Tracking Your Budget

So, we have briefly discussed how important it is to sit down and figure out what your income is, and what all of your expenses are. From there you need to decide what spending you can cut, how much money you can invest/save, and how to pay off your debt. Once you have done all of this you have your budget. The next step in having a successful budget is keeping to your budget. I strongly believe that the single best way to stick to your budget is to track your budget.

I have listed some programs and methods below that people often use to track their budgets along with the way I do things. If you are having trouble with that first step of figuring out much you are actually spending I strongly suggest that you fill out a financial affidavit and begin setting up a budget from that. Read my post on starting with a Financial Affidavit HERE

Microsoft Money- This is a program that I have played around with before. I believe it comes standard on most PCs free for like 90 days (at least it was pre-loaded and was free on mine). It is a program which links to your savings and checking accounts and keeps track of your spending and how it fits into your budget. This program catalogs all of your purchases into categories and has your budget for the various categories. This program also has an individual list our their assets and liabilities. It is a strong program; however, from my experiences you have to be willing to set up your budget on the program's terms.

My biggest problem with this program was that I have a Checking Account and two Savings Account. I use the savings accounts in different ways. One account is where all of my income goes into, from that account I transfer my monthly budget into my Checking Account and I transfer a certain amount of money each month into my other Savings Account for Stock Investments and CDs. I have some extra money left over in my original Savings Account which gets invested. So as you can see, I do a lot of transfers between accounts. This program reads those transfers as expenses which throws off all of my statistics. If you don't do that though, this is a good program.


Quicken- I have never actually used Quicken, but my parents do. From what I hear about Quicken, it is remarkably similar to Money. It is set up in a similar fashion as Money, it tracks spending and it develops spending reports etc. The mutltiple reviews I hear about this program along with Money is that it is very helpful when you have a complex financial picture with a lot of automatic withdrawals, online bill pay etc. etc.


Quicken Online- This is an online version of Quicken and does come with a small fee to use. I believe it is around $3. This program works much like regular Quicken where it automatically accounts for a lot of your spending by linking to your accounts, it has you develop goals and it automatically develops reports detailing your spending. One thing I hear about this program which really makes me happy is that it helps manage the lag time between writing a check and having that check cashed. This is a huge issue for me since I keep the minimum in my Checking account.

Mint.com- Mint.com is a free online program which is promoted by Motley Fool. It is my favorite of the online programs. It does the job that really anyone who uses any of these programs wants it to: track your spending and compare that spending to your budget. It is very user friendly and is incredibly easy to enter in your budget.

I am a big fan of Mint.com. Of all of the automated budget software I have used, this is my favorite. I even prefer this program over Money and Quicken, primarily because it is a lot simpler than the others.

Websabe- I have heard about this program but have never actually used it. Here is my understanding of how it works: they never take any of your account information but have you enter certain information into a worksheet and then submit that worksheet to the company which develops a report for you.

Excel Spreadsheet- Here is another very secure method to track your spending AND taylor it to what you want your budget to do. This requires alot more work than programs because it requires that you know how you want to budget, how you want to set it up, and keep ontop of making sure it is up to date. It is alot of work for sure but there are also dividends to be paid for this method.

One of the problems that I always had with Money and Mint was that I would get set up on the program, I would use it for a couple months, I would transfer money or do something which threw off my budget. This frustrated me and so when I combine that frustration with the fact that it did alot of stuff automatically I found myself doing my own thing and ignoring my budget OR I would go back to my Excel Spreadsheet.

Another advantage of this method is that it actually requires that you think through all of your expenses, and take ownership of tracking your budget. And it is true that it is more work but that also means that you are keeping a closer eye on your spending. I personally don't want the computer to do all the work, I want to know what I am doing with my money

If you are someone who can easily get out of the habbit of updating your budget this method is not for you because it is very easy to blow your budget with this. However, keep in mind we are trying to control our spending and a system that requires your attention can be very helpful in that endeavor. Another consideration is if you have many automated withdrawals and complicated finances, this method might not be for you. I have relatively simple finances and this works for me.

Here is how I have my spreadsheet in Excel set up: I have a Balance sheet for each fiscal year which I enter the balances of my Checking, two Savings, and Credit Card accounts. I also keep track of all of my expenses and manually enter how much I spend, what I buy, where that money came from (credit, debit, savings etc) and what budget category the item fits into.

I have a separate sheet which has my budget break down. In this category I keep track of how much money I make, and how much money I have to spend on each category (i.e. Rent, Utilities, Internet, Tithing, Transportation, Food, Other, Investing, Saving etc.) I run a simple formula in Excel which allows me to add up all of those expenses for the month and subtract from my Income for that month. This shows me how over/under budget I am for the month and I add all of those together to show me my over/under budget number for the whole year. I also have a box on this same sheet which takes the numbers I enter in each month and automatically adds and sums it all up so I can glance what my spending looks like for the entire year.

Every time I add a new transaction on my Balance sheet I enter that information on my budget breakdown sheet, it takes only a couple seconds and provides alot of quick information.

Another sheet I have lists my stock investments. I keep track of how many shares of each company I have, what the buy price for that company was and how much it is worth now. Including a simple formula in Excel it tells me the value of my entire portfolio

Finally, I have a sheet that lists all of my major liabilities, the principle cost, the interest, payments made and how much I still owe. I update this sheet with my loan statements before I file them away.

I know that you are thinking that this seems way more complicated than Mint. And you are correct. It is more complicated because it takes more work, a more detailed vision on how you would like to set up your budget, and relatively constant manual inputs. However, I love this method because it is very user friendly for me (since it is taylored to me!) and it keeps me in charge of my money. I usually update my spreadsheet every few days and spend ten minutes updating things. But sometimes my expenses pile up before I can update it. In that case, I set aside one hour every Friday to update my budget and pay my bills. It is plenty of time, even for this seemingly complicated tracking system. A peice of advice though, keep a running list of EVERY purchase you make. This makes updating your budget a lot easier.

The main thing is to play around with various methods and find out what works for you. You might think my method is mad, and that is okay but either organize your spreadsheet in an effective way or if that isn't your cup of tea try some software programs. Just make sure you track your spending and you use a system that you can stick with.

Discussion- I have briefly told you about some software programs that I know about and how I organize my budget. I would love to hear 1) your opinions on the programs I mentioned 2) what you like and dislike about the programs 3) Advice you have for myself and others to get the most out of the programs 4) other programs you use 5)how you track your budget 6) what you find effective 7) how you organize your spreadsheet 8) the weather or anything else you want to talk about :)

Low Cost Cook Book: Freeze your own veggies

The Low Cost Cook Book is a collection of good ideas related to food preparation and cheap recipes I have come across that make cooking not only easier but significantly cheaper. The suggestions I make work very well for me and hopefully there is something helpful for you!

This has become my favorite technique to not only save money on food but to make cooking easy.

I began experimenting with this technique when I would make Fajitas. I realized once I moved out of my parents' house that I didn't have produce like they did and green peppers and onions (an imperative staple of any kitchen) were always missing. I started looking around and purchased those bags of pre-chopped pepper and onion mixes and kept it in the freezer. Although there were times I needed just onions or peppers, not both. I began to ask myself why can't the frozen food company freeze other common staples instead of just onions and peppers? It was then I realized that I was perfectly capable of freezing these items myself

Now, I go to the store and purchase produce which I don't use enough to keep fresh, chop it all up, put it in a Freezer Zip Lock and freeze them! Now, not only do I save a great deal on a TON of frozen food (particularly if you buy the produce on sale), but I always have the ingredients on hand to cook with!

Here are the items I keep frozen that are very helpful:

• A small bag of chopped celery
• A small baf of chopped green onion
• A bag of chopped carrots
• A large bag of chopped onions
• A large bag of chopped green peppers

This is the single best cooking assistance I discovered and the best advice I have to give.

Spray Paint: Retro Night Stand

Spray Paint is a series where I will show how I have used spray paint to get that perfect item for the house. Keep an eye out for similar articles!

We spoke last week about how spray paint allows and individual to take otherwise "junky" items and make them a fantastic accent peice for their home. Now granted, sometimes it works better than other times and almost always it works best when one uses and ecclectic designing style which takes different styles and unites them together by common colors and textures.

My bedroom is a great example. I use different items but I united them together by three main colors: Red, Black and White. I was yard sale-ing the other day, came across a metal table in great shape for $4. I took it, spray painted it red and now have a retro nightstand that works as a great accent peice to highlight the red in my room (which was lacking).

Yard Sales and spray paint is a great way to get some good accent furniture for your place. I don't advocate spray paiting everything, but it is a great tool to get that perfect, unique item for cheap!

Creating a Budget: Start with a Financial Affidavit

To view other helpful articles on developing a budget and sticking with it CLICK HERE

It can be really hard to create a budget. I think it is most effective to have a budget that keeps track of ALL money coming in and out. But I know from creating my budget it can be really difficult to think of all your expenses. To often, I have began my budget by fudging the number of my current expenses to fit into what I make. This is wrong because it doesn't provide us with accurate numbers in areas we can realistically adjust.

In the Colorado divorce cases each party is required to disclose their financial information. There is a form which is filled out that summarizes most of this information. It is a great Word document that asks for income and expenses and actually calculates whether you are over spending or not. This document can be found HERE

I would strongly suggest that when you sit down to examine your expenses you start by filling this out and then create a budget off this form. Here is why the document was helpful for me:

1. It asks for income from various sources
2. It takes into consideration one's tax burden
3. It has living expenses that are easy to overlook like utilities, cable, etc
4. It breaks down expenses into categories which makes it easier to remember everything and will be helpful when creating a budget
5. It asks for assets like homes, cars, stocks, life insurance etc

Overall, it is a very thorough document which makes getting organized easy

Colorado Financial Affidavit Word Document

Low Cost Cook Book: Spice Rack

The Low Cost Cook Book is a collection of good ideas related to food preparation and cheap recipes I have come across that make cooking not only easier but significantly cheaper. The suggestions I make work very well for me and hopefully there is something helpful for you!

If you like to cook like I do, and you want cooking to be easy, the most important thing for me is to be organized. I can't tell you how often I go to cook something but realized that I can't finish my recipe because I don't have the proper ingredients. The result: I give up, eat out, and kill my budget. For me organization is the most important step in making cooking easy!

To organize I strongly encourage the purchase of a spice rack. This is one of the best investments I made. First you can unclutter a cabinet of spices with no organization (as seen below) and neatly find all your spices in a nice rack. It is handy because they usually come with the most important spices, it is easy to identify when you are running low, and you ALWAYS know that you have the right spices. There is no more guessing! I purchased mine at Sam's Club a few years ago for $19 and it has saved me more than that in time, effort, headaches and frivolous spice purchases.

I glanced at Wal Mart and they have racks for less than $20 bucks. But keep a frugal eye and shop around at yard sales and other stores, I believe you can find a deal!

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Notice how much more organized and clean looking it is than not having a spice rack. I swear, this picture of the messy spices is real and exists exactly as the picture was taken. I have all the spices that my friend has, I know what I have and I am organized and am saving money!

Spray Paint: The decorator's best friend!

There is no reason that you have to live in a place with absolutely no style just because you (like myself) are on a tight budget. The answer is to get creative and innovative!

This summer as I have been working to set up my apartment and design it well, I have made use of some very creative ways to develop a nice look for my apartment for a fraction of the cost. I have been a huge fan of re-doing much of the seeming "junk" I have and turn it into the perfect piece for my place.

The easiest way to do all of this is through spray paint and a few moderate purchases to accessorize the item. Overall, it is significantly cheaper than buying new. This summer I have spray painted many junky items I had including lamps, a desk, an end table and outdoor chairs. I will post some updates of projects I undertook this summer and post pictures.

Start an Investment Club

If you look at my budget breakdown you see that I invest approximately $50 month. That investment is in the stock market and I will share with you some of my methods and stuff as we go along. You can certainly invest off of $50 dollars a month all by yourself but it takes awhile to save up money to purchase stocks.

To get around this dilemma I joined an investment club. This is a group of ten people who each pay $50 a month dues, have monthly meetings, pool the money, research companies, share knowledge, pool money and purchase stocks and keeps an eye on them. And I own 10 percent of the portfolio

There are some HUGE advantages to these types of groups. The first and biggest is that with ten people each contributing $50 a month it gives us alot of flexibility in what we can purchase. The work is delegated across the members so I am not burdened with all of the work and we all learn together.

A great resource for getting involved in a club like this is a book called "Chicks Laying Nest Eggs." It gives some good starter investment advice, steps to get started, and important information to know in regards to the IRS etc. I believe its no longer in print but I found a copy at the library and it is available on Amazon with used copies starting at a penny with S&H. Click HERE to see its Amazon page.

Also check out their website filled with useful information HERE

Mission: Surviving the Law School Money Crunch

Hey everyone! I am a poor college student getting ready to start law school in August. Hence my name "Poor Student"! If there is one thing that this recession has shown about our society, it is that our personal finances are in lousy shape.

Here are some of the problems that I noticed with people: 1)People don't know how to save 2)People don't save enough 3)Saving comes too late in the game 4)People are in debt up to their eyeballs on rediculous things 5)People no longer give to charity 6)People can't cut their expenses to get their finances in order, and finally, people don't have the self control of stick with their budgets

I was thinking about this nightmare with my own finances. It's true, I am going to law school but I am certainly no Colorado Kennedy. I come from a humble family and I have to pay for my own education. So yes, I will be taking out loans for school. For those of your unaware of the financial situation of law school, students are unable to work during their first year. That means one has to have rich parents or live off of someone else's money at close to 9 percent interest. This means that I haveto 1) live quite frugally to ensure I don't over spend and 2) attempt to minimize the loan amount and do the most with the money while I have it. Law school requires a TIGHT budget, a skill we can all do better with!

By no means, is living law school the high life. I am a poor student and I have been working on some ideas and projects to minimize my expenses, maximize my savings and augment my standard of living. These lessons are certainly beneficial to anyone looking to be generous, save money, and turn their finances around.

I will share with you my experiences, resources I find, and ideas I have to make the most of my dollar and still live a pretty good life style throughout school and as I work to pay off my student loans. My mission is to learn from people, stay accountable to my budget through this blog and hopefully we can all be in better shape financially.

Here is where I am coming from:

• I have an apartment to furnish and high style
• I have a grand total of $136 in my accounts because of law school expenses
• I will be taking out loans and need to minimize the amount I take them for- I will take them out for slightly more I need them for to prevent short-changing myself but I will seek to save a great deal of it and gain the largest return possible on my savings.
• I will be working part-time
• I have friends and like to hang out and get dinner
• I need to create an emergency fund of $7500 dollars to care for rent and other expenses

Tags- Here are the tags you will find on this blog which will oranize my thoughts and hopefully will be helpful.

• Budget- These will be entries that involve my budget, planning my budget, keeping to my budget etc.
• Debt- These are entries that will deal with any type of debt or liabilities I have
• Savings- These are entries that involve saving money
• Investing- These are entries that involve things I am experimenting with in regards to my investment portfolio. I make no assertions that these will work for anyone, so be cautious reading my experiences
• Shopping- These are entries that involve shopping
• Staples- These are entries that involve the staples of life like groceries, rent, utilities etc.
• Entertainment- These are entries that involve having fun on a tight budget and how to make the most of things
• Low Cost Cook Book- These are ideas and recipes I have to keep eating in cheap so you can eat our more and bring your budget in the black!
• Innovative Ideas- These are ideas I have to save money in everything from arts and crafts to decorating etc.
• Giving- These are entries that involve being charitable while on a budget
• Administrative- Administrative stuff related to this blog

I really think this will be a fun project so please join me in sharing my experiences and make use of the comments section of the blog to share your thoughts and hopefully we can all learn from each other and get financially in shape together!