to use for more detailed tracking of expenses and income. Additionally, you can enter your budget into the programs and then compare your actual vs. planned budget.

Crown Money Map Software: This is my current program of choice, as I’ve used it for almost 3 years now. The Money Map Software creates theoretical money “envelopes” according to the budget you establish, allows you to automatically allocate your income to a budget category, and helps you to see exactly how much money you have spent and have left to spend in a category. You are alerted when you’ve gone over budget – nice! Additionally, you can transfer the money between budget envelopes if you overspend in one category and have under spent in another. There are some online software downloads and websites that I’m planning to research soon and encourage you to do the same: Mint.com, Mvelopes, and Dave Ramsey’s Financial Software. Consider all of the methods I’ve mentioned, pick one, and implement a system.

by  Editor, theCity1.com
October 26, 2008